The Goalie's Anxiety at the Penalty Kick

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.

It is difficult to comment on such a brilliant movie without having read the book first, or even better, being familiar with Peter Handke's narrative works. While it may seem evident (to us, accustomed to Hollywood's conventional plots) that the main character of The Goalie... is a madman, it is not evident at all. Handke's approach to narrative is to reflect exterior signs, rather than enter the character's inner thoughts. See The Lefthanded Woman for example: while it may seem, on the surface, that the woman does not have a reason for divorce, in fact she might have a lot, only she does not reveal what is on her mind. Same applies to the goalie: he would not speak his mind, therefore we, and even Handke himself (or Wenders) can not enter his own intimate realm. Whatever his reasons are for what he does (and murder is only one of his unexplained acts) we can not know them. The film is about communication between people more than murder. It is funny that most of us would assume he is mad just because we can not find an account of his acts: if you think about it, in the real world outside the movie realm, most people -and even our closest friends- would not tell us why they do what they do. And it does not necessarily mean they are mad.

The final scene fully reveals the reason behind the film's title.

A goalkeeper, in the moment of a penalty, can become trapped in a sense of absurdity - and ultimately, in an endless, absolute, and unresolvable anxiety. The last scene of the film illustrates exactly that: Bloch is speaking with the man sitting in the stadium and tells him that, during a penalty, if the goalkeeper knows the penalty taker, he might think: "He always shoots to the right, but this time he'll probably go left." Yet at the same time, the penalty taker might think: "The goalkeeper knows I usually shoot right, so he'll expect me to go left. But he doesn't know that I know what he's thinking - so I'll shoot right again." This mental dialogue between the goalkeeper and the penalty taker could go on endlessly, and this infinite back-and-forth brings about a kind of existential void and silent anxiety for the goalkeeper, alone in that moment.

The film portrays the inner world of a goalkeeper living in the absurdity of his life - a life in which nothing has meaning anymore. Even on the football field, he is always the loneliest figure, and that very solitude brings its own sense of emptiness. In the opening scene, twenty-one players stand on one side while he stands alone, feeling an absolute isolation. Later, when the ball passes by him and he reacts with total indifference, it perfectly visualizes that same emptiness.

Over the film's one hour and forty minutes, we watch how deeply he has sunk into this meaninglessness - where anxiety no longer appears as a visible, violent tension, but as a quiet, muted state: an anxiety of indifference, not one of agitation or outburst.

That's why he strangles the woman so effortlessly - not out of anger, but with a cold neutrality, as if the act itself means nothing to him.

Another reflection of the connection between the penalty scene and his life lies in the fact that the goalkeeper's endless internal reasoning - the "what if..." chain of thoughts - leads to paralysis in that moment. Throughout the film, the same pattern appears: in his absurd world, there seems to be no right choice at all, and he is incapable even of choosing.

I just want to say that this movie, when I watched it first time long ago, opened the doors of what cinema could say, in which ways, and how it could go as far as possible from a typical theatrical or literary (linear,logical, rational) treatment of its artistic matter; pursuing a more "musical" or "harmonically oriented" approach.

Wenders develops this work as a series of "climates" or ambiances(we're talking "street" climates and ambiances, sometimes ugly or ridiculous; not that silly "grandeur" that spoils so many artworks) that contain valuable, almost satirical remarks on the "cheating" that our expectations and concepts are constantly playing to our minds.

The particular sense of humor and drama of the script writer and the director just hit a string on me; as did the musical score. I only regret that is very difficult to find plays or to purchase any copies, in any format, of this strange gem here in Argentina. I could watch it only twice, in cultural centers at Buenos Aires, which is not my hometown. This is a movie that you can enjoy over and over, as if it were a musical masterpiece. I'd like to point out that I'm not a native English speaker, so I apologize if my writing style is not quite correct.

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.

Thanks for reading.

Resume:

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