The yearning of Veronika Voss

Movie
Original title	The yearning of Veronika Voss
Country of production	Germany
original language	German
Publishing year	1982
length	100 minutes
Age rating	FSK 16
Rod
Director	Rainer Werner Fassbinder
script	Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Pea Fröhlich , Peter Märthesheimer
production	Thomas Schühly
music	Peer ravens
camera	Xaver Schwarzenberger
cut	Juliane Lorenz
occupation
Rosel Zech : Veronika Voss Hilmar Thate : Robert Krohn Cornelia Froboess : Henriette Annemarie Düringer : Dr. Marianne Katz Doris Schade : Josefa Erik Schumann : Dr. Noble Johanna Hofer : Old woman Peter Berling : film producer Günther Kaufmann : GI dealer Liselotte Eder : boss Herbert Steinmetz : Gardener Elisabeth Volkmann : Grete Hans Wyprächtiger : Editor-in-Chief Peter Zadek : 2nd director Rudolf Platte : Old Man Armin Mueller-Stahl : Max Rehbein Rainer Werner Fassbinder : Moviegoers Harry Baer : Head Waiter
chronology
←  Predecessor The marriage of Maria Braun Successor  → Lola

The longing of Veronika Voss is the second feature film in the BRD trilogy from 1982 by Rainer Werner Fassbinder . The role of Veronika Voss is played by Rosel Zech . Hilmar Thate embodies the main male role of sports reporter Robert Krohn .

The film does not tell the story in a documentary way, but is strongly based on actual events from the last years of the life of the German UFA actress Sybille Schmitz . She was one of Fassbinder's favorite actresses. In his synopsis he writes that the film is “an attempt at a 'German' crime film without the usual squint at American or French works of this genre”.

action

On a rainy night in Munich in the mid-1950s, sports reporter Robert Krohn meets formerly successful UFA actress Veronika Voss. She wants to see him again soon. Krohn is not only interested in the unusual woman professionally, but he soon finds out that there are obviously some highly problematic entanglements in her life. Veronika Voss is trapped in her dream world as a successful UFA actress, which she is no longer, and dependent on a doctor who is after her fortune and therefore supplies her with morphine. Krohn only gradually reveals Veronika Voss' situation in life. Wanting to convict the doctor, he sends his partner Henriette to the doctor, but her camouflage is recognized and she is killed in a fictitious car accident. Veronika Voss will also eventually die: locked in a room with no morphine, with a drawer full of sleeping pills , she takes her own life.

Trivia

In some scenes there is a soft sound in the background, once trilled by Günther Kaufmann and another time when the police in Dr. Marianne Katz appears, playing the country song Sixteen Tons on a radio . In another scene, Rosel Zech sings the pop song Memories Are Made of This in a salon with piano accompaniment .

The film premiered on February 18, 1982 at the Berlin International Film Festival , and the film was first shown on German television on January 16, 1985 at 8:15 p.m. on ARD .

Awards

• Golden Bear at the Berlinale 1982

Above all, the acting performance of Rosel Zech brought the film extremely good reviews and made the actress a star overnight.

Reviews

"Fassbinder's penultimate film, which paints an illusion-free picture of the Federal Republic, whereby the use of melodramatic stylistic devices seems somewhat artificial"

- Heyne Film Lexicon, 1996

Web links

• Review by U. Behrens, filmzentrale
• Veronika Voss in the Internet Movie Database (English)
• The longing of Veronika Voss ( Memento from 7 July 2013 in the Internet Archive ), film and background information, Rainer Werner Fassbinder Foundation, Berlin
• The yearning of Veronika Voss at Filmportal.de

Individual evidence

1. ^ Filmdienst.de, and Spiegel.de .