lasttimeisaw Husband-and-wife team Schlöndorff (his sixth feature) and von Trotta (her first feature) bring Heinrich Böll's sensational novel to the big screen, THE LOST HONOR OF KATHARINA BLUM is everything one may imagine from a political reportage made in West Germany during the 70s: following the guidance of a forensic eye, a steely heroine (masked by her innocent or accomplice opaqueness and her political slant) comes under harsh interrogation by the sloppy police force, who majestically fails to seize their suspect in the first place; unscrupulous reporters harass those related or involved like a callous fly, cook up stories to manipulate the reaction from the populace, thus to ensure that more papers are sold; more private matters will surface, some big name is enmeshed, some insider deal needs to be organised, whilst, Katharine Blum (Wrinkler), our protagonist, retreats to be a cog in the machine.But, at the end of the day, what happens is simply a love-at-first-sight romance between two strangers, although it doesn't sound so credible in the soil of German, but there is absolutely no political agenda involved, the only bug is, the target Ludwig (Prochnow) is a wanted anarchist, and in this case, the subsequent occurrence will destroy Katharina's tranquil life, eventually turns her into an avenging angel with blood in her hands, but at that point, we will emotionally stand by her as her vindictive resolution engages as the only satisfactory compensation (not just for her, but for viewers too) against a grim, unfair and repressive society where morality and humanity have lost their grounds to political alienation and media obsession.Both law enforcement and paper media, and their symbiosis are under scrutiny, although the ignoble journalist Werner Tötges (Laser) takes the brunt of reproach here, but the scene where he visits Katharina's dying mother in the hospital inconveniently imposes as a stretch of its own manipulative story-telling from the director-duo (since he has no qualms about publishing a truth- twisted report, there is really no need for him to torture a dying woman like that, the purpose of that scene is too obvious); Inspector Beizmenne (Adorf) and DA (Becker) aren't exactly chummy characters to hang out with, they represent a different sort of violence and cruelty, which viciously menaces to strip Katharina of her privacy using their black-face/white-face strategy, whenever they find something needs an explanation, whether or not it is relevant to Ludwig, whom she knows only for one night. A third party to be condemned (if only in a minor gesture) is Katharina's employer, the middle-class lawyer Hubert (Bennent), Katharina works for him as a housekeeper, and one of his client, the "mysterious gentleman" Alois (Vosgerau), whom Katharina has been seeing over several years but refuses to reveal to the police under any kind of questioning. They have self-serving reasons to play safe in the game which are understandable, it is their brazen desperation and self-obsessed consideration that is too sickening to stomach.The film refrains from being a more captivating thriller with its sparing usage of action pieces, the big arrest in the end hasn't been portrayed directly, so as to leave all the leverage to Katharina's final revenge scene, which doesn't disappoint, and Angela Winkler proves that she is such a powerhouse of stamina despite of her vulnerable first impression, gradually she grows on you with her slow disintegration during all the grilling and slander from media and public, but she never loses her core of strength, an excellent exemplar of a slow-burner in the German acting school.The epilogue scenes are another slap-in-the-face of the hypocrisy of the modern journalism, as clear as day, Tötges is killed not because he is a journalist, but an unethical bastard. Unnervingly, one has no trouble tracing the film's continuing relevance in today's world, which in fact, gives its sustaining life force of this 40-year-old curio.

Horst in Translation ([email protected]) "Die verlorene Ehre der Katharina Blum" or "The Lost Honor of Katharina Blum" is a West German movie from 1975, so this one already had its 40th anniversary last year. the title certainly sounds like a Rainer Werner Fassbinder movie and the time when this came out also fits, but actually this is a film directed by Volker Schlöndorff with his wife Margarethe von Trotta, her first directorial effort, and the duo also adapted Heinrich Böll's novel together for the screen here. The lead actress is played by Angela Winkler around the age of 30. It was not her first successful performance, but maybe her first career-defining. She won a German Film Award for her turn here. The supporting cast consists of a bunch of male actors who were all among Germany's finest around that time and are still very well-known today, such as Mario Adorf, Jürgen Prochnow, Dieter Laser and Heinz Bennent.This 105-minute movie is about a woman who really does nothing wrong, yet has to face severe consequences for her actions, which ultimately drive her to becoming a criminal herself. Winkler's character has a one-night stand with a terrorist. The next morning he is gone and police forces rush into her apartment. She gets taken to jail like a criminal and from that moment on not only struggles with police authorities, but also with the press, especially one particularly persistent journalist (Laser), who is not even scared of harassing the main character's very sick mother. The ending is particularly telling with the eulogy on freedom of press and the bad guy becoming a martyr, although it becomes obvious that this film is actually making a statement for the opposite site, namely for individual freedom and the right of not being harassed by press when you just want your calm.I quite enjoyed the watch here. The film gets a bit weaker after the first hour when it moves a bit away from Winkler's, Laser's and Adorf's characters, certainly the most interesting, but the last 15 minutes make up for it again. I am generally not too big on Schlöndorff's or von Trotta's works such as "Young Törless" or "Hannah Arendt" and I also find "The Tin Drum" vastly overrated, but I think the spouses reached a convincing result with their collaboration here. Maybe they should have just made more films together. "Die verlorene Ehre der Katharina Blum" is clearly worth checking out, especially for Winkler's and Laser's performances. Give it a chance.

Sindre Kaspersen German screenwriters, producers and directors Volker Schlöndorff and Margarethe Von Trotta's feature film which they co-wrote, is an adaptation of a novel from 1974 by a German 20th century writer named Heinrich Böll (1917-1985) and inspired by his personal experiences with a German newspaper called Bild-Zeitung in the late 1960s and 1970s after publishing an article in Der Spiegel called "So much love at once" regarding a German author and prisoner at Stammheim prison in Stuttgart, Germany named Ulrike Meinhof. It premiered in the U.S., was shot on locations in Germany and is a West German production which was produced by producer Eberhard Junkersdorf. It tells the story about a household servant named Katharina Blum who lives on her own, has a little bit of privacy and who one day in February 1975 is taken from her home by the German state police who suspects her of having associations with terrorists, and interrogated as if she was a danger to national security or had committed treason. Distinctly and masterfully directed by German filmmakers Volker Schlöndorff and Margarethe Von Trotta, this finely paced and fictionalized retelling of real events which is narrated mostly from the main character's point of view, draws a perspicaciously psychological and disturbing portrayal of a person guilty of the crime of being a woman who due to a journalist working for a paper with an opposite political ideology to that of hers, is robbed of her civil rights and persecuted as an enemy of the state. While notable for its distinct milieu depictions, cinematography by cinematographer Jost Vacano and production design by production designers Christine Ditrio and Neil Kellerhouse, this character-driven and narrative-driven story about imposed conformity in times of state autocracy and civil protest when laws had been passed which restricted people of certain political views of employment in public services, state voyeurism, government surveillance, freedom of the press or, in this case, rather "freedom" of intrusion into human privacy, to cross the lines of human decency and utterly disrespect ones fellow men, where people who preached about political ethics and values started going after a person's family members, depicts a majestic study of character and contains a timely score by opera and symphony composer Hans Werner Henze. This densely historic, tenderly romantic and recurrently relevant narrative feature from the mid-1970s which is set in West Germany in the late 20th century during the presidency of German politician Helmut Schmidt, the same year as the Pulitzer Prize for criticism went to American film critic Roger Ebert and two years before Norwegian painter Odd Nerdrum released his painting called "The Murder of Andreas Baader" (1977), where a German novel subtitled "How violence can arise, and where it can lead" is envisaged, where the limit is drawn and where smear campaigners tries to murder the sanity, human dignity and love of a decent human being, is impelled and reinforced by its cogent narrative structure, substantial character development, rhythmic continuity, distinct realism, purposeful use of cinema as an instrument for surpassing political populism and encouraging social justice, the noteworthy acting performances by German actress Angela Winkler and the good acting performance by German stage and film actor Mario Adorf. A remarkably atmospheric, responding and venerably underlined statement.

edward dardis Excellent film, well-worth searching out. According to the director's feature on the DVD,Boll wrote the novel after being smeared by a journalist who claimed Boll was a spiritual father to the terrorists, when in fact Boll was only trying to establish a dialogue with them.Excellennt acting throughout, with Jurgen Prochnow (Das Boot, English Patient) as the terrorist Ludgwig. And a true sign of a great film, it doesn't feel dated at all (other than the clothing- dig those crazy bell-bottoms!).I think some commentators are over-stating the obvious as far as civil liberties and left-wing/right-wing agendas. Governments always over-react that way. Our own Prime Minister Trudeau invoked the War Measures Act in the 1970s when the FLQ in Quebec kidnapped and killed a British diplomat. And Katherina herself is not totally without guilt, as she does aid and abet Ludwig. Also there is a scene with her in detention where she pulls a hankerchef out of her purse and what look like raw diamonds fall out onto her lap.I think the worst slime in the film is the print journalist, and the way the police collaborate with him, allowing him to get the "inside" first.The impressive funeral, complete with boy's choir, sponsored by the journal owner-manager, and his "spin" on freedom of the press show the propaganda war at work. Those in attendance include her "mystery lover", whose main concern is obviously protecting his reputation, understandably perhaps after seeing up close how the press destroyed Katherina's life.A great score by the German modernist composer Hans Werner Henze adds to the surreal Carnival atmosphere and environment.