"Stroszek" may be Werner Herzog's greatest
masterpiece. it's certainly his most humane picture and in casting
non-actor Bruno S in the title role he gets so close to the feeling of
raw truth we may as well be watching a picture of Bruno S's life,
(something he also achieved in "The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser" where Bruno
S's performance as Hauser totally transcended acting to become the
character). Here he simply becomes Stroszek just as Eva Mattes becomes
Eva and Clemens Scheitz becomes Scheitz. Herzog transports them from
Germany to America where Stroszek gets a dead-end job in the garage of
Scheitz's nephew and Eva becomes a waitress, (in Berlin she turned
tricks to earn the money for their trip and doesn't appear too anxious
to give up that line of work).
Nothing conventional happens but
seldom on film has the mundane existence of ordinary people seemed so
fascinating, (and Herzog's use of non-actors throughout only enhances
this feeling of reality). Of course, these characters are misfits; they
don't fit in and they lead lives of mostly unrelieved misery and this
has lead to accusations that Herzog is nothing more than a misanthrope
and that, at best, he patronises his characters. His continual casting
of actors like Bruno S and Klaus Kinski has lead to a kind of alienation
though, in Herzog's case, madness, like beauty may be only in the eye
of the beholder with Stroszek no more to be pitied than Cool Hand Luke.
If "Stroszek" is a tragedy, it is a comic one and immediately
identifiable as the work of its director: you don't mistake a Herzog
movie set in America as a Bob Rafelson movie. And yes, before you ask,
it's visually superb and with a great soundtrack, too. Essential.
"Stroszek" may be Werner Herzog's greatest
masterpiece. it's certainly his most humane picture and in casting
non-actor Bruno S in the title role he gets so close to the feeling of
raw truth we may as well be watching a picture of Bruno S's life,
(something he also achieved in "The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser" where Bruno
S's performance as Hauser totally transcended acting to become the
character). Here he simply becomes Stroszek just as Eva Mattes becomes
Eva and Clemens Scheitz becomes Scheitz. Herzog transports them from
Germany to America where Stroszek gets a dead-end job in the garage of
Scheitz's nephew and Eva becomes a waitress, (in Berlin she turned
tricks to earn the money for their trip and doesn't appear too anxious
to give up that line of work).
Nothing conventional happens but
seldom on film has the mundane existence of ordinary people seemed so
fascinating, (and Herzog's use of non-actors throughout only enhances
this feeling of reality). Of course, these characters are misfits; they
don't fit in and they lead lives of mostly unrelieved misery and this
has lead to accusations that Herzog is nothing more than a misanthrope
and that, at best, he patronises his characters. His continual casting
of actors like Bruno S and Klaus Kinski has lead to a kind of alienation
though, in Herzog's case, madness, like beauty may be only in the eye
of the beholder with Stroszek no more to be pitied than Cool Hand Luke.
If "Stroszek" is a tragedy, it is a comic one and immediately
identifiable as the work of its director: you don't mistake a Herzog
movie set in America as a Bob Rafelson movie. And yes, before you ask,
it's visually superb and with a great soundtrack, too. Essential.
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