Despair
- Year:
- 1978
- Running time:
- 115 minutes
- Certificate:
- 15
- Directed by:
- Rainer Werner Fassbinder
- Starring:
- Dirk Bogarde, Andrea Ferreol, Klaus Loewitsch
Description
Chocolate, cuckoldry and doppelganger delusion abound in Rainer Werner Fassbinder's stunning English language adaptation of Vladimir Nabokov interwar novel.
The chocolate business has been good to Russian exile Hermann. He enjoys the good life with his beautiful wife Lydia. But Hermann is addicted to out-of-body experiences and when he meets a tramp on a business trip, he hatches an insane escape plan.
Featuring international stars Dirk Bogarde (Death in Venice) and Andrea Ferreol (La Grande Bouffe) and adapted by British dramatist Tom Stoppard (Shakespeare in Love), Fassbinder's Despair is a vivid off-kilter masterwork set against the background of the Nazis in ascendance.
- Genre:
- Drama
- Country of origin:
- Germany
- Language:
- English
- Feature Aspect Ratio:
- 1.66:1
- Picture:
- Colour
- Sound:
- Dolby Digital
- Region Encoding:
- 2/B
- Catalogue Number:
- PC0038
Extras
- Documentary: The Cinema and Its Double
- Image Gallery
What the press said
“A superb surrealist noir” Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian