Die Angst des Tormanns beim Elfmeter

Based on the novel "Die Angst des Tormannes beim Elfmeter" by Austrian existentialist writer, Peter Handke, The Goalie's Anxiety at the Penalty Kick is a powerful and unnerving film by the great German director Wim Wenders (Wings of Desire, Paris, Texas). As the film opens, the goalie, Joseph Bloch, (Arthur Brauss) is suspended from a soccer game in Vienna for missing a penalty kick. Seemingly not upset, he goes into town, then commits an unplanned and seemingly unmotivated murder of a cinema cashier.

Presenting us with a world that does not fit our picture of what constitutes rational behavior, Wenders refuses to explain the goalie's senseless action. Bloch simply continues his life in a matter-of-fact way, although a great deal of emotion seems to be churning under the surface. He retreats to a country inn to find his old girl friend. Nothing much happens. He goes to the movies, converses with the local residents, drinks a lot, gets into a fight, and ostensibly waits for the police to close in. His expression remains the same no matter what he is doing. As stated by Adam Groves in his review in The Cutting Edge, "He may be a homicidal sociopath, but Joseph seems to fit in quite well with the world around him, which seems to be the whole point"

Bloch talks about his life as a goalie throughout the film. At the end, he wanders into to a local soccer game and explains to a visiting salesman the thoughts that go through a goalie's mind during a penalty kick, for example, how the goalie must outguess the shooter. Perhaps dramatizing the dehumanizing effects of modern society, Goalie's Anxiety at the Penalty Kick is a strange, intriguing, and complex film that definitely deserves repeated viewing to unlock the puzzle. A possible hint involves a repetitive theme of a lost boy who drowned because he couldn't communicate.

Huh that Wenders guy really knows how to make a good movie. Who would've thought...

Due the greatness that Wim Wenders became thru the years, his fundation made many efforts to try recover the worn out negative of this movie, as newbie director he had erroneously used several tracks of famous singers as Elvis Presley, Credence Clearwater, Roy Orbison and The Doors as well permissionless, whereby he can't afford due the high cost of the copyrights, on ultimate restoration a high advanced tools were used to regain the bright color.

However to solve the matter of expensive soundtrack already built-in previously on movie, then to fix it he inserts under a fresh one upon the original, just at bar sequence he got the consent from own singer Morisson freely previous his death, otherwise the movie could be buried for good all those info above is upon the own Wim Wenders statement contained on bonus material.

In fact he based on the Peter Handke's novel his closest friend in this directorial debut, over an average goalkeeper dismissed from the game by foul play, hereinafter wandering around committing foolish things to extent of throttle a woman, meanwhile such weirdo guy used to stay overnight in countless cheaper hotels at Austria and neighborhood areas, a kind of pointless existentialism offering, although we can oversee a promising filmmaker in this interesting minor flick.

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First watch: 2024 / How many: 1 / Source: DVD / Rating: 7.

Spoiler alert, this is not a film about soccer at all, and there is no drama surrounding a penalty kick. Wim Wender's first film is a rather ponderous foray into the randomness of violence and suffering in the world. The anxiety here, the terror, is in just how senseless it is, as senseless as that goal scored while the goalie is barely paying attention in the opening scene. The anxiety is also in knowing that ordinary people wandering around have that in them, or could have committed such an act in the spur of the moment, and then gone on with their lives.

In addition to a critical point of violence that the film rests upon, we see smaller references, such as the goalie getting beaten up in the street a couple times, a reference to the murder of Sharon Tate, and a story in the papers is that a young boy has gone missing, presumably harmed. We see it in the goalie's case as being completely unplanned, which is shocking in itself, but it's also disconcerting when what follows is not a traditional crime drama, with a detective then trying to track him down. Life simply goes on.

In a minor key, I felt the usual kinds of questions, e.g. Will he do it again, and will he be caught, but those were not the main things causing tension. It was more like, why did he end up doing that to the young woman and not one of the other women he meets while traveling around? Does the world even care, listening to the buoyant music from the 50's and 60's? Is the veneer of civilization so thin that there are other sociopaths we see (in the film or in real life), who have done such things? These are haunting, existential questions. We wish for life to make sense and be fair, but oftentimes it is neither. Those big moments in soccer, or our favorite sports, as much as we get wrapped up in them - they seem trivial by comparison - but even there, we see randomness, the goalie guessing to dive left or right at the penalty kick.

I liked the concept for the film and how it managed such brutal statements about the world in such a low-key way, but I have to say, watching it was not terribly interesting. The dispassionate feeling of the killer and the disconnected events which follow don't make for a compelling story, and the film moves along very slowly. It doesn't escalate and there is little to no transformation, so what we're left with is this dark commentary, which felt as flat as it was depressing. It's worth seeing if you're a Wenders fan, but it's tough to recommend without reservations.

This is a detective film, but it's not really a film noir or cop drama like we're used to in the U.S. However, there are lots of references to America's overwhelming cultural presence throughout.

For me, Jurgen Knieper's score serves the story well; the tune still comes back to me all these years later.

It's a simple monotonous tune, the main parts being just two notes that the small chamber group works back and forth. It may not sound like much, but in reality it becomes mesmerizing, almost like a 2nd main character, and something that won't release you, like fate.

The film, of course, is genius.

The understated music matches the film's lack of much excitement or development.

The visuals and music work to produce a profoundly unsettling look at the monotonous life of the murderer.