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.

Prof_Lostiswitz 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.

spyit "The Lost Honor of..." not only tells an interesting story with powerful writing, acting and cinematography, but is also a must see for those disturbed by the powerauthoritarian governments (communist, fascist, and everything in between) possess to exploit individual human rights. I wish we could view this film as a well made relic of the past, but unfortunately its subject matter is as relevent today as it was in 1970's West Germany. As in Katarina's world, terrorism is again the favored epithet of the day as the U.S.'s social and political climate moves away from a conversation between differing individual view points and towards an 'on message' insistence on absolute conformity.Katarina is a young maid with little money, who sleeps with a man she barely knows, a man who is under surveillance as a suspected terrorist. Because she was seen with the supposed terrorist, her life is torn apart by police interrogators and a press that only reports "facts" which support its particular ideology, even if the details must be fabricated. Although those who know Katarina tell the press and police of a bright, sweet, and quiet girl, her reputation is run through the gutter by the men who translate her private life to the public world. Eventually, Katarina takes on the attributes of a stereotypical terrorist because the state has given her no choice but to become radicalized. Simply because Katarina will not give up her dignity and privacy, she becomes an enemy of the state.For Katarina, her private life becomes glaringly public, and the public judges her based on both the fabricated evidence presented by her accusers (both press and government) as well as their own assumptions about how a woman should behave. In the society that surrounds Katarina, the state functions through conformity, and those who do not conform instantly become the enemy. As a woman, Katarina bears the brunt of this brutality, as her sexuality becomes both exploited and demonized. The young maid becomes a media fixation, a beautiful sexual terrorist.Although much of this might sound familiar, the film relates these political and social paradoxes on an individual, personal level. As in Katarina's case, sensational news stories rarely investigate the cogs which make them front page headlines-they only reinforce easy reactions of judgemental outrage. "The Lost Honor of ..." shines a bright light on the lives that are trampled beneath the broad strokes of an unyielding and inhuman militarized state and the press and public which supports it.

Nick-163 This film is based on the novel of the same name by the German author Heinrich Böll. The book is purported to be written by Böll as a result of an ongoing feud in the German media between Böll and the publisher of the German daily tabloid the Bild Zeitung, a publication known for its lurid and sensational reporting of the news. In his story, Böll attempts to show how damaging irresponsible journalism can be to the lives and reputations of innocent persons caught up in the tide of current events.The story begins with Katherina Blum attending a party where she meets and is strongly attracted to a young man. She invites him to her apartment and they spend the night making love. The next morning, the young man has gone and the police are storming her door seeking to arrest the overnight guest as a terrorist. Instead, Katherina is arrested and taken to the police station for interrogation as his accomplice. The young terrorist has been killed and Katherina is unable to prove that she had no knowledge of his activities. A tabloid reporter becomes obsessed by the case hounds Katherina, mercilessly destroying her reputation and any semblance of a normal life. The emotional tension continues to build, finally reaching a violent climax.This is a very powerful and well made film. Böll's message regarding sensational and irresponsible journalism is very clear. After suffering along with the innocent Katharina through the insult, pain and dishonor of her ordeal, I came away from the film with an altered point of view toward tabloid journalism and commercial news reporting in general. In a world where reporters are being found guilty of manufacturing news stories, media agencies are providing dramatic reenactments of sensational news events, and names like O.J. Simpson and Monica Lewinsky are used as teasers to improve the ratings of news programs, this film is a must see.