GRIMM'S
6
The Lost Honor of Katharina Blum
About the Directors:
Margarethe von Trotta (b. 1942) and Volker Schlondorff (b. 1939) were married when they produced The Lost Honor of Katharina Blum together; they seperated in 1991. Individually, as well as together, von Trotta and Schlondorff were important members of the New German Cinema scene, each working with directors such as Rainer Werner Fassbinder and Werner Herzog on multiple film projects. Von Trotta and Schlondorff are both considered accomplished directors, holding more than twenty awards and even more films between them. Currently, the reside serperately in Germany.
The Lost Honor of Katharina Blum, based on a book by Heinrich Böll, has become relevant again. In the age of the Internet, the film's themes of violation of privacy and the press as a weapon are especially cutting. As Böll himself, like Katharina in the film, has been accused of being a terrorist sympathizer, the film has a distinct air of authenticity about it. It is not a documentary, however, as the fugitive Götten (Jürgen Prochnow) is either an ordinary criminal or a terrorist—the choice is deliberately left up to the viewer. Götten is never called a terrorist in the film (usually an anarchist, or a bank robber), as that term did not come into use until some time after the film was made.
The story begins when Katharina (Angela Winkler) meets Götten at a Carnival party; the two hit it off, and Katharina invites Götten to stay the night at her apartment. The next morning, a group of heavily armed police officers break into her apartment to arrest Götten (whom they had been surveilling for quite some time), but he has disappeared. As a result, Katharina is arrested on suspicion of being Götten's accomplice. She is kept in a cell and interrogated frequently by the police, going for hours at any given time without food or access to legal representation. From there, her life is turned upside down as the officers dissect every detail of her life, ranging from her reading habits to her supposed sexual promiscuity, and she is exploited by the press.
The movie renders these unlawful techniques as acts of terrorism themselves. In daily articles, journalist Werner Tötges (Dieter Laser) blasts Katharina's reputation by interviewing and subsequently misquoting her family and friends, aiding the media and public in essentially convicting Katharina before she has even gone on trial. Although Katharina is quickly cleared, her life has been ruined; her person has been threatened, her reputation destroyed, and her honor tarnished. When she decides to take a gun to the journalist that has been instrumental in her ultimate humiliation, someone hypocritically declares that the shots Katharina fired were not aimed at Tötges, but rather at the freedom of the press.
The Lost Honor of Katharina Blum presents a strong case against yellow journalism wrapped up in an exciting, suspense-filled package. The corruption displayed in the film is so pervasive that it forces the viewer to rethink their personal opinions on freedom of the press; after the movie, modern viewers might find themselves acknowledging that there is indeed freedom of the press, but is there actually any freedom from it? Moreover, Katharina's story is told on such an intimate, personal level (thanks to a lovely performance by Winkler, who managed to retain all of her character's mystery and resolve from the book) that it is difficult not to empathize with her story and ultimately come away as numb as she did.
Finally, many of the story's themes are familiar in today's world, since, as in Katharina's case, stories rarely make the news unless they are sensationalized untruths that can reinforce the easy reactions of judgmental outrage. The Lost Honor of Katharina Blum shines a much-needed light on the lives of people who are trampled beneath a dishonest and dishonorable press and the public who support it.