The Goalkeeper's Fear of the Penalty

The Goalkeeper's Fear of the Penalty is a 1972 German-language drama film directed by Wim Wenders. It is also known as The Goalie's Anxiety at the Penalty Kick. It was adapted from the novel with the same title by Peter Handke. A goalkeeper is sent off during a game for committing a foul. He spends the night with a cinema cashier, whom he afterwards kills. Although a type of detective film, it is more slow moving and contemplative than other films of the genre. It explores the monotony of the murderer's existence and, like many of Wenders' films, the overwhelming cultural influence of... America in post-war West Germany. Late in the movie, the goalkeeper and a local policeman attend a football game, and witness a penalty kick. The goalkeeper describes what it is like to face a penalty: should he dive to one side, and if he does will the kicker aim for the other? It is a psychological confrontation in which each tries to outfox the other. In parallel with this the goalkeeper, rather than go on the run, has returned to his home town and is living in plain sight.
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