The life of Late Fame was a tumultuous one. The story began in 1894 under the title Später Ruhm and was completed on May 22, 1895, as The Story of an Old Poet. Saved at the last minute from the burning of works condemned by the Nazis thanks to the intervention of the British consulate, it remained largely ignored for a long time. Arthur Schnitzler began it at the age of thirty-two, at the height of his professional career as an army doctor, before being dismissed in 1900 following the controversy caused by his novel Lieutenant Gustl. The plot is simple. Mr. Saxberger, a mid-level civil servant nearing the end of his career, spends his days in an office “full of dust,” finding his only respite in quiet walks through the city. One day he is approached by a young writer who has become an ardent admirer after casually reading a collection of Saxberger’s youthful poems titled Strolls.
In a bygone New York, the poetry collection of Ed Saxberger (Willem Dafoe) had long fallen into oblivion. Years later, a group of young artists rediscovers it, thrusting him into an unexpected new spotlight. Among them is Gloria (Greta Lee), a fas...
Saxberger, who barely remembered them, is swept up in a whirlwind of emotions and dreams from his youth, to the point of imagining that he might finally enjoy the recognition he has always longed for, albeit belatedly. The best summary of the story can be found in a handwritten note by Schnitzler himself: “The old poet who finally meets the circle of young people who will honor him. A moving figure.”
Three main areas of interest emerge: the reflection on the contradiction between artistic creativity and bourgeois existence, a recurring theme in his work; the strong autobiographical component, to the point that the sole female figure – somewhat underappreciated – can be identified as the actress who was Schnitzler’s lover at the time; and the recognition among the young poets and writers of figures such as Hofmannsthal and others who gathered at Café Griensteidl. The story also offers glimpses of Vienna at the time: the banks of the Danube (ever-present in Schnitzler, recall the famous episode of the soldier and the prostitute in La Ronde), but also the onset of industrialization, with “the whistle of the locomotive,” the steam tram, and “the tall chimneys rising into the air.” A youth with all its irretrievable hopes, a new world coming to chase away your own.
