SOURCE: Helmetag, Charles H. “Volker Schlöndorff's ‘American’ Film Adaptation of Max Frisch's Homo faber.” Monatshefte 87, no. 4 (winter 1995): 446-56.

In the following essay, Helmetag discusses the 1991 cinematic adaptation of Frisch's Homo faber, particularly the attempts to “Americanize” the story.

Luchino Visconti and Bernhard Wicki considered making a film version of Max Frisch's 1957 novel Homo faber but dropped their plans, in part due to the high production costs resulting from the many locations utilized in the novel. Paramount offered Volker Schlöndorff the opportunity to direct a movie version in 1978, but it was not until 1991, after experiencing a midlife crisis of his own, that he actually was able to bring the book to the screen. Schlöndorff's journal entries recounting his collaboration with Frisch on the film from January 1988 until the film was previewed three years later, shortly before Frisch's death, were published in the New York Times Book...