A goalkeeper is sent off during a game for committing a foul. Lost and lonely, he spends the night with a cinema cashier, only things don’t go as planned…
This film is not currently playing on MUBI but 30 other great films are. See what’s now showing
The Goalie’s Anxiety at the Penalty KickDirected byWim Wenders
Just saw the restoration in a theatre. Had seen the VHS many years ago and been disappointed. Not only had I been a huge Wenders acolyte, but I had been obsessed in my early teens w/ a plot synopsis of GOALIE'S in my friend's dad's TIME OUT FILM GUIDE. Somehow back then the movie itself was not equal to the movie I had in my head. Looking at it now, it is like an impossible dream come true. What was I thinking?
One of cinema's great feature debuts. Helped enormously by the hand of Peter Handke, from his novella, but Handke and Wenders re-imagine the quietly simmering lunacy of the book in cinematic terms. Repetitions, objects as ominous signs, cryptic fragments of conversation, a stray inexplicable murder, and Jürgen Knieper's magnificent score.
Saw the 4k restoration with somewhat different music for legal reasons and it looked as good as a 1972 film can. It's still a hard film to warm to (not unlike Antonioni's THE PASSENGER) but as it chugs along the main character's quizzical behavior ended up intriging me enough to give the main conceit credibility.
I like how he says the waitresses shoes would be fashionable in any other colour and then we see them again but in white and he is right! They are nice shoes I wonder if I can find some like them anywhere???