Enigma Of Kaspar Hauser, The

Είδος: Ταινία (ιστορικό δράμα, βιογραφία)
Γλώσσα: German
Υπότιτλοι: English
Χρονολογία: 1974 , D
Σκηνοθεσία: Herzog
Διάρκεια: 110'

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0071691/

By Roger Ebert
Werner Herzog's films do not depend on "acting" in the conventional sense. He is most content when he finds an actor who embodies the essence of a character, and he studies that essence with a fascinated intensity. Consider the case of Bruno S., a street performer and forklift operator whose last name was long concealed. He is the center of two Herzog films "The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser" (1974) and "Stroszek" (1977). The son of a prostitute, he was locked for 23 years in mental institutions, even though Herzog believes he was never insane.

Bruno is however very strange, bull-headed, with the simplicity and stubbornness of a child. In "Kaspar Hauser," he looks anywhere he wants to, sometimes even craftily sideways at the camera, and then it feels not like he's looking at the audience but through us. He can possibly play no role other than himself, but that is what Herzog needs him for. On the commentary track Herzog says he was vilified in Germany for taking advantage of an unfortunate, but if you study Bruno sympathetically you may see that, by his lights, he is taking advantage of Herzog. On his commentary track, Herzog describes him as "the unknown soldier of the cinema."

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