Hans Castorp, fresh from university and about to become a civil engineer, comes to the Sanatorium Berghof in the Swiss Alps to visit his cousin Joachim, an army officer, who is recovering there from tuberculosis. Intending to remain at the Berghof for three weeks, Hans is gradually contaminated by the morbid atmosphere pervading the place. Wishing very much to be considered a patient like the others, he achieves his ends and stays in the sanatorium for ...seven years. During this time, he has enough time to take part in the furious philosophical debates pitting against each other Settembrini, a secular humanist, and Naphta, a totalitarian Jesuit. And to fall in love with the beautiful but enigmatic Clawdia Chauchat. When he is finally discharged in 1914 - along with all the other patients - it is only to plunge into the horrors of World War I.
Directed by Hans W. Geißendörfer
Christoph Eichhorn
Hans Castorp
Marie-France Pisier
Clawdia Chauchat
Flavio Bucci
Ludovico Settembrini
Charles Aznavour
Naphta
Rod Steiger
Mynher Peperkorn
Hans Christian Blech
Hofrat Behrens
Alexander Radszun
Joachim Ziemßen
Margot Hielscher
Frau Stöhr
