Tonio Kröger *** (1964, Jean-Claude Brialy, Nadja Tiller) – Classic Movie Review 12,430

Director Rolf Thiele’s 1964 West German historical drama film Tonio Kröger is a fair stab at a screen version of Thomas Mann’s 1903 semi-autobiographical novella telling of the writer’s adolescence in Germany and his wanderings in Europe at the end of the last century. The handling is slightly ponderous, but the film is handsomely made and very acceptable as an illustration of the novel’s themes.

It comes alive most when it sticks to Mann’s words in a screenplay co-written by Mann’s daughter Erika.

Jean-Claude Brialy does well as Tonio Kröger. Nadja Tiller is good too, though she has less to go on as Lisaweter, the young woman he falls heavily for.

It was shot at the Tempelhof Studios in Berlin on sets designed by art director Wolf Englert.

It was entered into the 14th Berlin International Film Festival.

The cast are Jean-Claude Brialy as Tonio Kröger, Nadja Tiller as Lisaweta Iwanowna, Werner Hinz as Consul Kröger, Anaid Iplicjian as Frau Kröger, Rudolf Forster as Herr Seehaase, Walter Giller as Merchant, Theo Lingen as Knaak, Adeline Wagner as Woman, Beppo Brem as Adalbert Prantl, Rosemarie Lucke as Inge Holm, Elisabeth Klettenhauer as Girl, Mathieu Carrière as Tonio as a Boy, and Gert Fröbe as Policeman Peterson.

Austrian actress Nadja Tiller (16 March 1929 – 21 February 2023) was one of the most popular German-speaking actresses of international films of the 1950s and 1960s, after her breakthrough in director Rolf Thiele’s 1955 film Die Barrings and playing the title role in Thiele’s 1958 film Das Mädchen Rosemarie [Rosemary] in 1958.

© Derek Winnert 2023 – Classic Movie Review 12,430

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