# Steppenwolf (1974)

### reviewed by
Pedro Sena

    Copyright (c) Pedro Sena 1994

    FILM TITLE:             STEPPENWOLF
    DIRECTOR:               FRED HAINES
    COUNTRY:                USA/GERMANY 1987
    CINEMATOGRAPHY:         TOMISLAV PINTER
    MUSIC BY:               GEORGE GRUNTZ
    ADAPTED BY:             FRED HAINES from the HERMAN HESSE novel.
    CAST:                   Max Von Sydow, Dominique Sanda, Pierre Clementi,
    Carla Romanelli
    SUPER FEATURES:         Brilliant literary piece, well translated to screen.

          !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Literary works do not always translate very well into the screen, and on occasion, a complete interpretation has to be set up, to avoid the traps of confusion, or complaints, by those who live and die by the words of a novel.

Herman Hesse's STEPPENWOLF, is not a good subject for a film. But it would make an excellent film if the persons involved believe in the work and the process which the characters go through in it.

Fred Haines' film version of this very famous novel is not going to satisfy everyone, but it should give a good example of what Herman Hesse was all about, and the main ideas of the novel come through very well, specially when it is set up by the thinking mind of the main character, played by the veteran actor extraordinaire Max Von Sydow.

The film opens with a cartoon, which summarizes the whole thinking into a small Cliff notes. And then it concentrates on the voyages of the main character, from his drug intervals, to his involvement with a woman who is bisexual, and not specially in love with him ( very German if you ask me ) but likes the mind of the man who trips so much.

With the exception of the MAGIC THEATRE sequences, which I wish were more a part of the novel than the film, this story is good, while it isn't as interesting as the novel itself. In the book, we get a feeling that the writer is going to continue, and will survive the forays into unknown spaces of the mind and body. In the film, I don't remember that this is as strong a point as it could be.

The actors are very good, and Dominique Sanda is very attractive and seductive through out, and we wish there was more to her in the story, but there isn't.

A FILM FOR THE INTELECTUAL FILM GO'ERS. IF YOU KNOW HESSE, SUSPEND YOUR IDEAS FOR A WHILE.

    4.5 out of 5 GIBLOONS

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