A Honra Perdida de uma mulher

I read before the novel I saw the film (in my german class) and I have to say this adaption is way better than the book. The book by Heinrich Böll is not easy to read, it's actually very boring and sometimes you just want to throw it at the wall because Böll often just philosophies about some unimportant things. The film concentrates on the "real" story of Katharina Blum and creates an intense portrait of a young woman who becomes a victim of the tabloid press. It's really good and Angela Winkler gives us a superb performance. 7/10.

Angela Winkler isn't much of anything, but when she has a brief affair with a man who turns out to be a terrorist, the police investigate her, and the press crucifies her.

Distrust of news organizations is not a phenomenon that arose in the 21st century; 'gutter press' is recorded as of 1845, and 'yellow journalism' in 1881. This collaboration between Volker Schlöndorff and Margarethe von Trotta from the novel by Heinrich Boll is an outright polemic, almost as savage as the attack on Miss Winkler's character. It's hard to qualify it, since the entire situation creeps up on the audience, just as it does on Miss Winkler. One day she's going to discotechs and dancing to 'Spanish Flea', the next the police are talking to her calmly, and a few days later, her name is all over the papers.

In a society where 'news' has become some sort of addictive drug that stresses out anyone who looks at it, and maddens anyone who doesn't -- and no, I haven't looked at the election results, and don't tell me -- here's a movie as bitterly prophetic as NETWORK.

This film is based on the novel of the same name by the German author Heinrich Böll. The book is purported to be written by Böll as a result of an ongoing feud in the German media between Böll and the publisher of the German daily tabloid the Bild Zeitung, a publication known for its lurid and sensational reporting of the news. In his story, Böll attempts to show how damaging irresponsible journalism can be to the lives and reputations of innocent persons caught up in the tide of current events.

The story begins with Katherina Blum attending a party where she meets and is strongly attracted to a young man. She invites him to her apartment and they spend the night making love. The next morning, the young man has gone and the police are storming her door seeking to arrest the overnight guest as a terrorist. Instead, Katherina is arrested and taken to the police station for interrogation as his accomplice. The young terrorist has been killed and Katherina is unable to prove that she had no knowledge of his activities. A tabloid reporter becomes obsessed by the case hounds Katherina, mercilessly destroying her reputation and any semblance of a normal life. The emotional tension continues to build, finally reaching a violent climax.

This is a very powerful and well made film. Böll's message regarding sensational and irresponsible journalism is very clear. After suffering along with the innocent Katharina through the insult, pain and dishonor of her ordeal, I came away from the film with an altered point of view toward tabloid journalism and commercial news reporting in general. In a world where reporters are being found guilty of manufacturing news stories, media agencies are providing dramatic reenactments of sensational news events, and names like O.J. Simpson and Monica Lewinsky are used as teasers to improve the ratings of news programs, this film is a must see.

It's funny, but the recent Criterion DVD release of "The Lost Honor of Katharina Blum" gives it a whole new perspective. Next to "The Legend of Rita", "Lost Honor" is almost like "Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead". But in this case, it's dead serious.

Katharina Blum is a normal German woman who has a one-night state with a man she meets at a party. Later, she finds out that he is an anarchist and part of a Baader-Meinhoff-type gang; the group Rita from "Legend of Rita" is supposed to be a member of.

Responding to the activities of German urban guerrillas, there is a national dragnet to hunt them down. Blum is arrested and gets caught up in the hunt, revealing a myopic government at it's most abusive. Equally revealing is the insidious nature of the media and it's role in repression. You can't help but get a chill watching it not because you can't believe it ever happened. But because you can't believe it happens all the time. Life in America is a lot like Katharina Blum's for many people.

Schlöndorff is an intellectual. Both of these films are great reflections of that. They're smart, challenging while being well paced and lithe. "Lost Honor" marked the directorial debut of Margarethe Von Trotta (in some ways a protégé of Schlöndorff's not to mention lover) who would go on to great things including "Rosa Luxembourg".

This is one of a handful of German productions of the 1970s critically acclaimed by world cinema. "Die verlorene Ehre der Katerina Blum" tells of the seemingly innocent love affair of a young woman with a man who turns out to be a fugitive bank robber. Twisting and turning the story to make it more "readable" a tabloid reporter shamelessly destroys the woman's reputation, even leading to her arrest as an "accomplice" to the crimes committed by her "boyfriend".

The film shows in detail how the situation impacts many people, including Katerina's employers, neighbors, family memebers. All speak highly of her, yet the newspapers always manage to print distorted facts, embellishments and outright lies. The ending, though unexpected and shocking, will satisfy the viewer, who by now completely empathises with the title character who had been "railroaded" by the press for no other purpose than to sell more papers. A five star classic.