{ "id": "ep8g7bpxg8", "slug": "the-goalies-anxiety-at-the-penalty-kick", "title": "The Goalie's Anxiety at the Penalty Kick", "updated": "2026-11-01", "topic_path": [ { "id": "culture", "label": "Arts and culture", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture" }, { "id": "culture.performance", "label": "Screen and stage", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen", "label": "Film and television", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films", "label": "Films and standalone screen works", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works", "label": "Individual films by title and year", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works" }, { "id": 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"api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.crime-thriller-mystery", "label": "Crime, thriller, and mystery films (individual works)", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.crime-thriller-mystery" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.crime-thriller-mystery.1970s-films", "label": "1970s films", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.crime-thriller-mystery.1970s-films" } ] } ], "excerpt": "The Goalie's Anxiety at the Penalty Kick is a 1972 film by Wim Wenders, adapted from Peter Handke's novel about a goalkeeper who murders a cinema cashier.", "snippet": "The Goalie's Anxiety at the Penalty Kick is a 1972 film by Wim Wenders, adapted from Peter Handke's novel about a goalkeeper who murders a cinema cashier.", "node": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.crime-thriller-mystery.1970s-films", "markdown": "# The Goalie's Anxiety at the Penalty Kick\n\n**The Goalie's Anxiety at the Penalty Kick** (German: *Die Angst des Tormanns beim Elfmeter*) is a 1971/1972 feature film directed by [Wim Wenders](https://www.edgepedia.org/wim-wenders), adapted from [Peter Handke](https://www.edgepedia.org/peter-handke)'s 1970 novel of the same title, in which a goalkeeper sent off during a match drifts through Vienna and murders a cinema cashier without apparent motive.[1](https://www.filmportal.de/film/die-angst-des-tormanns-beim-elfmeter_be78f5a312d04da6973fb367d1bfb45c) It was a co-production of [West Germany](https://www.edgepedia.org/west-germany) and Austria, shot in German, and it won the FIPRESCI prize at the 1972 Venice Film Festival.[2](https://wimwendersstiftung.de/film/die-angst-des-tormanns-beim-elfmeter/)\n\n| Key fact | Detail |\n|---|---|\n| Original title | *Die Angst des Tormanns beim Elfmeter*[1](https://www.filmportal.de/film/die-angst-des-tormanns-beim-elfmeter_be78f5a312d04da6973fb367d1bfb45c) |\n| Director / source | Wim Wenders, from the 1970 novel by Peter Handke; dialogues co-written by Wenders and Handke[1](https://www.filmportal.de/film/die-angst-des-tormanns-beim-elfmeter_be78f5a312d04da6973fb367d1bfb45c) |\n| Production | West Germany/Austria, 1971/1972; produced by Produktion 1 im Filmverlag der Autoren (Munich), Telefilm AG (Vienna), and Westdeutscher Rundfunk[1](https://www.filmportal.de/film/die-angst-des-tormanns-beim-elfmeter_be78f5a312d04da6973fb367d1bfb45c) |\n| Technical data | 100 min (some sources list 101 min), 35 mm, 1:1.37, Eastmancolor, mono sound[1](https://www.filmportal.de/film/die-angst-des-tormanns-beim-elfmeter_be78f5a312d04da6973fb367d1bfb45c) • [3](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0066773/) |\n| Lead cast | Arthur Brauss (Josef Bloch), Erika Pluhar (Gloria), Kai Fischer (Hertha Gabler), Libgart Schwarz[1](https://www.filmportal.de/film/die-angst-des-tormanns-beim-elfmeter_be78f5a312d04da6973fb367d1bfb45c) |\n| Key crew | Cinematography Robby Müller, editing Peter Przygodda, music Jürgen Knieper[1](https://www.filmportal.de/film/die-angst-des-tormanns-beim-elfmeter_be78f5a312d04da6973fb367d1bfb45c) |\n| Award | FIPRESCI Prize, Venice Film Festival 1972[2](https://wimwendersstiftung.de/film/die-angst-des-tormanns-beim-elfmeter/) |\n\n## Spoilers\n\n### Plot\n\nThe goalkeeper Josef Bloch ([Arthur Brauss](https://www.edgepedia.org/arthur-brauss)) is sent off during an away game after a foul and an argument with the referee, an event that throws him completely off balance.[2](https://wimwendersstiftung.de/film/die-angst-des-tormanns-beim-elfmeter/) He wanders aimlessly through Vienna, checks into a hotel, goes to the cinema, and spends the night with the box-office attendant Gloria (Erika Pluhar), whom he strangles the next morning.[1](https://www.filmportal.de/film/die-angst-des-tormanns-beim-elfmeter_be78f5a312d04da6973fb367d1bfb45c)\n\nInstead of turning himself in or fleeing, Bloch travels to the countryside near the Austrian border to stay with his ex-girlfriend Hertha (Kai Fischer) and passively waits there for the police to arrest him.[2](https://wimwendersstiftung.de/film/die-angst-des-tormanns-beim-elfmeter/) He follows the police investigation in the newspapers, which are searching for him, and drifts through conversations with villagers, gamekeepers, customs officials, and hairdressers.[1](https://www.filmportal.de/film/die-angst-des-tormanns-beim-elfmeter_be78f5a312d04da6973fb367d1bfb45c) • [4](https://iffr.com/en/iffr/1972/films/die-angst-des-tormans-beim-elfmeter) At the end, with the police close behind him, he attends a village football match and explains to the spectator beside him how a goalkeeper feels during offensive play and before a penalty kick.[1](https://www.filmportal.de/film/die-angst-des-tormanns-beim-elfmeter_be78f5a312d04da6973fb367d1bfb45c) • [5](https://www.torinofilmfest.org/en/25-torino-film-festival/film/die-angst-des-tormanns-beim-elfmeter/8158/)\n\n## Adaptation and style\n\nWenders described his method in an interview quoted by the Torino Film Festival: \"In Handke's book, each sentence is the description of a frame. I divided the book into scenes and then simply cut these scenes out. I didn't make a reduction, I took the book just as it is.\" He called the result a detective story, though an atypical one, because what matters is not what happens but \"only the way the things happen.\"[5](https://www.torinofilmfest.org/en/25-torino-film-festival/film/die-angst-des-tormanns-beim-elfmeter/8158/)\n\nWenders stated that the visual idiom of [Alfred Hitchcock](https://www.edgepedia.org/alfred-hitchcock)'s films provided the model for the picture, and he followed Handke's \"cinematic\" source text closely.[2](https://wimwendersstiftung.de/film/die-angst-des-tormanns-beim-elfmeter/) The film was made with cinematographer Robby Müller and editor Peter Przygodda, both of whom had already worked with Wenders on his graduation film at the Hochschule für Fernsehen und Film in Munich; the collaboration begun here held the team together for years.[2](https://wimwendersstiftung.de/film/die-angst-des-tormanns-beim-elfmeter/) The *Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung* praised \"his technique of using images to keep the plot intact,\" calling the film a milestone of young German cinema.[2](https://wimwendersstiftung.de/film/die-angst-des-tormanns-beim-elfmeter/)\n\nThe soundtrack relies heavily on American rock and pop songs, much of it played from jukeboxes, including [Roy Orbison](https://www.edgepedia.org/roy-orbison)'s \"Dream Baby (How Long Must I Dream)\" and [The Tokens](https://www.edgepedia.org/the-tokens)' \"[The Lion Sleeps Tonight](https://www.edgepedia.org/the-lion-sleeps-tonight).\"[3](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0066773/) • [6](https://www.goethe.de/prj/gfo/en/kal/ver/ndf/ang.html)\n\n## Production and release history\n\nShooting ran from 19 August to 28 October 1971 in Vienna, in Jennersdorf near Graz, and in the [Burgenland](https://www.edgepedia.org/burgenland).[2](https://wimwendersstiftung.de/film/die-angst-des-tormanns-beim-elfmeter/) German public television WDR was the main sponsor, a co-production structure between cinema and television that, as Wenders noted, did not yet exist in today's form.[7](https://www.flushthefashion.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/THE-GOALIES-ANXIETY-AT-THE-PENALTY-KICK-premiere-screening-press-release....pdf) The film passed German FSK censorship on 21 December 1971 (approved from age 12) and had its first German television broadcast on 29 February 1972 on ARD.[1](https://www.filmportal.de/film/die-angst-des-tormanns-beim-elfmeter_be78f5a312d04da6973fb367d1bfb45c)\n\n**Music rights and restoration.** Wenders's use of American songs had been cleared only for German distribution. As the film went on to an international career, winning the International Film Critics' Award at his first festival in Venice in 1972 and screening at MoMA in New York, the music rights became an obstacle to distributing it abroad.[7](https://www.flushthefashion.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/THE-GOALIES-ANXIETY-AT-THE-PENALTY-KICK-premiere-screening-press-release....pdf) The problem kept the film effectively unavailable internationally for almost 45 years.[8](https://theartsdesk.com/film/dvdblu-ray-goalies-anxiety-penalty-kick) A 4K restoration with a new sound mix was completed in 2014; tracks that would have been prohibitively expensive to clear were removed from the surviving mono mix and replaced with newly composed, stylistically matching material, with [Van Morrison](https://www.edgepedia.org/van-morrison)'s \"Gloria,\" which plays over a fight scene, retained after Morrison granted the rights for free.[2](https://wimwendersstiftung.de/film/die-angst-des-tormanns-beim-elfmeter/) • [8](https://theartsdesk.com/film/dvdblu-ray-goalies-anxiety-penalty-kick) The restored version screened at the Berlinale in 2015.[9](https://www.cinema.de/film/die-angst-des-tormanns-beim-elfmeter%2C91136.html)\n\n## Place in Wenders's career\n\nSources differ on the film's ordinal place in Wenders's feature filmography. The Wim Wenders Stiftung calls it his debut feature (*Erstlingsfilm*),[2](https://wimwendersstiftung.de/film/die-angst-des-tormanns-beim-elfmeter/) while the [Museum of Modern Art](https://www.edgepedia.org/museum-of-modern-art) and the Goethe-Institut describe it as his second feature, after *Summer in the City* (1970).[6](https://www.goethe.de/prj/gfo/en/kal/ver/ndf/ang.html) The Torino Film Festival's biography likewise calls it his first feature film and credits it with bringing him to the attention of international critics, ahead of his \"road trilogy\" of 1974 to 1976.[5](https://www.torinofilmfest.org/en/25-torino-film-festival/film/die-angst-des-tormanns-beim-elfmeter/8158/)\n\nThe film also began Wenders's long collaboration with Peter Handke, the Austrian writer who received the [Nobel Prize in Literature](https://www.edgepedia.org/nobel-prize-in-literature) in 2019 and who co-wrote the dialogues here and later the screenplays for *Wrong Move* (1975) and *Wings of Desire* (1987).[1](https://www.filmportal.de/film/die-angst-des-tormanns-beim-elfmeter_be78f5a312d04da6973fb367d1bfb45c) • [10](https://press.moma.org/wp-content/files_mf/wimwenders_screeningschedule.pdf) Critics have read the film as an existential crime story in the shadow of Hitchcock and of [Albert Camus](https://www.edgepedia.org/albert-camus)'s *L'Étranger*, and as an early statement of the American-inflected imagery that ran through Wenders's later work.[6](https://www.goethe.de/prj/gfo/en/kal/ver/ndf/ang.html) • [11](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2018/jul/13/the-goalies-anxiety-at-the-penalty-kick-review-wim-wenders)\n\n## References\n\n1. [Die Angst des Tormanns beim Elfmeter, filmportal.de (Deutsches Filminstitut)](https://www.filmportal.de/film/die-angst-des-tormanns-beim-elfmeter_be78f5a312d04da6973fb367d1bfb45c)\n2. [Die Angst des Tormanns beim Elfmeter, Wim Wenders Stiftung](https://wimwendersstiftung.de/film/die-angst-des-tormanns-beim-elfmeter/)\n3. [The Goalie's Anxiety at the Penalty Kick (1972), IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0066773/)\n4. [Die Angst des Tormans beim Elfmeter, International Film Festival Rotterdam 1972](https://iffr.com/en/iffr/1972/films/die-angst-des-tormans-beim-elfmeter)\n5. [Die Angst des Tormanns beim Elfmeter, Torino Film Festival](https://www.torinofilmfest.org/en/25-torino-film-festival/film/die-angst-des-tormanns-beim-elfmeter/8158/)\n6. [New Directors/New Films: The Goalie's Anxiety at the Penalty Kick, Goethe-Institut / German Film Office](https://www.goethe.de/prj/gfo/en/kal/ver/ndf/ang.html)\n7. [Wim Wenders on the music for The Goalie's Anxiety at the Penalty Kick, press release (Flush the Fashion)](https://www.flushthefashion.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/THE-GOALIES-ANXIETY-AT-THE-PENALTY-KICK-premiere-screening-press-release....pdf)\n8. [DVD/Blu-ray: The Goalie's Anxiety at the Penalty Kick, The Arts Desk (Tom Birchenough, 2018)](https://theartsdesk.com/film/dvdblu-ray-goalies-anxiety-penalty-kick)\n9. [Die Angst des Tormanns beim Elfmeter (BRD 1972), cinema.de](https://www.cinema.de/film/die-angst-des-tormanns-beim-elfmeter%2C91136.html)\n10. [Wim Wenders screening schedule, MoMA press](https://press.moma.org/wp-content/files_mf/wimwenders_screeningschedule.pdf)\n11. [Peter Bradshaw, \"The Goalie's Anxiety at the Penalty Kick review,\" The Guardian, 13 July 2018](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2018/jul/13/the-goalies-anxiety-at-the-penalty-kick-review-wim-wenders)\n\n---\n*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Crime, thriller, and mystery films (individual works) › 1970s films*\n\n*Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*\n\n*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*\n\nLicense: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license\n", "same_as": [], "url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/the-goalies-anxiety-at-the-penalty-kick", "markdown_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/the-goalies-anxiety-at-the-penalty-kick.md", "license": { "name": "Edgepedia Community License 1.0", "url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license", "summary": "Free with credit, commercial use included. AI training is open to everyone. For other uses, organizations over USD 100M in revenue or 100M monthly users license separately.", "spdx": "LicenseRef-Edgepedia-Community-1.0" }, "credit": "\"The Goalie's Anxiety at the Penalty Kick\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), https://www.edgepedia.org/the-goalies-anxiety-at-the-penalty-kick. Edgepedia Community License 1.0.", "credit_md": "\"[The Goalie's Anxiety at the Penalty Kick](https://www.edgepedia.org/the-goalies-anxiety-at-the-penalty-kick)\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), [https://www.edgepedia.org/the-goalies-anxiety-at-the-penalty-kick](https://www.edgepedia.org/the-goalies-anxiety-at-the-penalty-kick). [Edgepedia Community License 1.0](https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license).", "credit_html": "\"The Goalie's Anxiety at the Penalty Kick\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), https://www.edgepedia.org/the-goalies-anxiety-at-the-penalty-kick. Edgepedia Community License 1.0.", "speakable": "The Goalie's Anxiety at the Penalty Kick is a 1972 film by Wim Wenders, adapted from Peter Handke's novel about a goalkeeper who murders a cinema cashier." }