The Pedestrian (Der Fussganger) is a 1973 film from West Germany, directed by Maximilian Schell.
Heinz Giese is a wealthy industrialist, owner of a metalworks. He is a "pedestrian" because he has temporarily lost his license, after a traffic accident in which his older son Anders (Maximilian Schell, who appears briefly in flashbacks and an Imagine Spot) was killed. Otherwise his life is pretty good: he's rich and respected, his grandson by Anders adores him, he has a sexy mistress, and his wife Inge doesn't even mind that he has a sexy mistress.
Unfortunately for Giese, a newspaper is dredging up a secret from his past. It seems that thirty years ago, Heinz was commanding a German infantry unit in Greece. After two members of Heinz's unit were shot by partisans, the unit then massacred an entire Greek village. Heinz may, or may not, have personally shot a child. Eventually the story breaks, and Heinz has to confront his own guilt.
Tropes:
- As Himself: Veteran actor Norbert Schiller plays himself. He's an old friend of Heinz who asks him about the accusations when Heinz has him over for dinner.
- Book Ends: The film opens with a closeup of bones—Heinz is taking his grandson on a museum tour and looking at dinosaur fossils. At the end the boy has unearthed some large bone on the family's property and shows it to his grandfather: cue another closeup of a bone. The symbolism of buried bones representing Germany's crimes during World War II is overt.
- The Cameo: The scene where Inge has some of her friends over for tea. All of the old ladies are played by legends of stage and screen, including Peggy Ashcroft and Lil Dagover (who played the female lead in The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari).
- Central Theme: Germany's war guilt, and how the older generation especially would prefer to forget the innumerable crimes committed during World War II.
- Chalk Outline: Seen around a body in the Scare 'Em Straight traffic accident film that Heinz is forced to attend.
- Conversation Cut: A gleeful Dr. Meineke brags to Heinz that they have won an injunction against the newspaper. His statement that it's equivalent to a "full acquittal" is followed by someone insisting that no it isn't—cut to a man from the newspaper, as the scene has cut to Meineke and the newspaper reporter debating the Giese story on some German TV chat show.
- Dies Wide Open: The shot of Anders slumped forward in the car, eyes wide open in death, is shown several times.
- Driven to Suicide: Although it was supposed to be a murder-suicide. The traffic "accident" happened when Anders, who found out from the newspaper reporters what his father did during the war, grabbed the wheel of the car Heinz was driving and yanked the two of them into the back of a truck. Anders was killed while Heinz escaped unharmed.
- Enhance Button: Averted, as a magnification of what appears to be a photo of Heinz in the Greek village just makes the photo blurrier.
- Flashback: Many, mostly of the massacre of the Greek village, or the fatal car ride when Anders confronted his father about what he had found out.
- If It Bleeds, It Leads: The true priorities of the newspaper people are shown when they agree to shunt the Heinz Giese story to page 3, so that a picture of two men stabbing each other over a parking space can go on the front page.
- Imagine Spot:
- A long, strange sequence has Heinz imagining himself to be among the women of the Greek village, who are performing a funeral dance.
- Towards the end Heinz imagines a conversation with Anders in which Anders asks why he never told them of his past.
- Intro Dump: A sequence in the beginning of the film has the reporters on the Giese story explaining to their editor, and to the audience, who Heinz Giese is and who the various members of his family are and how Heinz was in an accident where his son was killed.
- Just Following Orders: Alexander the reporter pours scorn on this trope when another reporter suggests that a junior officer like Heinz wouldn't really have been responsible for the atrocities of his unit.
- The Ken Burns Effect: Panning and zooming are used on the still photos that the reporters examine when discussing Heinz Giese's family, on the photos of the massacre of the Greek village, and on the photos of Heinz's son Anders.
- The Mistress: Karin, Heinz's leggy mistress, is young enough to be his granddaughter. She's quite affectionate towards him.
- Posthumous Character: Anders, Heinz's son, recently killed in a car accident where Heinz was behind the wheel. That's the reason why Heinz's license is suspended. Pictures of him are up in the home and multiple flashbacks show the accident. Finally an Imagine Spot has Anders ask Heinz why he kept his past a secret.
- Retraux: A clip of Heinz addressing the German parliament is shot to look like an old newsreel.
- Round Table Shot: At Inge's tea party her guests (all played by famous actresses) are introduced by a slow Round Table Shot which focuses on each guest in turn.
- Staggered Zoom: Onto a blurry photo of what is probably Heinz at the scene of the massacre.
- Title Drop: After asking how long Heinz's license will be suspended, Karin says "How does it feel being a pedestrian?" She immediately apologizes.
