Stefan Ruzowitzky’s
Narziss & Goldmund raises most of the dominant themes of Hesse’s source text, but his high-budget adaptation creates narrative highlights that are for the most part out of sync with the cadence and core of the literary text. His take on Hesse’s novel of formation or, as the author called it, a “Seelenbiographie”
1See Hesse’s essay “Eine Arbeitsnacht,” in Hermann Hesse: Werk und Wirkungsgeschichte, ed. Siegfried Unseld (Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp, 1973), 133. (Biography of a Soul), is heavy on actions rather than reflections as is the case in the novel, and those actions are expressed in conventional cinematic forms. Hesse worked on his novel for about two years beginning in March 1927. As he outlines in his essay “Eine Arbeitsnacht” (A Night of Work), he did not want to construct simply “Geschichten, Verwicklungen und Spannungen” (stories, entanglements, and tensions) but rather construct “Monologe, in denen eine einzige Person in ihren Beziehungen zur Welt und zum eigenen Ich betrachtet wird” (monologues that reflect an individual’s relationship to the world and their own self).
2Hesse, “Eine Arbeitsnacht,” 133. This, and all subsequent translations from the German are my own, unless indicated otherwise. The novel, which was initially focused mostly on Goldmund, begins with a place—the medieval monastery of Mariabronn—and nature, in particular an exotic chestnut tree placed at the entrance of the monastery.
3Inspired by the monastery of Maulbronn, where Hesse was educated from 1891 to 1892. Hesse’s introduction to the novel reveals that the tree has witnessed several generations of pupils, but two of these special and unique individuals stood out and were still talked about long after they were gone. Hesse devotes the novel to Goldmund and Narcissus—to the beautiful and curious boy left at the monastery by his father, and his young teacher, who is initially described as an intellectual with elegant features and perfect manners. Outwardly, Narcissus grows from a young monk and teacher to the abbot of Mariabronn, while Goldmund becomes an adventurous if troubled young man who leaves the monastery in search of his mother. Narcissus loves Goldmund but sacrifices their close bond and Goldmund’s daily presence in the monastery for his friend’s freedom, which Narcissus considers vital for Goldmund to overcome his trauma and to rediscover his “eigentliche Natur” (true or “actual” nature; 34).
4Page numbers are included in the text and refer to the Suhrkamp Taschenbuch edition of Narziß und Goldmund (Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp, [1957] 1978). On his long journey, Goldmund experiences hardship and loss, plenty of women and physical pleasures but also love, unsavory characters and shocking violence, the beauty of nature and creativity. Having grown into a “schöner und starker Mann” (beautiful and strong man; 172), Goldmund trains as a sculptor, sensing the capacity of art to unite nature and intellect, male and female dispositions and drives—or
animus and
anima in the context of C. G. Jung’s definition of the two major archetypes within our collective unconscious. Hesse highlights the unifying power of art in his novel when he writes:
Art was a union of paternal and maternal worlds, of spirit and blood; it could emerge from the most sensual and lead into the most abstract or could begin in a pure world of ideas and end in the bloodiest flesh. … In art and in being an artist Goldmund realizes the possibility of a reconciliation of his deepest opposites, or of a glorious, ever new parable for the dichotomy of his nature. (174–75)
Goldmund is saved from prison and probably death by his friend Narcissus years later and brought back to the monastery to recover. After another journey, an ill and weary Goldmund returns to the monastery once more, where he passes away peacefully with his closest friend Narcissus by his side. Hesse develops the two characters as opposites that complement one another as Yin and Yang, since for the author and his Goldmund, all “Dasein” (being) is “Zweiheit” (duality; 253), believing that “jedes Leben wird erst durch Spaltung und Widerspruch reich und blühend” (every life is enriched and flourishes through division and contradiction; 198). Goldmund’s search for his mother (which is also a return to the primordial mother or C. G. Jung’s “Urmutter”
5See Carl Gustav Jung’s 1938 essay “Die psychologischen Aspekte des Mutter-Archetyps,” in Die Archetypen und das kollektive Unbewusste, ed. Lilly Jung-Merker and Elisabeth Rüf, Gesammelte Werke, vol. 9.1 (Zurich: Walter, 1954), 89–123. See also Frederick A. Lubich’s analysis of Jung’s archetypes, Bachofen, and the significance of matriarchal mythography in Narcissus and Goldmund in Frederick A. Lubich, “Hermann Hesses Narziß und Goldmund oder ‘Der Weg zur Mutter’: Von der Anima Mundi zur Magna Mater und Madonna (Ciccone),” in Hermann Hesse Today/Hermann Hesse Heute, eds. Ingo Cornils and Osman Durrani (Amsterdam: Rodopi, 2005), 49–66.) leads to an acknowledgment and embrace of his
anima and eventually culminates in the understanding that a true work of art can not only harmonize opposites but entail and express “das Geheimnis” (the secret; 188–89) and the mysteries of life.
6Carl Gustav Jung is frequently quoted as inspiration for Hesse’s contemplations, not least by Jung himself, not only regarding his most dominant archetype magna mater/“Große Mutter” (great mother) or “Urmutter” and the subliminal workings of the psyche, but also on duality. Both Jung and Hesse reflect the possibility of a synthesis of opposites, of the possibility of becoming “whole” (“Ganzwerdung”) by addressing and integrating one’s “Schatten” or shadows. See C. G. Jung, Briefe II: 1946–1955, ed. Aniela Jaffé (Olten: Walter, 1972), 183–85; Hugo Ball also alludes to the influence of Jungian psychoanalysis on Hesse by way of his psychoanalytical sessions with Jung’s student J. B. Lang. See Hugo Ball, Hermann Hesse: Sein Leben und sein Werk (Zurich: Wasmuth, 1947), 163. Jung refers to his influence on Hesse’s works “for instance in Demian, Siddhartha, and Steppenwolf” via “the psychologist who treated him” in a letter to Emanuel Maier; see Benjamin Nelson, “Hesse and Jung: Two Newly Recovered Letters,” Psychoanalytic Review 50, no. 3 (1963): 11–14. Published by Fischer in 1930,
Narziß und Goldmund was very well received and—following the success of his novels
Siddhartha and
Der Steppenwolf—a literary triumph.
7The novel’s themes of duality and conflict between intellect and nature, spirituality and human desire, are already intrinsic to Hesse’s Peter Camenzind (1904) and Unterm Rad (1906). Self-realization, spirituality, and love are central to Siddhartha. Both Siddhartha and Goldmund are wanderers who search for truth, harmony, and themselves, even though their journeys differ in numerous respects. In Hesse’s psychodramatic novella Klein und Wagner (1919), responsible and law-abiding public servant Friedrich Klein leaves his family and home, struggling with his shadows in a narrative reminiscent of Georg Kaiser’s Expressionist play Von morgens bis mitternachts (written in 1912 and first performed 1917). The novel’s first translation into English was published in 1932.
8Death and the Lover, trans. Geoffrey Dunlop (London: Dodd, Mead & Company, 1932). A new translation entitled Narcissus and Goldmund by Ursule Molinaro followed in 1968. Leila Vennewitz published her highly acclaimed new translation of the novel in 1994.Following the disappointing box office returns of previous Hesse adaptations for cinema and considering the reluctance of Hesse’s estate to support adaptation projects, there was little appetite in the film industry for further investments in this area. It took an Oscar-winning director to initiate the first explicit adaptation of Hesse’s novel. Already in 2014, the press reported that Stefan Ruzowitzky was working on an adaptation of
Narcissus and Goldmund.
9On September 11, 2014, Florian Schmitt wrote in an article in filmstarts, entitled “Die Fälscher-Regisseur Stefan Ruzowitzky schreibt Drehbuch zur Hermann-Hesse-Adaption Narziß und Goldmund”: “Nach Berichten von Mediabiz hat die schon länger geplante Adaption der Erzählung ‘Narziß und Goldmund’ von Hermann Hesse einen Drehbuchautor gefunden. Es ist der oscarprämierte Regisseur und Drehbuchautor von ‘Die Fälscher’: Stefan Ruzowitzky. … Christoph Müller und Mythos Film sowie Helge Sasse und Tempest Film produzieren das Drama” (According to reports by Mediabiz, the long-planned adaptation of the story of Nacissus and Goldmund by Hermann Hesse has found a screenwriter. It is the Oscar-winning director of The Counterfeiters: Stefan Ruzowitzky. … Christoph Müller and Mythos Film as well as Helge Sasse and Tempest Film are producing the drama). Having written the screenplay in collaboration with Robert Gold, Ruzowitzky directed
Narcissus and Goldmund, as the film is called in English, in 2019. The adaptation stars Jannis Niewöhner as Goldmund and Sabin Tambrea as Narcissus; others in the adaptation’s high-caliber cast include Henriette Confurius (Lene), Emilia Schüle (Lydia), Elisa Schlott (Julia), Matthias Habich (Lord), and to name but one more, Uwe Ochsenknecht as Master Niklaus. Young Goldmund and Narcissus are played by Jeremy Miliker and Oskar von Schönfels, respectively. Benedict Neuenfels’s cinematography is often stunning and—together with Sebastian Soukup’s production design, Barbora Bucharova’s set, Merlin Ortner’s art direction, Nicole Fischnaller’s costume design, and Britta Nahler’s editing—the film offers a somewhat romanticized version of medieval times that is only challenged when violent events or the Black Death leave bodies mangled and distorted. While the camera avoids affective close-ups of scenes of death and disintegration, it focuses instead on the beauty of nature in panorama and long shots as well as of Goldmund’s body in frequent medium close-ups. Individuals often appear two-dimensional,
10“Abziehbilder” (decals) as Thomas Lang calls them in “Echte Gefühle in falschen Kulissen: Eine literaturkritische Einlassung auf die Verfilmung Narziss und Goldmund,” artechock (2020), https://www.artechock.de/film/text/kritik/n/naungo.htm (last accessed May 6, 2023). and the conceptual world of the Middle Ages is little more than a colorful backdrop that provides only limited and superficial insights. Nonetheless, we catch glimpses of life in the Middle Ages in carefully adorned sets, from depictions of the structured existence in the monastery to the chaos of freedom and apocalyptic scenes of debauchery in the world beyond it. This adaptation focuses on Goldmund’s (mostly erotic) adventures and dramatizes his affairs and punishments, but reduces Hesse’s repeated references to pogroms, the mass murder of Jewish citizens and the destruction of their livelihoods to an all-too-brief glance into that world which Hesse describes as “Hölle” (hell; 273).
11See Hesse, Narziss und Goldmund, especially 224–25, 227–28, 229, 233, 272–74.The film opens with beautiful if ice-cold nature. The camera pans across a wintery forest, taking us to a monastery reminiscent of the medieval world created by Jean-Jacques Annaud in
The Name of the Rose (1986), the multi-layered historical mystery film based on Umberto Eco’s bestselling debut novel
Il nome della rosa (1980).
12Annaud’s constructed layers of meaning made his adaptation stand out. Wehdeking argues that Ruzowitzky’s depiction of the monastery (library/scriptorium) was inspired by Annaud’s film of The Name of the Rose. See Volker Wehdeking, “Die Hesse-Verfilmung (2020) von Narziss und Goldmund im Hinblick auf die Filmographie von Stefan Ruzowitzky,” Hermann-Hesse-Jahrbuch 14 (2022): 190. As Karl-Josef Kuschel notes, the monastery scenes were filmed primarily at Burg Hardegg in Austria and other medieval castles in the Czech Republic. In
Narcissus and Goldmund, two on horseback ride towards and then enter the monastery—an angry father (played by Johannes Krisch) drops off his timid son to become a monk: “Ich kann ihn nicht mehr ansehen” (I can’t stand the sight of him anymore), he barks while throwing a bag heavy with coins at the abbot’s feet, “nehmt das Geld und macht mit ihm, was ihr wollt” (take the money and do with him what you want). He grabs his perhaps six-year-old son by his collar, violently pushing him towards the monks, and shouts: “Sag diesem Pfaffen, dass deine Mutter eine Hure war!” (Tell this priest that your mother was a whore!). A slightly older boy (Narcissus) is ordered by the abbot to look after little Goldmund. Narcissus is not happy to be distracted but obeys; Goldmund is eager to make a friend. Ruzowitzky’s opulent if conventional adaptation fleshes out Goldmund’s entry into Narcissus’s world and dramatizes the friendship between the two boys, who find solace in each other’s company and form a deep bond. Here, too, they are two different psychological types: Goldmund is the curious extravert who carries the burden of an absent mother, and Narcissus the bookish and spiritual introvert with “exemplary” behavior, striving for purity and soon struggling with his profound love for his beautiful friend.
13Narcissus’s first words in the film are “Hat man sich beklagt, dass ich hochmütig war, gnädiger Vater? Es mag sein, ich bitte euch, mich zu strafen” (Did anyone complain that I’ve been arrogant, gracious father? It may be, I ask you to punish me). The abbot replies: “Ach Narziss, dein Betragen ist vorbildlich. Ich wollte manchmal, du wärst etwas unartig” (Oh Narcissus, your behavior is exemplary. I sometimes wish you were a little naughty). This adaptation presents Goldmund’s journey as an adventure narrative rather than as an exploration of the fabric of the one’s spirituality and the other’s trauma and that which intertwines and connects the two.
14See Christiane Schönfeld, The History of German Literature on Film (New York: Bloomsbury, 2023, 400–554) for further context. I refer here to page 512. Ruzowitzky’s dramaturgical model, which interlaces Goldmund and Narcissus’s trajectories much more than in the book, reflects his understanding of cinematic narrative. The film jumps back and forth between the lives of the two friends and uses their conversations to flesh out their past lives and illustrate their connection.
The difference in the two boys, closer in age than in the novel, is expressed visually and aurally from the beginning as they first walk next to each other through the monastery, when Narcissus instructs the newcomer about their daily schedule as Goldmund’s eyes wander. He looks around curiously and stretches out his hand, touching walls and columns. Narcissus appears closed and fully committed to routines; Goldmund is open and, despite all the personal trauma, eager to experience. But he also wishes to become a monk as quickly as possible, so that he can pray for his mother. Narcissus puts his mind at ease, telling him that God loves each and everyone.
The potential for violence and abuse within families and in a monastery is made much more explicit in this adaptation, however, as is the need to transgress its walls, even for Narcissus. It is eager, fearless, and adventurous young Goldmund, who helps his hesitant friend across the monastery’s wall, but then he decides to stay, because here, Narcissus can “think better.”
15Narcissus tells Goldmund in the film: “Ich kann hier besser nachdenken.” Seven years later, their relationship has deepened further: as the film announces the temporal jump forward, we see Goldmund’s head serenely resting on Narcissus’s chest. They are once again outside the monastery’s walls, where scholarly Narcissus has been reading in Latin to his sleeping friend, who is amused by his mentor’s loving disapproval when he wakes. When the church bells ring to mass, they jump up and run, but Goldmund tackles Narcissus to the ground. While this brief moment of intimacy captured in a medium close-up of Goldmund is just a bit of fun, their close bond causes discord within the monastery.
Regarding the external development of the two protagonists, the film follows much of the novel and communicates the polarity of
eros, the realm of the body or physical experience, desire, and chaos (Goldmund), and
logos, the world of the spirit, order, and the “Father” (Narcissus).
16Volker Wehdeking notes the significant additions of the narrative content of Ruzowitzky’s “interpretierende” adaptation with regard to Goldmund’s conversation with his father about the fate of his mother (here killed by her abusive husband) and the changed ending, as outlined below. Wehdeking, “Die Filmadaptation von Hermann Hesses Narziß und Goldmund (1930) durch Stefan Ruzowitzky (D/A 2020),” Hermann-Hesse-Jahrbuch 13 (2021): 242. But instead of exploring the opposing forces which form a harmonious whole in more detail, Ruzowitzky’s film foregrounds the relationship between the two boys and then men. Narcissus pushes Goldmund away mostly because there is already talk in the monastery about their relationship. He retreats into silence, prayer, and self-flagellation to repress his love for Goldmund, who is not sure why he must leave his best friend as he sets out on his journey that makes him the lover, wanderer, and eventually the artist Hesse envisaged. Rather than highlighting the repeated moral catastrophe of the pogroms, however—they are awarded a mere one minute and forty-five seconds of the two-hour feature film
17Kuschel, “Hermann Hesses Erzählung Narziß und Goldmund (1930) und ihre Verfilmung 2020,” 113–14. and called a “schreckliches Unrecht” (terrible injustice)—Ruzowitzky’s adaptation illustrates evil much more prominently by adding the jealous, homophobic monk Lothar (André Hennicke), who is abhorred by their relationship and in the end burns Goldmund’s finest work, an altar, which features different female saints—reflecting the features of women the sculptor met on his travels—and a faceless Madonna in the center.
18For further discussion on the addition of Lothar, see Karl-Josef Kuschel, “Hermann Hesses Erzählung Narziß und Goldmund (1930) und ihre Verfilmung 2020,” Hermann-Hesse-Jahrbuch 14 (2022): 115–18; Wehdeking, “Die Hesse-Verfilmung (2020) von Narziss und Goldmund,” 188–89. Here, the Madonna is not the “Blessed Virgin” but rather the “Urmutter,” the origin and heart/core of life, a symbol of the mother Goldmund only found in art, where opposites merge to form a harmonious ensemble. Shortly before the final catastrophe, numerous individuals are shown as they pray to this faceless female saint, and Narcissus reminds his dear Goldmund of the power of projection and the need for a canvas for one’s own reflections. In the highly dramatic final sequence of the adaptation, Goldmund is dying from burns he sustained in the fire, but still looks beautiful in Narcissus’s arms, reminiscent of a pieta—depictions of Mother Mary holding her dead son at Mount Golgotha that have for centuries communicated the indescribable sorrow and pain at the loss of a beloved child.
19Michelangelo’s Madonna della Pietà (1498/99) would be a prime example. But also consider Käthe Kollwitz’s secular Mutter mit totem Sohn (Mother with her Dead Son), which the sculptor dedicated to her son Peter, who died at the age of eighteen at the beginning of the First Battle of Ypres, in October 1914. This affective image is emphasized when Julia’s drawing—a portrait of Goldmund as the dead Christ—arrives and Narcissus’s grief is made once again explicit. Ruzowitzky’s
Narcissus and Goldmund does not aim at “Geheimnis” (secret/mystery; 188) as Hesse put it, but at action and unambiguous representation with the means of Hollywood-style cinema. It is only in the closing shot, when Narcissus sits underneath their tree and we hear Goldmund in a voice-over, expressing his hope for his dear friend’s happiness, that the smiling monk conveys peace and perhaps the closing of the circle that strives for “das vollkommene Sein,” that is, oneness and perfection (284–86 and 296).