West Germany/ Austria I 1971 I German with English subtitles I 4K DCP (restored version) I Colour I 100 minutes I 1:1.37
Director: Wim Wenders
Screenplay: Wim Wenders, based on the novel of the same title from Peter Handke
Script: Ulli Stenzel
Dialogues: Wim Wenders, Peter Handke
Producer: Thomas Schamoni, Peter Genée, Wim Wenders
Director of Photography: Robby Müller
Editor: Peter Przygodda
Music: Jürgen Knieper
Sound: Rainer Lorenz, Martin Müller
Cast: Arthur Brauss (Josef Bloch), Kai Fischer (Hertha Gabler), Erika Pluhar (Gloria T), Libgart Schwarz (Anna), Rüdiger Vogler (Idiot), Marie Bardischewski (Maria), Michael Toost (Salesman), Bert Fortell (Customs official), Edda Köchl (Girl), Mario Kranz (school handyman), Ernst Meister (tax inspector), Rosl Dorena (woman in bus), Rudi Schippel (janitor)
The goalkeeper Josef Bloch (Arthur Brauss) is sent off after committing a foul during an away game. This causes him to completely lose his bearings. He wanders aimlessly through the unfamiliar town, spends the night with the box-office attendant of a movie theater (Erika Pluhar) and strangles her the next morning. But instead of turning himself in or fleeing, Bloch then goes to his ex-girlfriend’s (Kai Fischer) place in the country and passively waits there for the police to come and arrest him.
As Wenders himself has stated, the visual idiom of Hitchcock’s films provided the model for his debut film. He adheres minutely to the thoroughly “cinematic” source, a novella by Peter Handke. With his cameraman Robby Müller and his cutter Peter Przygodda - both of whom had already worked with him on his film thesis at the HFF (Munich University of Television and Film) - in THE GOALIE’S ANXIETY, he set forth a collaboration that would weld this team together for years.
