Pale replica The film is like a diligent student drawing, which schematically tries to convey the structure of an architectural masterpiece. From the film with a learned German conscientiousness, the whole soul of the novel and all that dark irrational that Musil tried to say is eviscerated. The plot was conveyed fairly conscientiously, but stupidly. Dumb, because the main plot frame - Terless is trying to become a writer and grasp the most difficult yet unbearable for him the essence of the creative process, ripped out almost completely, and without it the narrative is deprived of meaning.
Instead, Terless looks like a strange guy who, in the end, either went crazy or almost crazy, but still took the right path and retained his dignity. The book is not about preserving moral integrity in inhumane conditions. It's not Ioseliani's Leaffall, after all. A popular interpretation is that in Terless Musil prophesied totalitarianism (in particular fascism). To follow this interpretation, regardless of its allegiance, after totalitarianism has already happened is foolish enough. There is no point in repeating the prophecy. For prophecy speaks of what has not yet happened, not repeats.
The readiness with which Bazini succumbs to bullying, puts himself into the hands of scum, experiencing secret masochistic pleasure, himself being in fact the same scum, is undoubtedly captured by Musil, as the coming social phenomenon, the essence of which is that petty scum and masochists will follow crazy sadists. However, this interpretation completely loses the important fact that Basini is given to Terless. More specifically, his thought. An ordinary little man entrusts himself to the power of various forces - political-erotic (Rating), religious-manipulative (Bayneberg) and aesthetic-psychological (Terless). Being at a distance of the nascent aesthetic Terless contemplates a triangle in which the object of his knowledge, his character is at the mercy of other forces. With the help of the situation of this gloomy triangle, Terless eventually tries to grasp and describe himself and the main, in his opinion, unexplored areas of the human being. Dark, irrational. The triangle provokes sensation and timid unsuccessful attempts to embody these vague forces. It's a novel. In fact, one of the most important genius novels in the history of literature. What the film I find difficult to say. The plus of the film is that despite the extreme simplification and stubborn mental backwardness of cinema, a kind of dry outline of the great novel has been preserved. The authors, at least, were smart enough not to stuff their own storylines and fantasies into the film, as is often the case in cinema and theater.