Despair

"Despair" (1978) (Rainer Werner Fassbinder) Fassbinder's first English language film adapted from a Vladimir Nabokov novel by Tom Stoppard and shot by long time Fassbinder collaborating DP Michael Ballhaus. ""Despair" is set in dreary, 1930 Berlin, where an unbalanced Russian emigre's personal life and chocolate business have both grown bitter. Although his delightfully sensuous and bovine wife (Andrea Ferreol) is a constant source of amusement, something is very wrong in Hermann Hermann's (Dirk Bogarde) world. Then it happens; his psyche splits in two. He becomes two Hermanns as his double surname suggests. This dissociation from reality leads Hermann down a hypnotic and humorous path towards lunacy and eventually to his own poignant and neurotic doom. In order for the dislocated Hermann to break out of his stifling existence, he hatches an ill-conceived plot to stage what would appear to be his own murder and then collect the insurance policy. However, Hermann's scheme to grab the money and run off with his wife becomes totally unravelled when he choses a poor carnival worker as his double in the murder plot. Hermann, in his demented state, is not aware that the carnival worker l

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