Stroszek 1977 M
8.15PM Fri 16 Jun 2017 (1hr 56mins)
'Stroszek' was built around Bruno. It reflects my knowledge of him and his environment, his emotions and feelings, and my deep affection for him.
In all my films, and with all the great actors with whom I have worked, [Bruno] was the best. There is no one who comes close to him. I mean in his humanity, and the depth of his performance, there is no one like him.
Stroszek will screen from an archival 35mm film print.
A darkly absurd tale of American life as told through the eyes of the ultimate band of outsiders. Bruno Stroszek (Bruno S., who also appeared in Herzog's The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser 1974), a peculiar drunkard recently released from a prison in Berlin, meets the mistreated prostitute Eva (Eva Mattes) and offers her shelter in his apartment. The two join Bruno's elderly neighbour Mr Scheitz (Clemens Scheitz) and together move to search for a new existence in the American state of Wisconsin. However, they soon find themselves struggling to keep their new lives together.
Discussions of Stroszek are generally coloured by two stories about its history: firstly, that Ian Curtis of Joy Division watched the film immediately prior to his suicide in 1980, and, secondly, that Herzog had to write the script in a matter of days after initially promising Bruno S. a part in his similarly titled film Woyzeck. These facts may suggest a macabre, throwaway work but Stroszek is a rich, Lynchian tapestry that blends surrealism with deep melancholy. Bruno S. gives a powerful performance in the lead role, with his singular presence bringing life to the strange world of the film. It is an unmissable cinematic experience with a final scene that is so purely Herzog that no other filmmaker could ever have conceived of it.
35MM, COLOUR, MONO, 115 MINS, WEST GERMANY, GERMAN/ENGLISH/TURKISH (ENGLISH SUBTITLES) / DIRECTOR/SCRIPT: WERNER HERZOG / CINEMATOGRAPHER: THOMAS MAUCH / EDITOR: BEATE MAINKA-JELLINGHAUS / PRODUCTION CO: WERNER HERZOG FILMPRODUKTION, ZDF / PRINT SOURCE: DEUTSCHE KINEMATHEK / RIGHTS: WERNER HERZOG FILM GMBH / SCREENING FORMAT: 35MM