Rembrandt Doesn't Make Mistakes: W. G. Sebald as Clue to Christian Petzold's Adaptation of Hermann Broch's "Barbara"

abstract: Scholars generally call director Christian Petzold's rendering of Hermann Broch's novella "Barbara" a "loose" adaptation that departs from its source significantly in both content and character. However, reading Broch's novella alongside Petzold's film enriches an analysis of both works, as well as each artist's aesthetic program. A close reading of one scene in the film, in which the two main characters interpret Rembrandt's The Anatomy of Dr. Nicolaes Tulp , elucidates a Petzoldian approach to literary adaptation that emphasizes the pleasure in reading, resists the fetishization of details, cultivates ambiguity, and deliberately makes transparent the intertextuality inherent in all art.