Despair (1978)

In early-1930s Berlin, an elegant Russian émigré and eccentric chocolatier convinces himself that he has seen his doppelgänger, and hatches a murderous plan to trade his existence for an entirely new one. Will he get over the deep despair?

Director:

Rainer Werner Fassbinder

Writers:

Tom Stoppard (screenplay), Vladimir Nabokov (novel)

Stars:

Dirk Bogarde, Andréa Ferréol, Klaus Löwitsch

3 wins & 1 nomination.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Dirk Bogarde	...	Herman
Andréa Ferréol	...	Lydia
Klaus Löwitsch	...	Felix
Volker Spengler	...	Ardalion
Armin Meier	...	Silverman / Sergeant Brown / Foreman
Peter Kern	...	Müller
Adrian Hoven	...	Inspector Schelling
Alexander Allerson	...	Mayer
Hark Bohm	...	Doctor
Roger Fritz	...	Inspector Braun
Gottfried John	...	Perebrodov
Y Sa Lo	...	Elsie
Lilo Pempeit	...	Secretary Schmidt
Ingrid Caven	...	Hotel Manager
Voli Geiler	...	1st Landlady

Storyline

In early-1930s Berlin during the Weimar Republic and the Nazis' rise to power, the elegant Russian émigré and eccentric chocolatier, Hermann Hermann, leads a petite bourgeois life with his voluptuous and frivolous wife, Lydia. Troubled about his Jewish roots, Hermann convinces himself that he has seen his doppelgänger in the person of the unemployed vagabond, Felix, going as far as to hatch a murderous plan, intent on trading his very existence for an entirely new one. Now, Hermann's desire for transcendence is gnawing at him. Will he get over the full-blown mental breakdown, and the profound despair?

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Plot Keywords:

1930s | chocolate | nazi | madness | based on novel | 

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Taglines:

A "hysterical" comedy

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Genres:

Drama | History

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Did You Know?

Trivia

Scenes filmed at the chocolate factory were shot utilizing a lavender visual aesthetic featuring the color purple on props and costumes.

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Goofs

Though the movie is set in Weimar Germany in the early 1930s, at 1:15:15, Hermann Hermann smokes a filtered cigarette, and those were put on the market in the 1950s.

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Connections

Referenced in Bitter Movie (1983)

User Reviews

Left me unmoved and uninvolved

Shot in English on a budget that nearly equaled the cost of his first fifteen films, Rainer Werner Fassbinder's Despair has wit and style yet its attempt to recreate the dark, comedic genius of Vladimir Nabokov left me unmoved and uninvolved. Based on Nabokov's novel Despair (apparently intended as a parody of Dostoevsky), and adapted for the screen by Tom Stoppard, the film describes the descent into madness of wealthy chocolate entrepreneur Hermann Herman (Dirk Bogarde). Set in Germany on the eve of the Third Reich, scenes of the Nazis assaulting Jewish-owned businesses are sprinkled throughout the film but to no apparent purpose. Herman has left his Russian home to live in Berlin and constantly fantasizes about the beauty of the Russian winters and whispers `Russia, which we have lost forever...' to his wife, Lydia (Andrea Ferreol). He is a thoroughly unsympathetic character: cold, calculating, and cynical and Mr. Bogarde's exaggerated mannerisms do not make him any easier to appreciate.

Much of the film takes place inside Herman's stately bourgeois home. Shots of the characters through glass partitions keep the viewer at a distance and the elegant interiors look like an abandoned mausoleum. Lydia's and Herman's relationship is unconvincing and Fassbinder's repeated descriptions of Lydia as an unintelligent sex object border on misogyny. "The flowers of your sensuality would wilt with intelligence," Herman tells his wife whom he always addresses with condescension. In addition to Lydia, we gradually meet other vivid supporting characters: Lydia's cousin, Ardalion; and Dr. Orlovious, an insurance salesman whom Herman mistakenly thinks is a psychiatrist and opens up to.

Herman is convinced that Felix Weber (Klaus Lowitch), a laborer, resembles him as closely as "two drops of blood." though the resemblance is tentative at best (a joke Nabokov wisely saved for his readers until the end of his novella). He has an odd compulsion to observe himself as a stranger and devises a plan to commit the perfect crime, exchanging identities with the worker as a means of escaping his existence. Felix, on the other hand, decides to humor the eccentric Herman with the thought of getting a job. In Despair, Fassbinder constructs a world in the process of falling apart where people march inexorably toward self-destruction and where the journey into light proves to be an illusion. In a world approaching madness, however, Hermann seems to fit perfectly -- no more, no less crazy than the insanity occurring around him.

Details

Country:

West Germany France

Language:

English

Release Date:

20 September 1978 (France)

Also Known As:

Despair

Filming Locations:

Bavaria Studios, Bavariafilmplatz 7, Geiselgasteig, Grünwald, Bavaria, Germany

Box Office

Budget:

DEM6,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend USA:

$11,623, 16 February 2003

Gross USA:

$8,144

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$8,144

Company Credits

Production Co:

Bavaria Atelier, Bavaria Film, Filmverlag der Autoren

Technical Specs

Runtime:

119 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color (Eastmancolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.66 : 1