Despair (1978)
1h 57m
Running Time
September 20, 1978Release Date

Plot.
Berlin, 1930, during the rise of Nazism. Hermann Hermann, a Russian emigrant and chocolate manufacturer, married to the capricious Lydia, loses his temper more and more every day when dealing with his workers and other businessmen; until he meets Felix, a vagrant, who seems to be physically identical to him; a disconcerting fact that leads Hermann Hermann to plot a particular way out of a fake world he actually hates.
Where to Watch.
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Cast & Crew.

Dirk Bogarde
Hermann Hermann

Andréa Ferréol
Lydia Hermann

Klaus Löwitsch
Felix Weber

Volker Spengler
Ardalion

Bernhard Wicki
Orlovius

Armin Meier
Silverman / Sergeant Brown / Foreman

Peter Kern
Müller

Adrian Hoven
Inspector Schelling

Alexander Allerson
Mayer

Hark Bohm
Doctor

Roger Fritz
Inspector Braun

Gottfried John
Perebrodov

Y Sa Lo
Elsie

Lilo Pempeit
Mrs. Schmidt

Ingrid Caven
Hotel Manager

Voli Geiler
1st Landlady

Isolde Barth
2nd Landlady

Gitty Djamal
Woman in Pension

Harry Baer
Innkeeper / Assistant Director

Osman Ragheb
Post Office Clerck

Hans Zander
Müller's Brother [Scenes Deleted]

Tom Stoppard
Screenplay

Rainer Werner Fassbinder
Director / Editor

Vladimir Nabokov
Novel

Michael Ballhaus
Director of Photography

Juliane Lorenz
Editor

Peer Raben
Original Music Composer

Lutz Winter
Unit Manager

Karin Geuer
Wardrobe Supervisor

Lutz Hengst
Production Executive

Rolf Zehetbauer
Production Design

Antonin Artaud
In Memory Of

Jochen Schumacher
Art Direction / Set Decoration

Peter Knöpfle
Makeup Artist

Dagmar Schauberger
Costume Designer

Milan Bor
Sound Mixer / Sound Re-Recording Mixer

James Willis
Sound Mixer

Elke Vogt
Script Supervisor

Wulf Ghastaus
Unit Manager

Karl-Heinz Vogelmann
Still Photographer

Dieter Minx
Production Supervisor

Herbert Strabel
Art Direction

Vincent van Gogh
In Memory Of

Any Nöbauer
Makeup Artist

Georg Kuhn
Wardrobe Supervisor

Unica Zürn
In Memory Of

Christine Fritz
Assistant Editor

Don French
Unit Manager

Marcel Höhn
Unit Manager

John Stevenson
Boom Operator

Lothar Tropp
Property Master

Klaus Meyenberg
Property Master

Ulrich Wendt
Property Master

Stefan Zürcher
Assistant Director

Ronald M. Scheich
Assistant Director

Rudolf Geiger
Unit Manager

Max Dietl
Costume Designer

Peter Märthesheimer
Producer
Media.









Details.
Release DateSeptember 20, 1978
StatusReleased
Running Time1h 57m
Filming LocationsBavaria, Germany
Genres
Last updated:
This Movie Is About.
chocolate
based on novel or book
doppelgänger
berlin germany
wife husband relationship
weimar republic
nazism
russian emigre
1930s
business man
identity
paranoia
identity crisis
attempt to escape
painter
alienation
anti semitism
mental illness
madness
assumed identity
insurance policy
double
vagrant
foreshadowing
murder plot
perfect murder
self image
film within a film
performative
dissociation
jewish ancestry
jewish wife
rise of fascism
rise of nazism
victimhood
Wiki.
Despair is a 1978 film directed by Rainer Werner Fassbinder and starring Dirk Bogarde, based on the 1934 novel of the same name by Vladimir Nabokov. It was Fassbinder's first English-language film and was entered into the 1978 Cannes Film Festival.
Similarly to the novel, the tone of the film is ironic. The plot is mostly similar to the novel, although one of the key characters is significantly altered in the adaptation.
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