Volker Schlöndorff

In 19th-century Paris, Charles Swann risks his social standing in his obsessive pursuit of prostitute Odette. His overwhelming desire for her comes, in part, from Odette's complete disinterest in him. When he finally weds her, utterly compromising himself in high society, he finds to his horror that his love for her was a complete illusion. At the same time, the ...

At an Austrian boys' boarding school in the early 1900s, shy, intelligent Törless observes the sadistic behavior of his fellow students, doing nothing to help a victimized classmate—until the torture goes too far. Adapted from Robert Musil's acclaimed novel, Young Törless launched the New German Cinema movement and garnered the 1966 Cannes Film Festival International Critics' Prize for first-time director ...