Film Review
Every Man for Himself and God Against
All is the baffling literal translation of the original German
title of this bizarre yet thoroughly beguiling film from director
Werner Herzog, the winner of the Grand Prize at Cannes in 1975.
Quite what Herzog was getting at is hard to divine but the film is an
eloquent, albeit somewhat romanticised, account of a true story about a
mysterious German foundling who was once thought to be a deposed heir
to the House of Baden.
The part of Kaspar Hauser is played by Bruno S., a non-professional
actor whom Herzog met by chance whilst making a documentary about
street musicians. The 41-year-old actor had spent most of his
life in mental institutions, having been physically abused by his
mother at an early age. Much of the film's authenticity and
poignancy comes from Bruno S.'s vivid portrayal of a vulnerable
outsider trying and failing to be assimilated into so-called civilised
society. No professional actor could have played the part as
convincingly, nor with such gut-wrenching pathos.
The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser is
certainly one of Werner Herzog's more accessible films, but that does
not prevent it from having a great deal of intellectual and moral
complexity beneath its seductively placid surface. At first
glance, the film appears to be about how we as individuals are shaped
by the environment that we inhabit, particularly in the earliest years
of life. Lock someone up in a cellar for 17 years with only a
wooden horse for company and he is unlikely to find work as a chirpy
daytime TV presenter (although he could still end up as Prime Minister
of Great Britain).
At a deeper level, the film is a dark satire on those (primarily
cocksure academics) who seek to explain the world by pure logic.
The wise men who try to unravel the mystery of Kaspar Hauser do so by
purely forensic means; they believe that the enigma cannot be resolved
until the facts have been thoroughly dissected, codified and
interpreted by cold reason. Does cutting up an individual's
brain tell us anything about who he was? Of course not.
Herzog's thesis is that the world (just like most of his films) cannot
be interpreted by mere reductionist reasoning. If there is an
answer it must surely be glimpsed through the more abstract portals of
consciousness: imagination, instinct and faith. That is,
unless the answer happens to be
forty-two,
in which case a pocket calculator might do the trick.
© James Travers 2009
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Next Werner Herzog film:
Nosferatu: Phantom der Nacht (1979)
Film Synopsis
In 1828, a young man dressed in ragged clothes is found standing in the
town square at Nuremberg. No one recognises him and he can only
speak one phrase, "I want to be a cavalryman, like my
father." The townsfolk adopt him as one of their own and
attempt to civilise him, although when he becomes a financial burden he
ends up as an exhibit in a sideshow. The kindly Herr Daumer
takes pity on the strange young man and takes charge of his
education. Kaspar Hauser, for that is the stranger's name,
remains an enigma, attracting the attention of academics and
noblemen. Encouraged by Daumer, Kaspar begins to write his
memoirs, in which he attempts to shed light on his past. He
reveals that for the first seventeen years of his life, he was locked
up in a cellar, with only a small wooden horse to keep him
amused. He never saw or spoke to another person until the day he
was taken out of the cellar and abandoned in
Nuremberg...
© James Travers
The above content is owned by filmsdefrance.com and must not be copied.