Tabloid and state collusion, press freedom and awful cardigans: The Lost Honour Of Katharina Blum

The Garden Cinema Film Talk

This week, we welcomed a group of screenwriting and film students from City Lit to watch The Lost Honour of Katharina Blum, directed by Margarethe von Trotta and Volker Schlondorff and based on the book by Heinrich Boll.

Blum a young woman living in West Germany in the 70s finds her life falling into ruins after she falls prey to a vicious smear campaign by the police and a ruthless journalist, testing the limits of her sanity.

The film is an open critique of media manipulation and demonisation, and the misuse of state power - a critique which finds many echoes in the instances of collusion between the state, the police and the tabloids today. Our students share their thoughts about the film and its legacy.

We discuss the ways in which the debate over the role of ex-Nazis in authority in the 70s was shut down, how American and British films of the time dealt with similar subject matter and THAT awful cardigan.

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