In the year 1828 a feral youth is discovered in
Nuremberg. From this historical fact, Werner Herzog fashioned a
remarkable film.
When we first see Kaspar he has spent the
first 18 years of his life chained to the floor in a dark tower.He
can't stand upright or walk, only sit or lie down. His captor
teaches him to say one sentence, to write his name and then carries
him outside. There he learns the basics of walking and is taken to a
town square where he is left standing like a statue with a note of
introduction in his hand.
Kaspar is housed in the local jail
and the jailer's family begin the process of civilization; Sitting
at a table, eating with a spoon, bathing, etc. Children seem to be
the most patient with teaching him to speak.
He is an object
of curiosity to everyone from the genteel folk wondering about his
possible origins, to country rubes who just come to laugh at him.
There is a reflection of each person's interest, whether religious,
social,or scientific.
The Mystery of Kaspar
Hauser is filmed in German with easy to read subtitles. But like
another of Herzog's films, "Nosferatu, the Vampyre" there are
long stretches without dialogue. The movie is so visual in nature
that sometimes the camera lingers on an object in a trance-like
fixation while the viewer grows increasingly restless.
Some
scenes are cut together with a choppy repetition.(The nightmarish
quality.)Some look like home movies.(The dreamlike segments.)This is
very sparingly done and not annoying as I fear I have made it sound.
The film has a very nice look about it. Often we are looking
at long-lost countryside and very old buildings while we ponder
Kaspar's mysteries. All of the scenery and the actors look genuine,
and the acting is consistently good. Bruno S. gives a performance
that is very engaging. Sometimes his facial expressions reminded me
of a baby. What would we have become without the feedback of others
around us? And at what point in our development do we have to be
exposed to certain concepts in order to really incorporate them?
When Kaspar is taken back to look at the tower where he used
to live,he says that the room inside is larger than the tower.His
logic is simple: When he was inside,the room was all around him; but
when he is outside, he can turn around and the tower is gone.
The German title of this film translates as "Every Man
For Himself and God Against All" Pretty bleak! I think the
English title is more appropriate. Everything remains a mystery,
nothing is spelled out, and some of the characters are more fable or
metaphor.
There are performers in a carnival from different
parts of the world, doctors of philosophy, and the definitive civil
servant who is thrilled with the prospect of the report he can
write. "What a wonderful report, what a precise report this will
make." An English nobleman seemed to me to be the personification of
a spider.
Because so many things are left unexplained,this
movie can be watched over and over again and will always have some
different flavor depending on what you bring to it. For all its
layers of meaning and depth, The Mystery of Kaspar Hauser is
not confusing to follow and is a movie to provoke feelings rather
than concentration.
There is another German film on the same
subject which I have not seen, and there are also a number of books
about Kaspar Hauser. I'd like to know more about the historical
basis for the film, but I think this story will stand on its own as
Herzog's dream-poem.
From Epinions.com
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