The Goalie’s Anxiety at the Penalty Kick

Karl J. Kipling

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.

Jason

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?

Sean Patrick Stevens

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.

FISCHER

Oeuvre intéressante qui n'arrive pourtant jamais à la qualité et la densité du roman. www.cinefiches.com

Vlad Babei

Enjoyable early Wenders effort.