Die Katze

‘In two hours there will be war down there’, says Probek to his lover/accomplice Jutta Ehser after the last good fuck of their lives. ‘Down there’ is the bank where Jutta’s unloved hubby works. Down there, Probek’s front men Junghein and Britz will see to it that a robbery goes wrong and escalates into a full-blown hostage crisis – stiff ransom included. Probek will stay where he is now, in a hotel, looking down onto the theatre of combat like a Field Marshal; from down there, seasoned cop Voss will reply to every single one of his moves.
Graf’s first masterpiece is, a quarter-century after its release, arguably still the very best crime action film ever made in whichever Germany. Imagine a mystic union of Jean-Pierre Melville and John Guillermin, both at their toughest, iciest, most symmetry-obsessed materialistic, and you will get an idea of what you’re in for.