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Sheer Madness (1983) [N/A]

Release Date:
February 25, 1983

Original Title:
Heller Wahn

Alternate Titles:
Kvindegalskab
L'amie
Labour of Love
Lucida follia
Ren illusion
Sheer Madness
Vanviddets terskel

Genres:
Drama

Production Companies:
Les Films du Losange
Neue Bioskop Film
WDR

Production Countries:
France | Germany

Ratings / Certifications:
DE: 16 

Runtime: 105

Overview from TheMovieDB

Olga and Ruth become friends. Olga is independent, separated from her husband, living with an immigrant pianist, and teaching feminist literature. Ruth is withdrawn, a painter, possibly mentally ill. Ruth dreams in black and white, sometimes of her suicide. Olga lectures on a 19th-century writer, von Günderrode, a suicide after the breakup of her intense friendship with Bettina Brentano. Ruth's husband Franz encourages the women's friendship, then, as Olga draws Ruth out and the friendship deepens, he becomes jealous. After the women travel to Egypt, Franz has a tirade. Ruth seems crushed between her husband and her friend, and how she responds is the film's climax.

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Performers

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Production

Costume Design:
Monika Hasse

Director:
Margarethe von Trotta

Director of Photography:
Michael Ballhaus

Editor:
Dagmar Hirtz

Original Music Composer:
Nicolas Economou

Producer:
Margaret Ménégoz
Eberhard Junkersdorf

Set Decoration:
Jürgen Henze
Werner Mink

Writer:
Margarethe von Trotta

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