The Lost Honour of Katharina Blum - (1975 film)

A little while ago, I wrote an article about Heinrich Boll's novel, The Lost Honour of Katharina Blum. I have seen the 1975 film adaptation a few times, and thought it was time that I committed my thoughts on it to blog form.  My review of the novel is here:- The Lost Honour of Katharina Blum.

The direction and screenplay for the movie were handled by Volker Schlondorff and Margarethe von Trotta. The plot concerns a German woman who spends the night with a man who later turns out to be a suspected bank robber and political militant. She finds herself persecuted by the police, media and public.

One of the things about the picture which I find appealing is its visual flavour, which evokes the modernistic West Germany in the throes of its economic miracle. Expensive cars, stylish clothes and fashionable furnishings abound throughout, forming a kind of clinical vibrancy.  The story says, however, that dark and unsavoury tendencies lurk beneath the veneer of prosperity and progress.

Themes of press intrusion and freedom, as well as hysteria and anxiety about terrorism, are the main concerns. Of course, this film was made at a turbulent time in the Federal Republic's history, as the country wrestled with political violence.

I can't really make my mind up about Angela Winkler's performance in the role of Katharina, whether it is bland, or whether it sensitively and subtly conveys the confusion and innocence of the character as she attempts to cope with the maelstrom which has suddenly enveloped her.

For me, the film is exaggerated, even mildly cartoonish, and the dystopian overtones come over more acutely than they do in book form. The police raid on Katharina's apartment exemplifies this. In some ways, I think that the social commentary has more merit than the movie as a whole, troublesome though it is to separate the two.

If there is a lack of restraint in how some of the film's topical concerns are addressed, they are topics which are still immensely relevant four decades later. Press hysteria, collusion between state and media, self-interest masquerading as concern for order and security, and the appeal to the base sentiments and instincts of the populace, all form part of the mix.

Although this film has some of the attributes and tension which make the cinema of the 70s so absorbing, it has never really grabbed me as perhaps it should. In saying that the points could have been made with more delicacy or finesse, it is true that the air of unreality and dislocation is integral to what it is being asserted.

The denouement, whilst no doubt very "poetic" in its way, and highly dramatic, is rather silly. I sometimes think that if the journalist had met his end in some other, accidental, way, the point would have been made almost equally as well, unless the novelist and writers were insinuating that the methods of state, press and public drive people to desperate and irrational measures?

A movie worth watching, but not as satisfying or convincing as later films made, separately, by the two directors/screenwriters involved here, on similar subject matter.

The Lost Honour of Katharina Blum - Heinrich Boll

My interest in German history, and particularly the turbulent period of the late 60s and 70s, led me to this celebrated novel, first published in 1974.

The book tells the tale of a young woman who becomes entangled with a political radical/outlaw, and her subsequent treatment at the hands of the police and the press, culminating in her killing a newspaper reporter. It very much taps into 1970s paranoia and unease about terrorism and political radicalism, and the attendant media and public hysteria surrounding the subjects.

I also sensed that Boll was delivering a commentary on the dark side, or the flip-side if you will, of Germany's post-war "economic miracle", with much mention of tax evasion, corruption, avarice and so forth.

This novel is notably short in length, with no superfluous padding. The translation from German to English leads to the (very) occasional minor anomaly, but this did not impair my enjoyment in any way.  To add to the mystique, the story is told from a "first person plural" point of view.

I have watched the film adaptation on a few occasions.  The novel handsomely gives substance and background to things which the movie could only imply.

The central thrust for me is an expose of the excesses of state and media, and the collusion between these two institutions, which are meant to be representative of a "free" society.  In their frantic attempts to service this relationship, an innocent person is ground between the two. .

As the story progresses, we become ever more acutely aware of a trail of distress, ruin and mistrust among all those connected to Katharina Blum and the case, much of it stemming from the desire of media and state to appeal to people's base instincts and prejudices.  Those in positions of power and influence are seen to take advantage of the weaknesses in human nature.

Much is made of the hypocrisy of the newspapers in invoking "freedom of the press" in justifying their methods.

The Lost Honour of Katharina Blum seems both ahead of its time, and prescient, and the issues which it tackles have never been more relevant than they are today.....