Rating: 
Summary: BEWARE VIGILANTE PRESS AND POLICE
Review: Although first released in 1975, THE LOST HONOR OF KATHARINA BLUM (Criterion) grows more relevant every day. Adapted from a political parable by Nobel Prize for literature winner Heinrich Boll (1917-1985), The Lost Honor Honor of Katharina Blum is a searing examination of the power of the Press and the State to persecute. On the morning after a one-night stand, the police burst into Blum's apartment looking for her lover, an alleged terrorist. He is gone and Blum is arrested for aiding and hiding a fugitive. The media focus, the ruthless interrogation by the police and the greed driven feeding frenzy of the tabloid press turns Blum's life upside down. Angela Winkler gives a bold and compassionate performance as the put-upon Katharina Blum who finally explodes in defense of her own sanity. This great film, tense and meaningful, is laced with dark humor. Extras include a new video interview with directors Volker Schlondorff and Margarethe von Trotta and master cinematographer Jost Vacano. Also, excerpts from a 1977 documentary on German author and activist Boll. Highly recommended.
Rating:
Summary: BEWARE VIGILANTE PRESS AND POLICE
Review: Although first released in 1975, THE LOST HONOR OF KATHARINA BLUM (Criterion) grows more relevant every day. Adapted from a political parable by Nobel Prize for literature winner Heinrich Boll (1917-1985), The Lost Honor Honor of Katharina Blum is a searing examination of the power of the Press and the State to persecute. On the morning after a one-night stand, the police burst into Blum's apartment looking for her lover, an alleged terrorist. He is gone and Blum is arrested for aiding and hiding a fugitive. The media focus, the ruthless interrogation by the police and the greed driven feeding frenzy of the tabloid press turns Blum's life upside down. Angela Winkler gives a bold and compassionate performance as the put-upon Katharina Blum who finally explodes in defense of her own sanity. This great film, tense and meaningful, is laced with dark humor. Extras include a new video interview with directors Volker Schlondorff and Margarethe von Trotta and master cinematographer Jost Vacano. Also, excerpts from a 1977 documentary on German author and activist Boll. Highly recommended.
Rating: 
Summary: Very Important Film To See.....
Review: As I was watching this movie I couldn't help but be reminded of another story - 'the Trial' by Franz Kafka. Like 'the Trial's' main character, Joseph K, Katherina is a victim to a corrupt bearucratic system based upon ruining someone's life for the sake of others.
Whereas, I did not like 'the Tin Drum', Katherina Blum struck me very deeply - maybe because it is so real and relevent.
Along with this film I would recommend Fassbinder's 'Mother Kusters goes to Heaven' (a similar story about tabloid journalism following a tragedy).
Rating:
Summary: don't believe everything you read
Review: German director Volker Schlondorff's adaptation of the novel by Heinrich Boll is a terrifying indictment of the perversion of "freedom of the press". Although all Katharina Blum appears to be guilty of is picking up a man from a party, that one night causes her notoriety when it turns out the man is an army deserter and a thief. It is assumed Katharina is suspect by association, and her life is scrutinised by the police and the "gutter" press, every nuance projected with ulterior motive. The police here are as much to blame for Katharina's nightmare, since they feed the press the details of her life and the press subsequently interpret them to present her in the most damaging way. The press' justification for humiliating her is that the public has a right to know, but whose life doesn't feature things to be misconstrued, or aspects that are so private that they cannot be explained? The point that the newspaper publishing articles about her is considered "gutter" doesn't alter the potency of the effect it has. The reactions of the public to Katharina demonstrates our willingness to believe the worst about celebrity, and the vicious food cycle of press and it's readership. Katharina's employer tells her that no one takes the paper seriously but she replies that everyone she knows reads it. The horror of this tale is the way Katharina eventually acts to restore her lost sense of honour, which ironically makes her a tragic figure, her story evidence of the cruelty of fate. Schlondorff undoubedly knows that this material is gothic enough without needing to highten it further with effects, and he presents it simply, with discrete almost inperceptible music. As Katharina, Angela Winkler has the ordinary look of her mousy housemaid, but also the dark eyes of someone with hidden depths.
Rating:
Summary: Love scrutinized by ruthless media...
Review: Lost Honor of Katharina Blum is a contemporary love story about Katharina and Ludwig who fall in love at first sight at a party. After the party Ludwig spends the night with Katharina and when Katharina wakes up in the morning the police barge into the apartment in order to arrest Ludwig who is a wanted terrorist. The police are unsympathetic to Katharina's needs and rights as they discover that Ludwig has evaded the long arm of the police. This becomes the initial step towards a long humiliating suffering for Katharina as the press and media drag her reputation through the gutter. This film is a tribute to democracy as it displays the importance of information distribution and the responsibility that the press and media carry. Lost Honor of Katharina Blum is an intricate story where love drives the plot and engages the audience. However, the simplicity of the story steers the audience toward several subplots and cerebrally engaging notions, morals, and values. This results in a brilliant cinematic experience that will keep the audience mesmerized.
Rating:
Summary: Love scrutinized by ruthless media...
Review: Lost Honor of Katharina Blum is a contemporary love story about Katharina and Ludwig who fall in love at first sight at a party. After the party Ludwig spends the night with Katharina and when Katharina wakes up in the morning the police barge into the apartment in order to arrest Ludwig who is a wanted terrorist. The police are unsympathetic to Katharina's needs and rights as they discover that Ludwig has evaded the long arm of the police. This becomes the initial step towards a long humiliating suffering for Katharina as the press and media drag her reputation through the gutter. This film is a tribute to democracy as it displays the importance of information distribution and the responsibility that the press and media carry. Lost Honor of Katharina Blum is an intricate story where love drives the plot and engages the audience. However, the simplicity of the story steers the audience toward several subplots and cerebrally engaging notions, morals, and values. This results in a brilliant cinematic experience that will keep the audience mesmerized.
Rating: 
Summary: Great novel. Horrid adaptation.
Review: The Lost Honor of Katharina Blum (Volker Schlondorff, 1975) Schlondorff (The Handmaid's Tale, Homo Faber, Swann in Love, etc.) directs his and Margarthe von Trotta's adaptation of Heinrich Boll's novel, and in the process shows us a treatise on how not to make a crime film. Katharina Blum (The Tin Drum's Angela Winkler, perhaps the only good thing about the film) suddenly finds herself pursued by the police and tabloid journalists after being linked to a terrorist (Jurgen Prochnow, who has so little screen time he never really gets a chance to act). They think she's in league with him; she claims he was a one-night stand. The movie's tension turns on the basic question of which one of them is telling the correct tale, and how much harassment Katharina is going to take before snapping. The wonder of Boll's novel is that it takes this premise (which should be familiar to readers of Kafka's The Trial) and turns it on his head; the novel opens with the climax, then takes us back to the preceding events to make us understand how she got there. The film ignores this opening, putting the climax at the end. In order to increase the mystery factor, I guess. Problem is it doesn't. All it does is confuse the picture, so we have little idea one way or the other what's going on through most of the film. (The film is also much clearer about the question of Katharina's innocence/guilt, which takes much of the fun out of it all.) Winkler is a fine actress, and the one thing that might make this worth watching again; everything else about it is quite pedestrian. **
Rating:
Summary: Woman's life is destroyed by ruthless tabloid stories
Review: This is one of a handful of German productions of the 1970s critically acclaimed by world cinema. "Die verlorene Ehre der Katerina Blum" tells of the seemingly innocent love affair of a young woman with a man who turns out to be a fugitive bank robber. Twisting and turning the story to make it more "readable" a tabloid reporter shamelessly destroys the woman's reputation, even leading to her arrest as an "accomplice" to the crimes committed by her "boyfriend". The film shows in detail how the situation impacts many people, including Katerina's employers, neighbors, family memebers. All speak highly of her, yet the newspapers always manage to print distorted facts, embellishments and outright lies. The ending, though unexpected and shocking, will satisfy the viewer, who by now completely empathises with the title character who had been "railroaded" by the press for no other purpose than to sell more papers. A five star classic!***
Rating:
Summary: Breathtaking movie !
Review: This is one the most appreciated gems in the german cinema of the middle seventies.
The bitter and unstopable process of decay in Katherine Blum is described with vivid expression , overwhelmong camera work and superb script .
You will watch a depressive movie and a mature picture . Tasefully made but without any drop of oversimplifications and
ornaments . The film is incisive and direct . It plays hard with the sensibility of the viewer . So beware with this movie .
Extraordinary film and undoubtedly a master gem of this brilliant director , unfortunately missed in the present time : Wolker Schlondorff.
Rating:
Summary: The Power of the Press
Review: This movie stems from a time when German movie making was at its zenith, in the 70s and early 80s. The script of this film is very true to the book of the same title, written by the German Nobel Laureate Heinrich Boell. A woman, who has had a brief affair with a man supsected to be a left-wing terrorist is arrested by the police, who want to link her to terrorism as well. Despite the aggressive attempts by the interrogating police officers to talk her into submission and to strip her of her dignity, they fail to produce anything of value to their alleged case. The press, however, (symbolized as a sensation-hungry tabloid, modelled after the German daily "Bild") manages in a smear campaign to "indict" her in public. This is a very powerful, maybe a little bit outdated movie, where an incredibly great cast had been assembled: Angela winkler in the title role (she also stars in "The Tin Drum"), Mario Adorf as a police officer, and Heinz Bennent.
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