Knife in the Head

Knife in the Head
	Film poster
Directed by	Reinhard Hauff
Produced by	Wolf-Dietrich Brücker; Eberhard Junkersdorf;
Written by	Reinhard Hauff; Peter Schneider;
Starring	Bruno Ganz
Cinematography	Frank Brühne
Edited by	Peter Przygodda
Release date	1978;
Running time	108 minutes
Country	West Germany
Language	German

Knife in the Head (German: Messer im Kopf) is a 1978 West German drama film directed by Reinhard Hauff and starring Bruno Ganz. The film follows the recovery of a man shot in the head by the police during the raid of a left-wing social centre. It won awards in Paris and Berlin.

Plot

Knife in the Head begins with a police raid on a left-wing social centre in which Berthold Hoffmann is seriously injured. His wife Ann Hoffmann and her friend Volker visit him in hospital and discover that he is brain damaged. The doctors say he needs time to recover, but the police are eager to interview him. The film then becomes a chart of his slow recovery of what happened during the raid. For his supporters it is clear that Hoffmann was shot by a police officer and that the state is repressive, whilst the police led by Anleitner seek to prove a conspiracy led by Hoffmann.

Cast

Bruno Ganz as Berthold Hoffmann
Angela Winkler as Ann Hoffmann
Hans Christian Blech as Anleitner
Heinz Hoenig as Volker
Hans Brenner as Scholz
Udo Samel as Schurig
Eike Gallwitz as Dr. Groeske
Carla Egerer as Schwester Angelika
Gabriele Dossi as Schwester Emilie
Hans Fuchs as Chefarzt
Gert Burkard as Institutsdirektor
Erich Kleiber as Pförtner
Karl-Heinz Merz as Patient (as Karl Heinz Merz)
Ursel Lessoing as Frau Schurig
Heinz Hürländer as Kommissar (as Heinz Hurlander)

Critical response

The film was released in 1978. Roger Ebert gave it three stars, saying it "isn't a straightforward leftist political tract; it's much more subtle than that".[1] Writing in the New York Times, Vincent Canby called the ending "both a shock and thoroughly satisfying".[2] The film was nominated for Best Foreign Language Film of the year by the U.S. National Board of Review.[3] Reinhard Hauff won award at festivals in Berlin and Paris for the film.[4][5]

References

Ebert, Roger. "Knife in the Head movie review (1978)". rogerebert.com. Archived from the original on 20 September 2020. Retrieved 28 October 2020.
Canby, Vincent (23 April 1980). "Screen: German 'Knife in the Head': Meditation on Survival". The New York Times. p. C24. Archived from the original on 19 January 2019. Retrieved 17 January 2019.
"1980 Award Winners". National Board of Review of Motion Pictures. 2016. Archived from the original on 28 February 2019. Retrieved 17 January 2019.
Blumenberg, Hans C. (1980). Kinozeit: Aufsätze und Kritiken zum modernen Film 1976–1980 (in German). Fischer-Taschenbuch-Verlag. p. 171. ISBN 978-3-596-23664-0.
Bock, ans-Michael; Bergfelder, im (September 2009). The Concise Cinegraph: Encyclopaedia of German Cinema. Berghahn Books. p. 188. ISBN 978-0-85745-565-9.

External links

Knife in the Head at IMDb

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[Ebert-1] Ebert, Roger. "Knife in the Head movie review (1978)". rogerebert.com. Archived from the original on 20 September 2020. Retrieved 28 October 2020.

[Canby-2] Canby, Vincent (23 April 1980). "Screen: German 'Knife in the Head': Meditation on Survival". The New York Times. p. C24. Archived from the original on 19 January 2019. Retrieved 17 January 2019.

[3] "1980 Award Winners". National Board of Review of Motion Pictures. 2016. Archived from the original on 28 February 2019. Retrieved 17 January 2019.

[Kinozeit-4] Blumenberg, Hans C. (1980). Kinozeit: Aufsätze und Kritiken zum modernen Film 1976–1980 (in German). Fischer-Taschenbuch-Verlag. p. 171. ISBN 978-3-596-23664-0.

[CC-5] Bock, ans-Michael; Bergfelder, im (September 2009). The Concise Cinegraph: Encyclopaedia of German Cinema. Berghahn Books. p. 188. ISBN 978-0-85745-565-9.