Monday 18 December 2017

Traumnovelle for Christmas

'Tis the season to be reading and tonight's suggestion is only indirectly related to Christmas and even then, via its movie adaptation.So anyway, I read last year Traumnovelle (or Dream Story as it is often translated) by Arthur Schnitzler. The novella that inspired Eyes Wide Shut. I consider the film a seriously underrated masterpiece, not Kubrick's best, but a worthy swansong. The movie is surprisingly very close to the novel, with one noticeable difference: it is not set during Christmastime but during Mardi Gras. All the same, as Eyes Wide Shut is a Christmas movie, it makes sense to use its source material as literary reference while you enjoy it during Yuletide. As for why the film itself is a movie for the season, read my post from 2015. There is more on the Wikipedia entry. Anyway, tell me in the comments what you think about either book or movie as Christmas stories.

1 comment:

Debra She Who Seeks said...

I did see the movie when it was in the theatres and enjoyed it. I don't really think of it as a Christmas movie and the book's setting of the story at Mardi Gras probably makes more thematic sense, quite frankly. I've never read the book but I'm now putting it on my "to read" list.