Despair (Despair - Eine Reise ins Licht) (1978)
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71% of critics liked it
(14 reviews) -
71% of users liked it
(467 ratings)
Having made as many films as he had years, at 31, Rainer Werner Fassbinder essayed a slightly different approach for his 32nd film, Despair. Here, he uses a witty screenplay written by the well-known playwright Tom Stoppard, based on a novel by Vladimir Nabokov. Furthermore, the entire film, set in… More Having made as many films as he had years, at 31, Rainer Werner Fassbinder essayed a slightly different approach for his 32nd film, Despair. Here, he uses a witty screenplay written by the well-known playwright Tom Stoppard, based on a novel by Vladimir Nabokov. Furthermore, the entire film, set in 1930s Germany, is in English. It received mixed reviews, if only because it is so unlike the director's other works. In the story, a Russian owner of a German chocolate-factory, whose business and marriage are both on the rocks, fantasizes about leaving his current life, and living another one. Indeed, he has delusions that he is somehow outside himself, watching himself live his life. So strong is his desire to alter his life that when he encounters a tramp while on a brief business trip, he imagines that the man looks exactly like him, decides to exchange identities with the tramp, and murders him. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi
- Directed By
- Rainer Werner Fassbinder
- Written By
- Vladimir Nabokov, Tom Stoppard
- Genres
- Art House & International, Drama
Unrated,
- In Theaters
- May 19, 1978 Wide
Critic Reviews
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Richard Brody, New Yorker
Fassbinder films life in the cosseted class as a masque of glass and mirrors, replete with alluring deceptions and suave surfaces that belie volcanic passions.
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, Time Out
Bold, garish and obsessive, but more than a little irritating.
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Vincent Canby, New York Times
The Stoppard script is a joy for anyone who likes the English language.
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Dennis Schwartz, Ozus' World Movie Reviews
Unpleasant but thoughtful and provocative psychodrama set in Berlin, in the 1930s.
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Philip Kemp, Total Film
Everything about Despair feels queasily off - the plot, the acting, the dialogue and the fussily over-decorated sets.
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Cast
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Dirk Bogarde
as Hermann Herman
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Andrea Ferreol
as Lydia Herman
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Volker Spengler
as Ardalion
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Klaus Lowitsch
as Felix Weber
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Alexander Allerson
as Mayer
- Isolde Barth
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Hark Bohm
as Doktor
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Ingrid Caven
as Hotel Receptionist
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Liselotte Eder
as Secretary
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Roger Fritz
as Inspector Braun
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Voli Geiler
as Madam
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Gottfried John
as Perebrodov
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Peter Kern
as Muller
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Y Sa Lo
as Elsie
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Armin Meier
as 1st and 2nd Twin and Foreman
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Hans Zander
as Muller's Brother
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Adrian Hoven
as Inspector Schelling
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Bernhard Wicki
as Orlovius
