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Reminiscent of recent debates regarding the role of the tabloid press, this is an outstanding German movie from the 1970s.

It deals with a housekeeper who, after a fling with a suspected criminal, becomes the centre of media attention. Adapted from a gripping novel by Heinrich Böll (recipient of the 1972 Nobel Prize for Literature), the screening will be followed by a discussion with a Lecturer in Modern European History.

"Volker Schlöndorff and Margarethe von Trotta’s powerful adaptation of Heinrich Böll’s novel is a stinging commentary on state power, individual freedom, and media manipulation––as relevant today as on the day of its release in 1975." Criterion Collection

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What happens when an innocent person gets targeted by the tabloid press?

This is the topic of the movie ‘The Lost Honour of Katharina Blum’ by Oscar-winning director Volker Schlöndorff and Margarethe von Trotha. Based on a novel by Heinrich Böll, the film is a key example of the New German Cinema of the 1970s.

1970s left-wing terrorism

The film and novel were part of the debates surrounding left-wing terrorism in the 1970s. They critically address tabloid sensationalism and the media’s representation of alleged ‘sympathisers’. Before writing his novel, Böll himself had been the subject of conservative attacks because he had questioned the political reaction to the Red Army Faction (also known as the 'Baader-Meinhof Gang').

Both the film and novel were controversial at the time - nonetheless, they proved highly successful. Angela Winkler received a German Film Award as Best Actress.

Böll’s novel was translated into over 30 languages, and is widely viewed as a classic of modern German literature.

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MORE ABOUT THE PLOT

Katharina Blum - young, attractive, bright, sensitive - falls in love at a carnival party with a young radical lawbreaker on the run from the police. Her brief association with a hunted man brings her under police surveillance and makes her the cruelly exploited subject of cheap newspaper sensationalism.

Paraded across the front pages of a big-city daily newspaper, portrayed as a whore, an atheist, a Communist sympathizer, she becomes the target of anonymous phone calls and letters, sexual advances and threats.

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A FEW FACTS ABOUT THE DIRECTOR: Volker Schlöndorff

- Volker Schlöndorff was born in Wiesbaden, Germany, in 1939.

- He made his debut as a film director in 1965 with YOUNG TÖRLESS.

- In 1979, his film THE TIN DRUM was the first film by a German director to be awarded a Golden Palm in Cannes. A year later, it was the first German film to be awarded an Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film.

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A FEW FACTS ABOUT CO-DRIECTOR: Margarethe von Trotta

- Margarethe von Trotta ranks among the most important female directors in German cinema since the 1970s, but she also made her  name as an actress then.

-  Von Trotta followed Katharina Blum with four radically feminist films: The Second Awakening of Christa Klages (1977), Sisters, or the Balance of Happiness (1979), The German Sisters (1981), and Rosa Luxemburg (1985).

- By the early 1980s, she was acknowledged as the most important female director in Europe.

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REVIEWS

"Volker Schlöndorff and Margarethe von Trotta’s powerful adaptation of Heinrich Böll’s novel is a stinging commentary on state power, individual freedom, and media manipulation––as relevant today as on the day of its release in 1975." Criterion Collection

"Schlöndorff and Von Trotta’s position—that the resurgence of a reactionary law-and-order mentality in the face of homegrown terrorists was a greater threat to Germany’s fledgling democracy than the terrorists themselves—struck a nerve, and the film became the first commercial success of the New German Cinema." - Amy Taubin 

"A disturbingly powerful version of Heinrich Böll's novel about the irresponsibility of the gutter press and their ability to destroy lives." - TIME OUT

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AWARDS

- Winner of German Film Award for Best Actress for Angela Winkler

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+ DISCUSSION!

The film will be introduced by Dr Daniel Laqua, Lecturer in Modern European History at Northumbria University. There will be opportunity for discussion afterwards.

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Price: £5 (full price) / £3.50 (conc)
OR £4.50 online here http://www.wegottickets.com/event/135301

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