The Lost Honor of Katharina Blum [Criterion Collection] [Blu-ray]

Director: Margarethe von Trotta, Volker Schlöndorff, Volker Schlondorff Margarethe von Trotta

Overview

"Average German citizen Katharina Blum (Angela Winkler) spends the night with a man she barely knows. The next morning, Katharina finds the man gone--and finds herself surrounded by none-too-polite police investigators. It seems that her stranger of the evening was a political activist who has long been the object of close scrutiny by the law. Her basic civil rights ignored at every turn, Katharina is relentlessly grilled about her relationship with her one-night stand. As a result, Katharina loses her job, her friends, and her standing in the community. Unsatisfied with this, the police go after Katharina's family, putting her ailing mother through an emotional wringer. After being branded a Communist by the insensitive press, Katharina goes over the top and shoots a reporter: at last, she has truly become what the media has made of her. Based on a novel by Heinrich Böll and directed with clinical near-detachment by Volker Scholendorff and Margarethe von Trotta, The Lost Honor of Katharina Blum was later remade for American TV as The Lost Honor of Katherine Beck, with Marlo Thomas in the title role."

Product Details

Release Date:	08/04/2020
UPC:	0715515249812
Original Release:	1975
Rating:	R
Source:	Criterion Collection
Region Code:	A
Language:	English
Time:	1:46:00
Sales rank:	2,020

Special Features

New 4k digital restoration, approved by Co-Director Volker Schlondorff and Producer Eberhard Junkersdorf, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack; Interview from 2002 with Co-Directors Schlondorff and Margarethe von Trotta; Interview from 2002 with Director of Photography Jost Vacano; Excerpts from a 1977 documentary on author Heinrich Boll; Trailer; Plus: An essay by film critic Amy Taubin

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Angela Winkler	Katharina Blum
Mario Adorf	Kommissar Beizmenne
Dieter Laser	Werner Tötges
Jürgen Prochnow	Ludwig Götten
Heinz Bennent	Dr. Blorna, Anwalt
Hannelore Hoger	Trude Blorna,Actor
Rolf Becker	Staatsanwalt Hach
Harald Kuhlmann	Moeding, Polizist,Actor
Herbert Fux	Weninger, Journalist Die Zeitung¿
Regine Lutz	Else Woltersheim, Patentante Katharinas
Werner Eichhorn	Konrad Beiters
Karl-Heinz Vosgerau	Alois Sträubleder, Unternehmer
Horatius Häberle	Staatsanwalt Dr. Korten
Achim Strietzel	Lüding, Konzernherr
Péter Franke	Dr. Heinen
Henry van Lyck	"Scheich" Karl
Margarethe von Trotta	Actor
Walter Gontermann	Actor
Hans Werner Henze	Composer

Technical Credits

Margarethe von Trotta

Volker Schlöndorff

Margarethe von Trotta	Director,Screenwriter
Volker Schlöndorff	Director,Screenwriter
Eberhard Junkersdorf	Producer
Volker Schlondorff	Director

Editorial Reviews

Based on the novel of the same name by Nobel prize-winning author Heinrich Böll, the political drama The Lost Honor of Katharina Blum has often been praised for its social relevancy in the decades following its original release. Not only is it an effective depiction of yellow journalism in the works, but its also an honest portrayal of the paranoid political climate of West Germany during the 1970s. Quick to deny basic democratic liberties in the interest of national security, the government labels Ludwig (Jürgen Prochnow) a terrorist when he's really just a crafty thief who left the army. Katherina's personal story is presented factually without unnecessary romanticizing, and her brief affair with Ludwig is only glimpsed at from afar. The bulk of the story concerns her transformation from dowdy housekeeper to reactionary dissident, capably handled by Angela Winkler's calm demeanor and stoic presence. At first, she barely flinches when the cops bust into her apartment, but she gradually begins to develop a resistance after bearing the constant threats, lies, and interrogation. Though heavy handed at times, The Lost Honor of Katharina Blum is a straightforward, unsentimental portrait of an innocent person's struggle against victimization by the press.