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THE GOALIE'S ANXIETY AT THE
PENALTY KICK
The German filmmaker Wim Wenders has become deservedly famous
with arthouse faves like PARIS TEXAS and WINGS OF DESIRE, but few seem to
remember that he started his career with this stark and disturbing study of a
senseless murder and its aftermath. Mixing acute social observation with
psychological angst, it emerges as one of the most interesting films of a very
interesting filmmaker.
The Package
Wim Wenders, along with
Werner Herzog and Rainer Werner Fassbinder, was
a guiding light of the New German Cinema, and THE GOALIE'S ANXIETY AT THE PENALTY KICK (DIE
ANGST DES TORMANNS BEIM ELFMETER), Wenders's
1972 debut, is one of the most important films of that movement. It has
parallels in Fassbinder's WHY DOES HERR R. RUN AMOK? (1971) and Michael Haneke's
later THE SEVENTH CONTINENT (1989), two German films that pitilessly examine the
dehumanizing effects of modern society. Wenders's film is just as savage in its
critique of modern (well, circa 1972) Germany, but unlike those other films,
both of which end with their protagonists committing acts of shocking violence,
this one begins with its main character nonchalantly strangling a woman
to death.
The Story
Having just been suspended for missing a penalty kick,
it could be that the Josef is simply upset, but the real reasons for the murder
are never explained. For the remainder of the film, Wenders forces us to
experience the most mundane details of Josef's life, as he escapes to a small
provincial town where he takes long bus rides and carries on meaningless
conversations with the local residents. He also passively records the progress
of the police investigation of the murder, which always seems to be on the verge
of nabbing him-not that this disturbs Joseph any, as his sense of reality
steadily ebbs.
By deliberately withholding any explanation for
Joseph's actions, Wenders seems to be suggesting that the reasons are too
ambiguous to be brought to light-or that perhaps there simply aren't any.
The Direction
Whether one finds this film fascinating or simply
maddening (a good case can be made for either position), it remains an
uncommonly assured debut. As with most of Wenders's early films (ALICE IN THE
CITIES, KINGS OF THE ROAD), it's a "road" movie, meaning that the main character
is in transit for the majority of the action, much of which was improvised on
actual locations.
The filmmaking is completely
uncluttered and naturalistic, lending an even more disquieting air to the
already unsettling subject matter. As for the murder itself, it's presented in
an unshowy, almost nonchalant manner, the same way in which we see Joseph
boarding a bus or chatting with his neighbors. 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.
Vital Statistics
THE GOALIE'S ANXIETY AT THE PENALTY KICK (DIE ANGST
DES TORMANNS BEIM ELFMETER)
Filmverlag Der Autoren
Director: Wim Wenders
Screenwriters: Wim Wenders and Peter Haneke (Based on a novella by Peter Haneke)
Cinematography: Robbie Muller
Editor: Peter Przygodda
Cast: Arthur Brauss, Erika Pluhar, Kai Fischer