BURNING SECRET
UK, 1989, 107 minutes, Colour.
Faye Dunaway, Klaus Maria Brandauer, Ian Richardson.
Directed by Andrew Birkin.
Burning Secret is based on a story by Stefan Zweig. It is an old-fashioned piece, written and directed by Andrew Burkin (writer of King David). An elegant Faye Dunaway is the mother of an asthmatic son at an Austrian mountain sanatorium. David Ebetz is persuasive as the boy who befriends a baron, but has to learn that adults have lives of their own, which can be hurtful and incomprehensible to children. The period is 1919, full of gentility and good manners - which makes it rather restrained for '80s tastes. Filmed in Prague and Marienbad, it moves at a leisurely pace. However, it takes us quite effectively into the feeling world of a child.
1.The work of Stefan Zweig? A story of the period? Human drama?
2.Czechoslovakian locations, Prague and Marienbad? Musical score?
3.The focus on Ned and his world, his perspective? Age, relationship with his diplomat father, distance? His love for his mother? Leaving home, the train ride, absorbed in his world? The hotel, the rooms, watching the drill of the servants, bored? Seeing the car, meeting Alexander? The walk, going to the tower, the ride in the car, a masculine and fatherly presence? Listening to Alexander's stories of the war? Learning to swim and to float? "The child is dead." The sanatorium and his health, examinations? His dreams and nightmares? His mother reading to him? His seeing the baron and his mother together, the baron's hesitance, not keeping appointments? His doing the message for the baron? Being put off, the discussion about the trip to Baden and the gallery? The coldness of the baron, going to bed, not hearing the stories, the asthmatic attack in the night? Following his mother and the baron and seeing them embracing? Defending her honour, denouncing them in the foyer? Alex leaving? The significance of the Gerta story and the tower? Buying the ticket with the baron's money, the train and the soldiers, New Years Eve, his father, telling the story, saving his mother's reputation? Ignoring here when she came to him - and hearing that "the child was dead" and had become a young man?
5.Sonya and her background, the marriage, the journey, the hotel, her elegance, love for Ned and taking care of him, early to bed, watching him, the meals, the reading? Suspicions of Alex, the car ride, change, being together with him, enjoying his company, at the table and forgetting the story for Ned, going to him in the night, having to return for the asthma attack, the discussion about Baden, going to the tower, caught by Ned, the telegram, the return home - and Ned saving her reputation? Her comment about Ned having to grow away from her - and the ending?
6.Alex and his presence, the car, meeting Ned, friendliness, a genial man? Comment on doctors and death? His experiences during the war, England and the prison, the bayonet story, his wound, not finishing the No Man's Land story? Car rides, walk, the tower, teaching Ned to swim, helping him float, telling the long Gerta story in the hotel dining room? Distance, not being interested in Ned, attracted towards Sonya? Busy, getting him to do a message, kissing Sonya? The night and her return, in the tower - and the mannered way in which he made his farewell?
7.The glimpse of the father, the diplomat, cold? Ned's return, the telegram, demanding the story from his son, from his wife? His being satisfied, telling them to forget the incident, seeing Ned as a young man, his missing his wife?
8.The sketch of the hotel, the sanatorium, the staff, manners, guests? 1919?
9.1919, New Year's Eve - and a new year for Ned?
