“Stefan Zweig – Farewell to Europe” – He won’t be back [MOVIE REVIEW]
“Stefan Zweig, Farewell to Europe,” is a well-intentioned portrait of the last years of Austrian writer Stefan Zweig, one of the world’s most recognized writers of the pre- and post- World War II period. A secular Jew, he recognized the rising dangers in his homeland and exiled himself to England in 1934. Directed by Maria Schrader and written by Schrader and Jan Schomberg, Schrader attempts to portray Zweig’s angst and increasing depression over his exile status and his dismay at what he views as the impending implosion of Europe. Certainly the years this film covers, from 1936 until his death in 1942, justify his depression. The director’s unmoored script does not provide the cohesiveness necessary to build tension, create character and enhance story. Schrader’s intention of showing Zweig landing in city after city (Rio, Buenos Aires, New York, Petropolis) looking for a new home is meant to highlight his disconnect from the life he once led but instead her presentation underscores the viewers’ inability to lock into Zweig and his struggle. Schrader’s Zweig is a rather unsympathetic ascetic. Hounded out of Austria, his books banned by the Nazis, Zweig refuses to condemn the…
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