DESPAIR

West Germany, 1978, 114 minutes, Colour.
Dirk Bogarde, Andrea Ferreol, Klaus Lowitsch, Bernhard Wickhi.
Directed by Rainer Werner Fassbinder.

Despair is one of the masterpieces of German director Rainer Werner Fassbinder. Fassbinder was an enfant terrible – literally beginning to direct and write films at the age of twenty-one in 1966. During the 70s he enjoyed an enormous reputation as a man of insight into German history and German character. Despair, at the end of the 70s, reaches a kind of climax. It was a reaching out ) for commercial success using Dirk Bogarde as star with Andrea Ferreol. However, it was more of a critical success, especially being screened in the Cannes film festival.

It has excellent credentials – based on a novel by Vladimir Nabokov (Lolita), the screenplay by celebrated British playwright Tom Stoppard and photography by award-winning cinematographer Michael Ballhaus. The cast is very strong and includes some of Fassbinder’s regulars, especially Klaus Lowitsch.

The film is set in the 1930s and focuses on the seeming despair of the central character, a Russian émigré who has a chocolate factory. As society declines, he seems to decline, strange relationships with his wife, brother-in-law – and the challenge from a beggar sleeping in the street. However, he begins to concoct a scheme to break through the despair and to produce an insurance fraud.

Fassbinder died of an overdose in 1982. However, between Despair in 1978 and his death four years later, he was able to direct The Third Generation, fourteen episodes of Berlin Alexanderplatz, Lilli Marlene, Lola, Veronika Voss and Querelle. Which makes one wonder what he would have done had he lived beyond thirty-seven.

1. An interesting film? Entertainment value? The combination of talent in production: the work of Rainer Werner Fassbinder - prolific maker of films, seen in the retrospect of his early death? His fascination with Germany and its failures, the re-creation of a period, relationships, identity crises, the emphasis on the comic and the bizarre? Allegories? V1adimir Nabokov - the blend of the serious, the funny, the ridiculous? Tom Stoppard and his plays - his reliance on the power of words, silences, the ridiculous, emotional confrontations?

2. Colour photography: period, rooms of 1930s, the factories? The street sequences and the crowds? The contrast with the alps? The range of Berlin society in the early 1930s? The preparation for the Nazi takeover? The use of offbeat colours - the emphasis on lilac e.g. in the chocolate factory? The use of glass: doors., windows, mirrors,, the smashing of glass? The contribution of the musical score?

3. The title and its reference to Hermann: despair and hope, despair and loss. loss of faith, security, death? The ironies of Hermann's despair and his wanting to control them? Vebers' despair and his actual death? The despair of German society after World War One. in the Nazi takeover? Despair and its consequent madness?

4. The contrived style of the screenplay: the blend of the comic and the farcical, the posturings, the exaggerated stereotypes, the echoes of the silent film (and the use of the silent film and the cinema sequence)? How authentic a world? Realism? The world seen from Hermann's point of view?

5. The Doppelganger theme: Hermann seeing his double (split personality) in the bedroom, observing him in bed, in the cinema, the character watching him continually? His questioning of the insurance man in the restaurant - and mistaking him for a double of Freud? His finding Veber and seeing himself in Veber (and the audience not seeing the likeness)? Dreams about himself and Veber. especially about death? The reality and unreality of the other self. the other side of the self? Hermann's talking and imposing his own personality on Veber - the psychology of projection? The interrelationship of the two selves, the interrelationship of Hermann and Veber? The proposal, the blackmail, the arranging for the changeover, the murder? The significance of the alternate ending with Veber smiling yet living? The reality of Veber's death and Hermann's seeming triumph, retirement, capture? The investigation and the police emphasising there was no resemblance between the two men? The desire for the perfect crime - but its being an illusion?

6. Dirk Bogarde's presence and performance as Hermann? In himself, his story about his Russian origins, family? His wealth and the chocolate factory bequeathed to him? His relationship with Lydia? His criticism of Adalion and his intrusion into the marriage? The emphasis on sex and sexuality in the cabaret style? The importance of the sequence of the three with Orlavius in the restaurant? The interior despair in Hermann, its manifestations in Dirk Bogarde's facial reactions, mannerisms, behaviour? The background of the chocolate factory? A useful, useless product? The argument in the factory with the assistant about France, occupation, repayment of World War One debts? The assistant and his Nazism? Chocolates and the future - a futile industry in the face of the oncoming war? The visit to Hamburg to buy the second factory and the sequence with the chocolate men and their lying in heaps as a foreshadowing of the holocaust? Hermann's telling his story and not being able to buy the factory? The use of chocolates, the comments on the centres? The taste of sweetness and bitterness?

7. Hermann's decline: the encounters with Adalion, especially, catching Lydia with him, the examination of the paintings. his suspicions, meeting him in the square. sending him to the alps? His love for Lydia yet the emphasis on sexuality, sensuality, despising her stupidity and highlighting it? The seeking out of Veber and sharing his views with him and manipulating him to death? Meeting Orlavius and gossipping with him, setting suspicions? His losing touch with reality - his absolute panic when the pedlar was at the door? Grappling with Elsie - and his despising

8. Lydia and her sensuality, voluptuous size, nudity, brainlessness, clothes, outings? Posturings? The infatuation with Adalion? Hermann's misjudgement in confiding the plans to her? Her hearing the news, the fainting - and the genuine puzzle about what had happened? Her growing concern?

9. Adalion - eccentric slob, painter, the quality of his paintings, eccentricity, his offbeat clothes, nudity? Infatuation with Lydia? The meeting with Hermann and the arrangement to go to the alps - and his being the nemesis for Hermann?

10. Orlavius - and the joke about his resembling Freud? His talking professionally, gossipping, the advice, Hermann slipping him the information and his giving it to the police? The visual echoing of Emile Jannings in such films as The Blue Angel?

11. Veber: in himself, his philosophy of life, depression, his being caught up in Hermann's plan, the interview and the discussion, his being persuaded, the blackmail and the letter? The alternate ending with him smiling and death - and then surviving and being encountered by Lydia? The truth of his death? The irony of the cane with his name and the downfall of Hermann?

12. The contrast with the guesthouses in the mountains? Quiet society contrasting with Berlin? The remoteness and the peace, yet the inquisitive guests, the newspapers, the discussions with the guest about the perfect crime? Hermann’s growing madness, taking on the identity of the despairing Veber in appearance and attitude?

13. The sequences of investigation - the echoes of the police and the murder mystery?

14. The alps, Hermann wandering alone, the irony of his final resting place and Adalion's discovering him?

15. His final insanity, the final speech and his talking about being a film star?

16. The film as an allegory about Germany in the early '30s: the European background, Germany, financial collapse, mental collapse - and rightness for the Nazi takeover?

17. Audience involvement, distance - an ironic experience of insight into individuals, society, history?