The Thomas Mann Collection

The works of German writer Thomas Mann (1875-1955) aren't exactly easy reading—Mann was a man of ideas, and his (often long) novels have a strong philosophical and didactic bent. Not surprisingly, few screen adaptations exist, which makes this collection of three German TV miniseries all the more valuable. The longest—encompassing 11 hour-long episodes on four discs—is also the most accessible: Buddenbrooks (1979), based on Mann's 1901 novel chronicling the rise and fall of a 19th-century merchant family. Presented in a trio of two-hour episodes, The Magic Mountain (1982), adapted from Mann's 1924 allegorical classic on the intellectual decadence of pre-World War I Europe, is set in a sanitarium where a young German confronts characters who represent rationalism, radicalism, temptation, hedonism, and so on (the film features a polyglot cast—including Rod Steiger, Charles Aznavour, and Flavio Bucci—who require some distracting dubbing). Finally, the three-hour-long presentation of Doktor Faustus (1982), from the 1947 novel, stars Jon Finch in a modern version of the Faust legend—here, the spiritual disintegration of the composer protagonist mirrors the pre-World War II turn towards fascism in Germany. Taken together, these elegantly fashioned adaptations demonstrate both the difficulty of transferring Mann to film and the considerable rewards that may be reaped from the effort. Highly recommended. (F. Swietek)