Thomas Mann Returns to His ‘Fatherland’ in This Practically Flawless Film
Artists are notoriously self-important, but a handful carry themselves as if they were the Matterhorn — stony, daunting, towering over the concerns of ordinary mortals. One of these was the majestic German writer Thomas Mann. After the teenage Susan Sontag paid him a reverential visit in the late ’40s, she wrote in her diary, “I interrogated God this evening” — although, in truth, she’d found the man to be as disappointing as his work was inspiring.
This Olympian figure lies at the center of Fatherland, an exquisite gem about Mann’s 1949 return to Germany after…
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