Angela Winkler totally dominates this movie, and it could scarcely function without her acting skills. She is at once reserved and sensuous, in a way that suggests a deeply spiritual person. It comes as no surprise that her character was educated in a convent and is jokingly called "the nun" by her friends. Quite possibly she might have entered holy orders, and she still keeps up contact with the "Cloister" she remembers so fondly.
Anyhow, Katharina is now a housemaid working for a kind lawyer and his wife, after a failed marriage to a dork. Somehow, though, she manages to have a fancy apartment and a Porsche, something that will cause her much grief later on.
She gets invited to a party in progress by a bunch of her friends; she is reluctant to go, but finally accepts. This is during Carnival, similar to Halloween, so most people are dressed in outrageous costumes and partying wildly. The demure Katharina seems out of place here, until she meets a kind young man (not in costume) who treats her with tenderness and respect quite different from the boozers. It's love at first sight, Katharina is overwhelmed for the first time ever - love at first sight. They go off and spend the night in her apartment.
SPOILERS The next morning all hell breaks loose, as a SWAT team bursts into her apartment looking for the guy, who by then is gone. We have known there's something odd about him, as we've seen him, at the beginning of the film, framed in the cross-hairs of a movie-camera (a brilliant touch reminiscent of Peeping Tom) and seen him throw off a pursuer in an exciting car chase. It turns out the police think he is a dangerous international terrorist; worse still, they think the pure and delicate Katharina is his long-standing accomplice in terror.
She is now plunged into utter hell, not so much from the police interrogation (which is bad enough), but from the attentions of the gutter-press, which uses distortions and outright lies to destroy her reputation in the eyes of the gullible populace, with much co-operation from the police. (As she's being escorted to the police station, the cops grab her hair in order to make her face twist in pain, thus the press-photos get to show her as "vicious". END SPOILERS
I am struck by how much this film resembles Town Without Pity (1961), which was also set in Germany, with Christine Kaufmann playing a role similar to Katharina Blum; it must surely have been a major influence on Schlondorff. Kafka's The Trial also comes to mind. Another influence must have been the paintings of James Ensor, eg "The Entry of Christ into Brussels", with its revellers in grotesque and frightening masks.
Carnival is a major participant in the story, as the drunken revellers in strange costumes become something frightening when they turn into an accusatory mob, as they do upon seeing the now-dishonoured Katharina.
Although the story chronicles the systematic destruction of a personality, there are some surprise twists (which I won't reveal). It should be said that Katharina imperceptibly metamorphoses from a terrified victim into somebody with a quiet determination to do what must be done. Angela Winkler is absolutely brilliant in the way she portrays this subtle change in her character, underplaying the drama and conveying her changing feelings with the minutest of facial expressions, which speak louder than sweeping gestures.
I'll leave others to discuss the political implications of the movie, but you have to see it for one of the great acting performances of the century.
Anyhow, Katharina is now a housemaid working for a kind lawyer and his wife, after a failed marriage to a dork. Somehow, though, she manages to have a fancy apartment and a Porsche, something that will cause her much grief later on.
She gets invited to a party in progress by a bunch of her friends; she is reluctant to go, but finally accepts. This is during Carnival, similar to Halloween, so most people are dressed in outrageous costumes and partying wildly. The demure Katharina seems out of place here, until she meets a kind young man (not in costume) who treats her with tenderness and respect quite different from the boozers. It's love at first sight, Katharina is overwhelmed for the first time ever - love at first sight. They go off and spend the night in her apartment.
SPOILERS The next morning all hell breaks loose, as a SWAT team bursts into her apartment looking for the guy, who by then is gone. We have known there's something odd about him, as we've seen him, at the beginning of the film, framed in the cross-hairs of a movie-camera (a brilliant touch reminiscent of Peeping Tom) and seen him throw off a pursuer in an exciting car chase. It turns out the police think he is a dangerous international terrorist; worse still, they think the pure and delicate Katharina is his long-standing accomplice in terror.
She is now plunged into utter hell, not so much from the police interrogation (which is bad enough), but from the attentions of the gutter-press, which uses distortions and outright lies to destroy her reputation in the eyes of the gullible populace, with much co-operation from the police. (As she's being escorted to the police station, the cops grab her hair in order to make her face twist in pain, thus the press-photos get to show her as "vicious". END SPOILERS
I am struck by how much this film resembles Town Without Pity (1961), which was also set in Germany, with Christine Kaufmann playing a role similar to Katharina Blum; it must surely have been a major influence on Schlondorff. Kafka's The Trial also comes to mind. Another influence must have been the paintings of James Ensor, eg "The Entry of Christ into Brussels", with its revellers in grotesque and frightening masks.
Carnival is a major participant in the story, as the drunken revellers in strange costumes become something frightening when they turn into an accusatory mob, as they do upon seeing the now-dishonoured Katharina.
Although the story chronicles the systematic destruction of a personality, there are some surprise twists (which I won't reveal). It should be said that Katharina imperceptibly metamorphoses from a terrified victim into somebody with a quiet determination to do what must be done. Angela Winkler is absolutely brilliant in the way she portrays this subtle change in her character, underplaying the drama and conveying her changing feelings with the minutest of facial expressions, which speak louder than sweeping gestures.
I'll leave others to discuss the political implications of the movie, but you have to see it for one of the great acting performances of the century.