The Lost Honour of Katharina Blum, or: How violence develops and where it can lead (German original title: Die Verlorene Ehre der Katharina Blum oder: Wie Gewalt entstehen und wohin sie führen kann) is a 1975 West German political drama film based on Heinrich Böll's 1974 novel of the same name, adapted for the screen and directed by Volker Schlöndorff and Margarethe von Trotta.

Schlöndorff and von Trotta wrote the script with an emphasis on the vindictive and harsh treatment of an innocent woman by the public, police, and media.

The film stars Angela Winkler as Blum, Mario Adorf as Kommissar Beizmenne, Dieter Laser as Tötges, and Jürgen Prochnow as Ludwig.

Katharina Blum is a young divorcee who works as a housekeeper for a famous corporate lawyer, Hubert Blorna, and his wife, Trude.

She is nicknamed "the nun" for her prudish lifestyle, but at a carnival party she meets and quickly falls in love with Ludwig Götten, whom police have been following, suspecting him of being an anarchist, a bank robber, and a terrorist.

The police raid Katharina's apartment but fail to find Götten, so they search the flat, discovering an expensive ring, then arrest her and interrogate her harshly as they believe she aided and abetted her lover.

Unable to find justice for herself or end the bad publicity, Katharina offers Tötges an interview, then shoots and kills him and his photographer.

Should the description of certain journalistic practices result in a resemblance to the practices of Bild-Zeitung, such resemblance is neither intentional nor accidental, but unavoidable.Produced during a time of political controversy in West Germany, when journalists would stop at nothing to get their names known, the film digs deep into human rights violations in what should be a peaceful, democratic country, and shines a light on the vindictive nature of the tabloid press and its tendency to spread lies and distort facts.

Unlike the novel, the film ends with a scene at Tötges's funeral, with his publisher delivering a hypocritical condemnation of the murder as an infringement of freedom of the press.

When Katharina is released because the police find no evidence to hold her, she walks into a crowd of journalists pointing cameras at her and yelling questions.

In his final scene, he makes sexual advances on Katharina and encourages her to be happy about having become famous thanks to him, ignoring that he dragged her name through the mud.

[3] Though the film ends with a journalist being shot, Schlöndorff considers this only a "metaphorical shooting" and believes that Böll opposes violence.

Vacano considered this one of his most important films, even more than American releases like Total Recall or Starship Troopers, because of the political message and his cinematographic choices.

Police offices are intentionally depicted as large open spaces with empty desks, which was not the case in West Germany at the time.