An exhibition of new work by Los Angeles artists Max Karnig and Nicolas G. Miller explores the many incarnations of Arthur Schnitzler’s 1926 novella “Dream Story.”
The best-known adaptation is without a doubt Stanley Kubrick’s 1999 erotic thriller “Eyes Wide Shut” starring Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman as the couple at a crossroads in their marriage. The novella was also adapted as “Traumnovelle” in 1969 for Austrian TV and a cheaply made 1989 version “Ad un passo dall’aurora” (“Nightmare in Venice”). Certain themes and questions reoccur in the adaptations: What is real, and what is the subconscious playing tricks on us? Who is behind the mask? What does it mean to watch and be watched?
If you know the source material, the work will have deeper meaning, but the gorgeous imagery presented in the most voyeuristic relationship (mask sculptures seeming to gaze at nude paintings, for example) speak for themselves. Almost 100 years later and the themes of the novella still fascinate.