A goalkeeper Josef Bloch is ejected during a game for foul play. He leaves the field and goes to spend the night with a cinema cashier.

Plot Synopsis:
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Based on the 1970 novella by Peter Handke, Wim Wenders' The Goalie's Anxiety at the Penalty Kick, completed in 1972, documents the warped journey of athlete Josef Bloch (Arthur Brauss) as he slowly and unhysterically transitions from a professional football goalie to a peripatetic madman.

In Vienna. After being ejected from a football match for missing a penalty kick, and angrily resisting what he sees as a bad call, Bloch takes a trolley to a cinema, where he buys his ticket from a female cashier (Erika Pluhar). He watches a Western. Later that night, he books a room, and lazily fiddles with a television on the front desk to catch a re-cap of the day's game. After checking in, he goes outdoors to make a phone call. Despite being told that the payphone isnt working, he tries to call someone anyway, only to fail. Weary, he then waits outside the same cinema he visited earlier in the day, and watches the female cashier get into a car and drive off. Back at the hotel, he asks for a paper. Not having any, the hotel clerk offers him a crime novel instead, but Bloch has walked away by the time he returns with the text. Bloch goes to bed.

At breakfast the next morning, he scans the local newspaper, searching for the football game results. He takes a brief walk and enters a sports bar; Roy Orbison's "Dream Baby" is blaring from a jukebox, and many pictures of footballers adorn the walls. While looking at the pictures, Bloch strikes up a conversation with a girl standing beside him, and tells her of a former teammate who disappeared after moving to play football in the United States. The two go walking to the girl's apartment building and, while riding the elevator to her room, he touches her suggestively. After a time, they are on the street once more, where they part. Bloch continues his search for the football match results, taking in street attractions and merchant booths along the way. While walking through a dark alley, he is the victim of an attempted mugging; one stopped short by the appearance of passers-by. Shaken, Bloch continues on his way through town, ultimately arriving at the same cinema he visited earlier. He chats briefly with the same female cashier, gets a ticket for a seat with extra legroom, and watches a movie about counterfeiters.

After the movie, he stands in a dark alley adjacent to the theater, waiting once more for the cashier to leave. This time, he follows the girl onto a bus, first sitting behind her before boldly moving to her front. Though she appears not to notice him at first, when both get off at the same spot, she allows him to accompany her to her residence, where they then have sex. The next morning, Bloch is the first up. He opens her blinds, and sees (and hears) that she lives near an airfield. While she sleeps, Bloch takes a shower, his face betokening a mix of relaxation and disturbed contemplation. Bloch's shower wakes the girl who, over breakfast preparations, tells Bloch of a recurring dream of hers in which she wears a dress made of money that breaks out into flames at odd intervals. After switching on some Top-40 rock music, she prepares to run errands; Bloch requests that she bring him back a paper. While eating breakfast, formal introductions are made: Josef Bloch, professional goalkeeper; and Gloria, cinema cashier. Gloria remarks that she thought Bloch a boxer first, due to his many bruises. They continue to talk, with Gloria relating a tale of watching a football match with a former beau, and Bloch recalling a flub made during a game, along with his football-related travels to South America and the United States. He takes an interest in one of the postcards Gloria has posted by her mirror. Laid out on her bed, she says she's a collector. Bloch drops the postcard and joins her, stiffly reacting to the playful strangling motions she directs his way with one of her ropes. Suddenly, Bloch reaches out and chokes Gloria dead.

We find him next sprawled out on Gloria's carpet, groggy. Aware of what he has done, Bloch wipes every utensil and every surface free of his fingerprints, and swipes the American currency lying on Gloria's table. He then returns to the hotel from two nights ago. After paying the 300 shilling bill, Bloch curiously fakes punching the hotel clerk before walking away. He enters the cinema once more, is found to be sleeping in the seats and is asked to leave. Angrily, Bloch knocks the concessionaire's flashlight from his hands and storms away. The concessionaire files a complaint and, when questioned later by the local police, Bloch reluctantly professes to not intending to knock the flashlight away, saying it was just a reflex. Later, Bloch boards a bus and, in the process of sitting down beside an old woman (Rosl Dorena), American coins spill out of his jacket. When the woman looks at him askance, Bloch casually passes off the coins as money left over from his time spent playing football in the United States. During a long bus ride through the countryside, Bloch completes a crossword puzzle and temporarily disembarks at a country bar, where he plays one record on its jukebox before re-boarding the bus. He rides until arriving at the bus terminus, listening to American rock n roll on his pocket radio. Once off the bus, Bloch finds a free room at a hotel. While being shown to his room (upstairs, adjacent to a bowling alley), Bloch asks the hotel girl if she knows an acquaintance of his, one Hertha Gabler (Kai Fischer). The girl replies to the affirmative, saying Gabler leases the Border Inn by the customs border. The next morning, the townspeople speak of a local handicapped boy who has been missing for three days. Bloch takes a newspaper, and finds that the mysterious murder of a female cinema cashier is front page news. He quickly hides the page, and reads the story of the missing cripple. He then leaves the hotel, and enquires for directions to the Border Inn.

After receiving very detailed directions from two women in a store. Bloch has one of them mend his jacket; he also buys shirts. Outside, a cop car drives by, and Bloch becomes visibly worried. He leaves town, and walks on the roadside until he reaches the Border Inn. When he arrives, he is informed by the Inn's female employee that Gabler is sleeping; he orders a beer, establishes that he knew Gabler in days past, and listens as the employee tells him of a man from out of town who tried to force himself on Gabler under the guise of wanting to dig a well, and wanting to see the Inn's cellar. While waiting for Gabler, Bloch finds an unplugged jukebox, activates it, and plays more '50s rock. When Gabler arrives, she says that she saw his name in the paper recently. He's taking a break from the game, he says. She talks about the make-up she dons when out at night, and how it covers her up well. Bloch says he'd know her still by her blue eyes. Before leaving, he helps Gabler move furniture, and says hell stop by again in the morning. While walking by a one-room schoolhouse, Bloch comes upon an old man chopping wood. The man criticizes the local school system, and bemoans how kids today cant speak one proper, original sentence; it's all rote memorization, he argues. The next morning, Bloch mails a postcard at Gabler's; while entering Gabler's place, he grimaces at the weird smell outside. Gabler says one of the neighbors just died. Bloch asks of border guards, rent, and what number Gabler starts with when counting. He says he doesn't count the ones anymore, and adds that he almost got run over this morning while crossing the street for he only saw the second car. Gabler's young daughter, who has been easily frightened ever since the cellar incident, runs in and complains about the dead flies the neighborhood boys have placed under her pillow. Gabler explains to Bloch that the neighborhood boys are staying over until the body is buried, and shoos her girl away. After asking how country people do their loving, Bloch remarks that he saw a woman with a spot of blood on her dress two days back.

The next morning at the hotel, Bloch strikes up a conversation with some locals who are interested in the appraisal of items. Bloch then gets a haircut, telling the two women in the shop (Monika Poschl, Sybille Danzer) that he places more trust in male hairdressers. The two women laugh, and say that they had bet on him being either a goalie or a boxer, and both admit to enjoying standing behind goalies and making them nervous. Bloch says he wouldn't be made nervous so easily. He then wanders through the countryside, passing the time staring into a stream. Later, after telling his host at the hotel that he'll pay for the room in the evening, he attends a football practice and exercises behind the goalie, shadowing his movements. Back at the hotel, he wakes up during the night and barfs into his sink. When he arrives late to breakfast the next morning, he admits to the hotel girl that he likes the place.

Nevertheless, he becomes very much concerned by a headline in the paper announcing that the cripple boy was found dead in the same stream he stared at the day before. He tries phoning a Mr. Schneider, asks of a football practice, has a difficult time comprehending what is said to him, and is then disconnected. Later, in a meat shop, Bloch laughs with the butcher at the news that the cripple boy's bloated body was mistaken for a mattress, and then returns to the stream. In the evening, he meets the same hairdresser girls from a day before, and tells them of a dream he had. Bloch then wanders into a bus stop bar, meets some guys, and follows them to the cinema. They then embark for a small club, where Bloch meets up with Gabler, and listens to a jukebox spinning '50s hits. He drinks, and starts to play cards with a group of men. Just as the tune "Gloria" plays, Bloch, who is blankly staring at his hand of cards, tosses his chips in a guy's face and proceeds to fight him outside, where it is raining steadily. Bloch gets beaten up badly, and is left out in the rain. He stumbles back inside, drinks, and dances wearily with Gabler before returning with her to the Border Inn. There, they discuss diverse things until Gabler begins to rail on him for his slovenliness and messiness. Before the situation becomes any more intense, a border official (Bert Fortell) pops in and requests an umbrella for his walk home. Gabler assents, and Bloch volunteers to accompany the man on his way home. During the trek, the border officer shares with Bloch what it is like to be in law enforcement, how the crime rate in town has declined since the mining of the frontier, and how keen observations and swift reactions to movements are key to successfully catching a crook. Once home, the border officer offers Bloch a drink. He declines and returns to the hotel. Bloch listens to his pocket radio.

In the morning, on the way down to breakfast, Bloch encounters a man and asks of the reading habits of the locals. He learns that the guests like to read the newspaper, and that the townsfolk usually read magazines. In the dining room, the hotel girl hands Bloch a paper. On the front page, there is a police sketch which bears great resemblance to him. He wanders away from the hotel, spooked. While waiting at a nearby bus stop, Bloch reads a headline in bold: "Hot Clue in Gloria T. Mystery?" When the bus comes, he stares at the driver, and does not board. Instead, he heads to the local football field and observes the ongoing match. While watching, he shares his experiences and his feelings on the game with a salesman (Michael Toost) sitting beside him. Bloch reflects on how hard it is to focus on anything but the ball during a game, and how strange it is to see a goalie running around without the ball involved. During a penalty kick, Bloch tells the salesman of the anxiety which runs through a goalie's head when not knowing what corner the ball will come to, and what the kicker is aiming at. Ultimately, the goalie blocks the ball, and the match continues. Bloch and the salesman watch in silence.

FINIS

new german cinema|murder|football|based on novel|

Brazil: O Medo do Goleiro Diante do P�nalti
Brazil: O Medo do Goleiro na Hora do P�nalti
Denmark (TV title): M�lmandens angst ved straffespark
Spain: El miedo del portero ante el penalti
France: L'angoisse du gardien de but au moment du penalty
UK: The Goalkeeper's Fear of the Penalty
Greece (transliterated ISO-LATIN-1 title): I agonia tou termatofylaka prin apo ta penalty
Hungary: A kapus f�lelme a tizenegyesn�l
Italy: Prima del calcio di rigore
Norway: M�lmannens angst ved straffesparkmerket
Poland: Strach bramkarza przed jedenastka
Portugal: A Ang�stia do Guarda-Redes no Momento do Penalty
Soviet Union (Russian title): С�‚�€а�… в�€а�‚а�€� пе�€ед пенал�Œ�‚и
USA: The Goalie's Anxiety at the Penalty Kick
Uruguay: La angustia del golero ante el penal