Maybe the trick is in the title. Accidental or intentional? A goalie without a goal which equals a movie without a goal. "Die Angst Des Tormanns Beim Elfmeter" ("The Goalie's Anxiety at the Penalty Kick") is a story about things falling apart and no one paying attention to them, people acting as if everything was OK while living in a disintegrating world. The goalie of the title is Joseph Bloch (Arthur Brauss), an unsympathetic and ruthless man who was kicked out of a match after a foul play who goes out on a rampage of murder for obscure reasons (possibly none) by killing a female cashier - whom he spent the night with - and a deaf boy - still unclear to me if he has part on his assassination, later on ruled as an accident.
What goes on is Bloch's sort of escape going from place to place, hotel to hotel, being rude with people and other times he's beaten by strangers after provoking them, or he's robbed by muggers, not knowing how to react, and develops relations with other women. Sometimes there's few bits of information about his victims in the news, and he seems preoccupied with those, always wanting to read the papers. So what does he want to do? What's his goal? At my view, none except escape - but who's after him? Who knows about his mysterious acts? So, he just keep on randomly walking and putting things out of order.
Easily one of Wim Wenders weakest, and one of his toughest watches of all since he doesn't make anything appealing, sometimes even not worthy seeing, filled with empty actions, poorly presented situations and mundane acts that doesn't add anything to a plot that has very few to show. There's few things which Wenders got it right while making his wrong presentation. He doesn't offer motive, reasons why his main character goes out killing people. Who could give reason to a murderer? Who would consider a crime something reasonable? It's not, it's simple abominable, unexplainable just like the movie.
Those who manage to get to the ending get a surprise, but only the wise will truly get it. The very last scene, when Joseph casually watches a soccer match, chatting with another guy, he tells the whole movie in an almost poetic manner. He makes a metaphor which shines a light on us in the audience. He explains to the man why the viewers focus on the game must be on the goalie instead of being in the player or the ball. The man proceeds in such and responds that it is too difficult, to which Joseph replies: "You get used to it. But it's ridiculous!". Same thing with the movie. There's plenty of indications that this man is a murderer, he goes from one erratic behavior to another, almost to the point of getting caught by the police and he even helps one officer with a minor problem, yet everyone around fail to notice him or his actions. People simply trust him all that much. We, as audience, can't fail with that, we keep our eyes on the goalie. That scene has plenty of depth, too bad the movie isn't just like that moment.
Distractive (and not in a good way), a little misguided but somewhat engaging, "The Goalie's Anxiety at the Penalty Kick" worths as an imaginative way of breaking storytelling conventions with its fragmented narrative repleted of ordinary dialogs and some expectation when everything is silent. Difficult, unpredictable and strangely not menacing as films about psychos tend to be. Also worths a view due to its soundtrack in the many jukebox scenes, with pop and rock classics. I hated the main theme from the original score though, it was quite annoying. I don't get the reviewers who compare it to the brilliant Camus novel "The Stranger" since the main character from the novel has more explained (in the unexplainable) reasons for murder than the goalie. A little good but Wenders has so much better. 6/10
What goes on is Bloch's sort of escape going from place to place, hotel to hotel, being rude with people and other times he's beaten by strangers after provoking them, or he's robbed by muggers, not knowing how to react, and develops relations with other women. Sometimes there's few bits of information about his victims in the news, and he seems preoccupied with those, always wanting to read the papers. So what does he want to do? What's his goal? At my view, none except escape - but who's after him? Who knows about his mysterious acts? So, he just keep on randomly walking and putting things out of order.
Easily one of Wim Wenders weakest, and one of his toughest watches of all since he doesn't make anything appealing, sometimes even not worthy seeing, filled with empty actions, poorly presented situations and mundane acts that doesn't add anything to a plot that has very few to show. There's few things which Wenders got it right while making his wrong presentation. He doesn't offer motive, reasons why his main character goes out killing people. Who could give reason to a murderer? Who would consider a crime something reasonable? It's not, it's simple abominable, unexplainable just like the movie.
Those who manage to get to the ending get a surprise, but only the wise will truly get it. The very last scene, when Joseph casually watches a soccer match, chatting with another guy, he tells the whole movie in an almost poetic manner. He makes a metaphor which shines a light on us in the audience. He explains to the man why the viewers focus on the game must be on the goalie instead of being in the player or the ball. The man proceeds in such and responds that it is too difficult, to which Joseph replies: "You get used to it. But it's ridiculous!". Same thing with the movie. There's plenty of indications that this man is a murderer, he goes from one erratic behavior to another, almost to the point of getting caught by the police and he even helps one officer with a minor problem, yet everyone around fail to notice him or his actions. People simply trust him all that much. We, as audience, can't fail with that, we keep our eyes on the goalie. That scene has plenty of depth, too bad the movie isn't just like that moment.
Distractive (and not in a good way), a little misguided but somewhat engaging, "The Goalie's Anxiety at the Penalty Kick" worths as an imaginative way of breaking storytelling conventions with its fragmented narrative repleted of ordinary dialogs and some expectation when everything is silent. Difficult, unpredictable and strangely not menacing as films about psychos tend to be. Also worths a view due to its soundtrack in the many jukebox scenes, with pop and rock classics. I hated the main theme from the original score though, it was quite annoying. I don't get the reviewers who compare it to the brilliant Camus novel "The Stranger" since the main character from the novel has more explained (in the unexplainable) reasons for murder than the goalie. A little good but Wenders has so much better. 6/10