Bruno Stroszek is released from prison and warned to stop drinking. He has few skills and fewer expectations: with a glockenspiel and an accordion, he ekes out a living as a street musician. He befriends Eva, a prostitute down on her luck and they join his neighbor, Scheitz, an elderly eccentric, when he leaves Germany to live in Wisconsin.
Similar titles
You May Also Like
Reviews
I like the storyline of this show,it attract me so much
Simply Perfect
Save your money for something good and enjoyable
While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.
I think this to be one of Herzog's better movies, and also one of his least Herzoian. Watching it, I couldn't help but wonder if it was meant as a winking homage to his two most celebrated peers in what was, in the '70s, referred to as the "New German Cinema"- Rainer Fassbinder and Wim Wenders.The first section of the film, which takes place in urban Germany, is classic Herzog. The chaotic, sometimes sinister, lifestyles of the country's outcasts are given a romantic, almost mystical depiction. The "common German" is discarded by the nation, but in their marginality discover the inner Truth of the nation. The most deeply German of the three above listed directors, Herzog's vision is the most otherworldly, and perhaps, the most underliningly fascistic.Our outcast-heroes leave behind the thuggish world of the contemporary German city for the supposed freedom of rural America but find instead only a more insidious, buerocratic thuggishness. Herzog was not as influenced by Americana as Fassbinder and Wenders, the former in the form of Hollywood cinema, particularly the subtly subversive melodramas of Douglas Sirk and Nicholas Ray, the latter by the American ideal of the open road and the vehicle as a source of transcendent freedom. When coming to America to film for the first time, Herzog seems to base his narrative on the style of Fassbinder, and his imagery on that of Wenders.
I thought this film was entertaining, the fact that you have a comical duo, it portrays an initiating quality of immigrants to the American far west in a modern age. The movie has some black humor, but i thought maybe it was making fun of the fact that suffering occurs in the human condition by killing off the main character at the end. Although I thought it wouldn't work as a story, it turned out to work as a film. I say this because of the fact that the encounters of bruno are so obtuse that one gets the idea that he will never get help. To break the law is important because this character bruno almost acts animal-like. Although the story is believable, I don't think in reality a germanic family whom immigrated wouldn't be hit by the social services first, before the bank. However, to break a contract because of no money is a different story. This is somewhat unrealistic, given that they don't manage to sell the things they bought or even try to for that matter..yet this is not a negative review, it just simply lets the viewer decide as to the delusive actions brought about by the main characters. Sure he shot himself because of it though (spoilers). TBH if I ever owed the bank money without breaking the constitution I would and am glad this occurs in growing communities...for experience of course.
The DVD, by Anchor Bay, is part of their Werner Herzog Collection, and comes with a theatrical trailer, production and biographical notes, and a great commentary with Herzog and Norman Hill. In it, Herzog spins his usual informative and cogent anecdotes, rips conventional filmmaking techniques, and resents the tendency of critics to deconstruct every little thing in a film. Not every metaphor has to be based in logic. The Keatsian idea(l) of Negative Capability has never been better embodied in the work of a filmmaker than it is in Herzog's canon, for many of his images simply are, and do not have a narrative heft. In this film, the perfect example is the dancing chicken? It can mean a number of things, but the very act of attempting to pin it down robs it of some of its power. The German is subtitled, and the English is not. As a multi-lingual film dubbing would not work. The film transfer is fine, and it is in a 1.66:1 aspect ratio. While not a film that makes great use of visuals, there are moments, such as the film's opening, shot through a glass of water, that show that Herzog and his cinematographer Thomas Mauch knew how to distort reality just enough to blur fiction and nonfiction seamlessly. The use of American folk music from Chet Atkins and Sonny Terry is a departure from the grander musical schemes employed with Florian Fricke and Popol Vuh in other Herzog classics, but is apropos for the dour American grotesques that creep into the film, starting with shotgun wielding farmers who drive their plows right next to each other, to protect a small strip of land both claim as theirs.But the real gem of the commentary is Herzog's explanation of not only the film's provenance in regards to Bruno S., but how he chose the town in the first place. He calls that part of the country Errol Morris Country because he and the famed American documentarian (Gates Of Heaven, The Thin Blue Line, The Fog Of War) were fascinated by Ed Gein, who dug up all of the corpses in a circle around his mother's grave. They wanted to know if he dug up his mother. What relevance this has is anyone's guess. Morris chickened out, so Herzog decided to abandon the idea and write his screenplay for Bruno, thus angering Morris, who felt that he should have had some involvement, and that Herzog tread on his 'turf,' by filming there. While in Plainfield to write the screenplay, Herzog met many of the non-actors who populate the film. Herzog also relates gems about Bruno, such as his painting fan blades the colors of the rainbow, and discovering that when it spun fast it blurred into white, or how he would walk about with his fly open, unawares.Also, the use of non-actors is perfect. It is in minor details like this, that veer away from script and allow actors to fully embody their characters, that the realistic aspects of a film can shine. Most filmmakers would never even consider such of import.Films like Stroszek are merely minor palliatives for that ill, but they are better than nothing, and hopefully will last longer than the grim impulses which make them so cogent.
Watching this third Herzog film I must say that Herzog's heroes are like directionless hermits. Herzog repeated unprofessional actor Bruno S. again after their appreciable teaming in 'Kasper Hauser' and teamwork again proves another landmark film. Bruno is again social outsider here like 'Kasper Hauser'. In initial scene we come to witness his releasing from prison. He loves just two things in life- playing musical instruments and drinking beer. But soon he realized that life in Germany is full of hardships and brutal one, so along with his prostitute girlfriend Eva and an old neighbor they thought about starting new life in America-the land of opportunities. For them America is an unexplored mystery or a dream of freedom. But soon disillusionment starts unsettling them in hostile land and they realized that life is severe and brutal everywhere and perhaps it's more severe wasteland in America. Remembering the great visionary American poet T S Elliot his 'The waste land' here. Bruno and Eva are physically safe in America and there is no local hoodlum who's kicking them in their hometown but still Bruno is so unhappy. As Bruno explains to Eva in one of the scene that in Germany it was visible but here they do it so gentle way, and that's much worse than it seems. That invisible chaos seems economical on surface but it's deeper at mental & spiritual level. Only Bruno understands it and that's lead us to that brutally dark ending part.I've never seen final ten minutes in any movies as symbolically represented chaos of life in this one. It is just a phenomenon. Those dancing/ piano playing birds, a shot in ropeway and circularly moving trolley will remain permanently imprinted to my senses. I became bit sleepy while watching it yesterday and miss the brilliant clue by Herzog in that final scene. I watch that scene again today prior to writing this post and it was Eureka moment. It is that line written on the backside of that ropeway vehicle in which Bruno sat last. IS IT REALLY ME! The clue signifies the futility of both driverless revolving trolley and trained performing birds. But for Bruno life itself is futile and he knew it damn well. That final scene was just something that you get from auteur like Herzog only!Salute to this genius filmmaker.