Karl Hirnschall is in his thirties and is a member of a Viennese avant-garde theatre group in the early seventies. When he is finally fed up with acting for low fees, he goes back to his former life. He becomes the "right man" for a grocery firm whose products he sells with great success. The neo-salesman manages to acquire a furnished appartment for himself and his young girlfriend, Traude. When his income does not keep pace with his expenditures, Karl resorts to shady business deals.
The viewer sees self-portraits of Tone Fink joined to each other, beginning with skin relics which are seen again in later scenes. A visual and oral show results through the use of self-made paper skins, image collages, dolls, garments and apparatuses.
Caught Feelings is the succinct title of a film which deals with emancipation trends from the viewpoint of young Austrians. Manfred Kaufmann's first film reports on tensions which may arise from the contradictions between collective and individual feelings. He works with subtle and psychologically perfected indications which explain the symptoms and illustrate the reactions. But this film is also a vehement attack on bourgeois feelings and the resulting behaviours. He shows character traits which use masks to simulate emotion as well as those which are ready to remove their masks in order to let feelings take effect. (Herbert Holba)
