Despair

Germany in the early 1930s. Against the backdrop of the Nazis' rise, Herman Hermann, a Russian emigre and chocolate magnate, goes slowly mad. It begins with him seating himself in a chair to observe himself making love to his wife Lydia, a zaftig, empty-headed siren who is also sleeping with her cousin. Hermann is soon given to intemperate outbursts at his workers, other businessmen, and strangers. Then he meets Felix, an itinerant laborer who he delusionally believes looks exactly like him. Armed with a new life insurance policy, he hatches an elaborate plot in the belief it will free him of all of his worries.