Despair
A hysterical comedy
1978 | 117m | English
Popularity: 0.5 (history)
| Director: | Rainer Werner Fassbinder |
|---|---|
| Writer: | Tom Stoppard, Vladimir Nabokov |
| Staring: |
| 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. | |
| Release Date: | Sep 15, 1978 |
|---|---|
| Director: | Rainer Werner Fassbinder |
| Writer: | Tom Stoppard, Vladimir Nabokov |
| Genres: | Drama, Thriller |
| Keywords | berlin, germany, painter, chocolate, based on novel or book, husband wife relationship, identity, paranoia, identity crisis, businessman, attempt to escape, republic of weimar, alienation, antisemitism, mental illness, madness, assumed identity, doppelgänger, insurance policy, double, vagrant, nazism, 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 |
| Production Companies | Bavaria Studios |
| Box Office |
Revenue: $0
Budget: $2,600,000 |
| Updates |
Updated: Jan 28, 2026 Entered: Apr 20, 2024 |
| Name | Character |
|---|---|
| Dirk Bogarde | Hermann Hermann |
| Andréa Ferréol | Lydia Hermann |
| Klaus Löwitsch | Felix Weber |
| Volker Spengler | Ardalion |
| Bernhard Wicki | Orlovius |
| Armin Meier | Silverman / Sergeant Brown / Foreman |
| Peter Kern | Müller |
| Adrian Hoven | Inspector Schelling |
| Alexander Allerson | Mayer |
| Hark Bohm | Doctor |
| Roger Fritz | Inspector Braun |
| Gottfried John | Perebrodov |
| Y Sa Lo | Elsie |
| Lilo Pempeit | Mrs. Schmidt |
| Ingrid Caven | Hotel Manager |
| Voli Geiler | 1st Landlady |
| Isolde Barth | 2nd Landlady |
| Gitty Djamal | Woman in Pension |
| Harry Baer | Innkeeper |
| Osman Ragheb | Post Office Clerck |
| Hans Zander | Müller's Brother [Scenes Deleted] |
| Name | Job |
|---|---|
| Juliane Lorenz | Editor |
| Lutz Hengst | Production Executive |
| James Willis | Sound Mixer |
| Herbert Strabel | Art Direction |
| Peter Knöpfle | Makeup Artist |
| Elke Vogt | Script Supervisor |
| Don French | Unit Manager |
| Milan Bor | Sound Mixer, Sound Re-Recording Mixer |
| Jochen Schumacher | Art Direction, Set Decoration |
| Any Nöbauer | Makeup Artist |
| Christine Fritz | Assistant Editor |
| Wulf Ghastaus | Unit Manager |
| Lutz Winter | Unit Manager |
| Karin Geuer | Wardrobe Supervisor |
| John Stevenson | Boom Operator |
| Ulrich Wendt | Property Master |
| Dagmar Schauberger | Costume Designer |
| Dieter Minx | Production Supervisor |
| Unica Zürn | In Memory Of |
| Georg Kuhn | Wardrobe Supervisor |
| Karl-Heinz Vogelmann | Still Photographer |
| Klaus Meyenberg | Property Master |
| Stefan Zürcher | Assistant Director |
| Ronald M. Scheich | Assistant Director |
| Rudolf Geiger | Unit Manager |
| Marcel Höhn | Unit Manager |
| Max Dietl | Costume Designer |
| Lothar Tropp | Property Master |
| Rainer Werner Fassbinder | Director, Editor |
| Tom Stoppard | Screenplay |
| Vladimir Nabokov | Novel |
| Michael Ballhaus | Director of Photography |
| Peer Raben | Original Music Composer |
| Rolf Zehetbauer | Production Design |
| Antonin Artaud | In Memory Of |
| Vincent van Gogh | In Memory Of |
| Harry Baer | Assistant Director |
| Name | Title |
|---|---|
| Peter Märthesheimer | Producer |
| Organization | Category | Person |
|---|
Popularity History
| Year | Month | Avg | Max | Min |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024 | 4 | 8 | 18 | 2 |
| 2024 | 5 | 9 | 17 | 5 |
| 2024 | 6 | 9 | 31 | 2 |
| 2024 | 7 | 11 | 18 | 5 |
| 2024 | 8 | 8 | 19 | 5 |
| 2024 | 9 | 4 | 9 | 2 |
| 2024 | 10 | 6 | 16 | 2 |
| 2024 | 11 | 5 | 15 | 2 |
| 2024 | 12 | 4 | 11 | 2 |
| 2025 | 1 | 5 | 11 | 2 |
| 2025 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 1 |
| 2025 | 3 | 2 | 5 | 1 |
| 2025 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 2025 | 5 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 2025 | 6 | 1 | 2 | 1 |
| 2025 | 7 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| 2025 | 8 | 0 | 2 | 0 |
| 2025 | 9 | 2 | 3 | 1 |
| 2025 | 10 | 3 | 4 | 2 |
| 2025 | 11 | 2 | 5 | 1 |
| 2025 | 12 | 1 | 6 | 0 |
| 2026 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Trending Position