Despair Page #2

Synopsis: Germany in the early 1930s. Against the backdrop of the Nazis' rise, Hermann Hermann, a Russian émigré and chocolate magnate, goes slowly mad. It begins with his seating himself in a chair to observe himself making love to his wife, Lydia, a zaftig empty-headed siren who is also sleeping with her cousin. Hermann is soon given to intemperate outbursts at his workers, other businessmen, and strangers. Then, he meets Felix, an itinerant laborer, whom he delusionally believes looks exactly like himself. Armed with a new life insurance policy, he hatches an elaborate plot in the belief it will free him of all his worries.
Genre: Drama
  3 wins & 1 nomination.
 
IMDB:
7.4
Rotten Tomatoes:
65%
Year:
1978
119 min
287 Views


I like literature, she likes trash.

I'm clear-thinking, she's scatter-brained.

She's messy...

We are a perfect match!

Like a lock... and a key.

Oh, Hermann!

You talk about life as if it

had some deeper significance!

You be careful, Ardalion!

Be very careful what you say!

Because I think over there

is a man who looks exactly like

...a Viennese quack!

Lydia will be returning,

but only momentarily.

Do you want to make a bet?

She usually goes out twice!

The first time because she's

left her comb on the wash basin

or else she needs some small change...

Ah! Here she comes now.

Look at her! Isn't she wonderful?

Look at her clothes.

Aren't they beautiful?

Her color sense is based

entirely on linguistics.

Brick red goes with cherry red

because, after all, they're both red.

She calls it echoing.

It's the same with her politics, you know?

When they clash, she says they echo.

- Red is red!

- Ooh, what are you two talking about?

Russian politics.

But what can you expect of Bolsheviks?

I couldn't find my lipstick.

You, uh...

dropped it.

I suffer but I never complain.

Ardalion?

Shall I tell you a marital secret?

There are some things which only

a husband and wife know about each other.

I don't think that would

be quite fair to Liddy...

Why not?

It's all in the family. And,

"blood is thicker than water"...

as Lydia is apt to remark so wittily.

- Are you ready?

- No, no.

- I find it most offensive of you to-

- Just as I thought!

You are nothing but a Ukrainian

peasant pretending to be a Bohemian!

Please give me the check.

All right. Tell me then.

She never quite...

puts out her cigarette.

- Orlovious!

- Huh?

My friend says you look like a quack.

He wants to speak to you.

Well, I have more reason than most...

Then you mean you are?

Oh, my dear sir!

Would you mind just talking

shop to me for a moment?

- Not at all but, uh...

- Please, do sit down.

- Thank you.

- No, thank you.

What do you know...?

What do you know about

this subject:
dissociation? Huh?

The, uh... the split person...

The man who stands... outside himself.

I'm thinking of writing a book about

such a person. Maybe two books.

What... what... what does it mean?

What is known about it?

What do you think it means?

Does it only happen when you are drunk?

Me?

What do you make of that... Doctor?

- Sex or violence?

- Oh, please!

Oh, please! Or tell him

he's in love with his mother.

And why shouldn't I be?

She was beautiful and refined.

Pure Russian... of old, princely stock.

I remember, in the summer,

she used to wear lilac silk...

and sit in a rocking chair,

fanning herself.

I seem to hear Chopin.

Rather badly played...

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Tom Stoppard

Sir Tom Stoppard OM CBE FRSL (born Tomáš Straussler; 3 July 1937) is a British playwright and screenwriter, knighted in 1997. He has written prolifically for TV, radio, film and stage, finding prominence with plays such as Arcadia, The Coast of Utopia, Every Good Boy Deserves Favour, Professional Foul, The Real Thing, and Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead. He co-wrote the screenplays for Brazil, The Russia House, and Shakespeare in Love, and has received one Academy Award and four Tony Awards. Themes of human rights, censorship and political freedom pervade his work along with exploration of linguistics and philosophy. Stoppard has been a key playwright of the National Theatre and is one of the most internationally performed dramatists of his generation. more…

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Submitted on August 05, 2018

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