berlin, germany,husband wife relationship,based on novel or book,businessman,chocolate,identity,paranoia,identity crisis,attempt to escape,painter,republic of weimar,alienation,antisemitism,mental illness,madness,assumed identity,doppelgänger,insurance policy,double,vagrant,nazism,foreshadowing,russian emigre,murder plot,1930s,perfect murder,self image,film within a film,performative,dissociation,jewish ancestry,jewish wife,rise of fascism,rise of nazism,victimhood

Despair (1978)

Poster for Despair

A hysterical comedy

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.

Cast & Crew

Director
Rainer Werner Fassbinder
  • Profile picture of Dirk Bogarde
    Hermann Hermann Dirk Bogarde
  • Profile picture of Andréa Ferréol
    Lydia Hermann Andréa Ferréol
  • Profile picture of Klaus Löwitsch
    Felix Weber Klaus Löwitsch
  • Profile picture of Volker Spengler
    Ardalion Volker Spengler
  • Profile picture of Bernhard Wicki
    Orlovius Bernhard Wicki
  • Profile picture of Armin Meier
    Silverman / Sergeant Brown / Foreman Armin Meier
  • Profile picture of Peter Kern
    Müller Peter Kern
  • Profile picture of Adrian Hoven
    Inspector Schelling Adrian Hoven

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Keywords

  • berlin, germany
  • husband wife relationship
  • based on novel or book
  • businessman
  • chocolate
  • identity
  • paranoia
  • identity crisis
  • attempt to escape
  • painter
  • republic of weimar
  • alienation
  • antisemitism
  • mental illness
  • madness
  • assumed identity
  • doppelgänger
  • insurance policy
  • double
  • vagrant
  • nazism
  • foreshadowing
  • russian emigre
  • murder plot
  • 1930s
  • perfect murder
  • self image
  • film within a film
  • performative
  • dissociation
  • jewish ancestry
  • jewish wife
  • rise of fascism
  • rise of nazism
  • victimhood