Stroszek

Starring:Bruno S., Eva Mattes, Clemens Scheitz, Wilhelm von Homburg, Burkhard Driest, Clayton Szalpinski, Ely Rodriguez, Alfred Edel, Scott McKain, Ralph Wade, Michael Gahr, Vaclav Vojta, Yuecsel Topcuguerler, Pit Bedewitz, Bob Evans (VI), Der Brave Beo, Al
Director: Werner Herzog
Studio: Anchor Bay
Product Type: DVD

Editorial Review:
Amazon.com essential video
Stroszek is one of Werner Herzog's most accessible films, and one of his best. Herzog's clever use of kitschy folk music is just one perfect element in this mesmerizing, seriocomic "ballad" of America, in which a trio of unlikely friends leave their dreary lives in Berlin, certain that wealth and comfort await in America. Their naive American dream turns sour in rural Wisconsin, and the title character (played by Bruno S., the fascinating nonactor from Herzog's The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser) becomes an insanely tragic figure, celebrating a bitterly absurd Thanksgiving in the film's unforgettable closing scenes. By fusing his own intuitive, enigmatic style with factual details from the life of Bruno S., Herzog captures the elusive "ecstatic truth" that motivates his enduring cinematic vision. While deepening one of the most unusual actor-director collaborations in the history of film, Stroszek presents an American nightmare that's funny, bizarre, and deeply, magnificently human. --Jeff Shannon
Description
Bruno Stroszek is released from prison and ekes out a living as a street musician. He befriends Eva, a prostitute down on her luck. After they are harried and beaten by Eva's pimps, they join Bruno's neighbor, Scheitz, an elderly eccentric, when he leaves Germany to live in Wisconsin in search of the American dream.

Werner Herzog Collection
Average customer rating:

A must for Herzog fans

Wonderful films, Anchor Bay has a few problems

Lost & Found: "Fata Morgana"

Manufacturing defect?

Werner Herzog - An Unconventional Study

Werner Herzog Collection
Starring: Werner Herzog Collection
Manufacturer: Starz / Anchor Bay
ProductGroup: DVD
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Werner Herzog and Klaus Kinski: A Film Legacy

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ASIN: B0001ZX0F6
Release Date: 2004-08-03

Customer Reviews:

A must for Herzog fans.......2007-05-30

With or without Klaus Kinski, Werner Herzog takes us into strange realms of the human spirit. This collection is eclectic, wonderful, and an absolute must for Herzog fans. Hypnotized actors, evil little people, gorgeous, capable Eva Mattes, and the indescribable Bruno S. make up this disturbing, brilliant collection. Ann Doreen

Wonderful films, Anchor Bay has a few problems.......2006-04-17

These are stunning films. "The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser" is one of the classics; the shot of the rye field in the wind alone is worth the price of admission. It's good that Anchor Bay is emphasizing that they'll rectify defective disks, though, because problems abound. Thanks to an earlier reviewer for posting their complaints URL! On my copy of "Kaspar Hauser" the commentary simply won't turn off (and it's not that I haven't figured out how, because it turns off on the other disks). Then occasionally it turns off all by itself, but if you try to get the subtitles, it turns back on -- so you can't watch the film WITH subtitles but WITHOUT commentary. Exasperating! While I was fiddling with commentaries, however, I managed to watch the whole of "Heart of Glass" with commentary. "Heart of Glass" is not the most accessible film -- not because, as Herzog says, it's slow, but because hypnotized actors are more like zombies than actors. But the film with the commentary on is the most surreal, fascinating experience -- the stories behind the making of the film are an artwork in themselves. The same is true of "Kaspar Hauser" -- an unintended benefit of the disk problem. Providing Anchor Bay makes good on their defective disks, this is a great set.

Lost & Found: "Fata Morgana" .......2005-12-29

I've encountered a snag with "Fata Morgana" as well-- in my case, it was missing entirely. However, I contacted Anchor Bay's feedback department (http://www.anchorbayentertainment.com/index.asp?p=FAQ_Problem) and they sent me a fully functional DVD pretty quickly. I'm glad they did, as it's a gorgeous piece well worth seeing.

Manufacturing defect?.......2005-08-03

Has anyone else had a problem with 'Lessons of Darkness/Fata Morgana'? I've tried two different copies of this box set and the same few minutes at the end of Fata Morgana won't play. It skips and goes back to the DVD menu.

Regardless of that, the box set is worth it. An amazing collection of films, well put together. I want to see the end of 'Fata Morgana', but the other six movies are spectacular.

Werner Herzog - An Unconventional Study.......2005-03-14

Those that are new to the world of Werner Herzog are advised to stay away from this boxset until they discover his collaborations with actor Klaus Kinski... The HERZOG/KINSKI boxset (also from Anchor Bay) is essential, and should be your first exposure to this challenging director's work.

Those of you that have seen his more famous works (AGUIRRE, NOSFERATU, FITZCARRALDO, etc.) and want to explore further into Herzog's catalogue, then this is the ideal boxset. It's important to note, though, that it's a fairly unconventional series of films that vary wildly from style and genre.

There are only two "conventional" films in this boxset and those are THE ENIGMA OF KASPAR HAUSER and STROSZEK. Despite the fact that both films have fairly linear plots, they often slip into the director's notorious weirdness (the final few minutes of STROSZEK for instance).

There are three documentaries in this boxset. LITTLE DIETER NEEDS TO FLY is the most straightfoward of the bunch but features a riveting story of wartime survival. LESSONS OF DARKNESS is about the burning of the oil fields in Iraq, and it features an almost subliminal science-fiction approach to the material (if I wasn't told about it in the liner notes, I don't think I would have picked it up on my first viewing). FATA MORGANA is certainly a strange film, the genesis of which came about Herzog's desire to film mirages in the desert.

Rounding out the package are the two feature length experimental films, and the real highlight of this boxset. HEART OF GLASS is a bizarre twist on a local folk tale in which the entire cast (with the exception of one character) performed under hypnosis... the effect is startling and quite eerie. EVEN DWARFS STARTED SMALL is my favorite of the director's non-Kinski films, and simply defies explanation... dwarfs, camels, cars riding around in circles, chickens. It's all an exercise in absurdist anarchy, and you simply can't stop watching it.

Recommended for fans of the surreal.

Average customer rating:

Unique, Funny, Odd, and (Occasionally) Dull
A bleakly uniquely uplifting downbeat Herzog wonder
Everyone Knows Dollars Grow on Trees in Wisconsin
What's with the chicken?
The grass is always greener

Stroszek
Starring: Bruno S. , Eva Mattes , Clemens Scheitz , Wilhelm von Homburg , and Burkhard Driest
Director: Werner Herzog
Manufacturer: Anchor Bay
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser
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Kinski: My Best Fiend
Woyzeck

ASIN: B000059PPT
Release Date: 2002-01-08

Amazon.com essential video

Stroszek is one of Werner Herzog's most accessible films, and one of his best. Herzog's clever use of kitschy folk music is just one perfect element in this mesmerizing, seriocomic "ballad" of America, in which a trio of unlikely friends leave their dreary lives in Berlin, certain that wealth and comfort await in America. Their naive American dream turns sour in rural Wisconsin, and the title character (played by Bruno S., the fascinating nonactor from Herzog's The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser) becomes an insanely tragic figure, celebrating a bitterly absurd Thanksgiving in the film's unforgettable closing scenes. By fusing his own intuitive, enigmatic style with factual details from the life of Bruno S., Herzog captures the elusive "ecstatic truth" that motivates his enduring cinematic vision. While deepening one of the most unusual actor-director collaborations in the history of film, Stroszek presents an American nightmare that's funny, bizarre, and deeply, magnificently human. --Jeff Shannon

Description

Bruno Stroszek is released from prison and ekes out a living as a street musician. He befriends Eva, a prostitute down on her luck. After they are harried and beaten by Eva's pimps, they join Bruno's neighbor, Scheitz, an elderly eccentric, when he leaves Germany to live in Wisconsin in search of the American dream.

Customer Reviews:

Unique, Funny, Odd, and (Occasionally) Dull.......2006-12-22

Werner Herzog's "Stroszek" is one of the most unique and odd films I've ever seen. It's probably one of the most unique films you will ever see, with images that you'll remember long after you watch it. That doesn't mean it's a spectacular film. While it ends up on many lists of great films (including in Roger Ebert's The Great Movies II, where I heard about it) it's not, in my opinion, a great film. Many moments are dull, it requires some patience from the viewer but you'll be glad you watched it. It plays like a comedy, but seems to shy away from the genre. In the end, it's an uncategorizable film and easily one of the strangest films ever made (not counting films by David Lynch and other similar directors). Bruno S. plays Bruno Stroszek, a retarded prison who is released from prison as the film begins. He has found out that his kind neighbor Mr. Scheitz (Clemens Scheitz, you may notice a pattern of people, basically, playing themselves) has saved his apartment for him. After meeting a prostitute named Eva (Eva Mattes), who has an abusive pimp, he offers to let her stay in his apartment. Pretty soon, Mr. Scheitz has been offered by his nephew in Wisconsin to come and stay with him. Mr. Scheitz decides to go and Bruno realizes that it would be best for him and Eva to join him. Once in Wisconsin, they move into a Fleetwood mobile home and gets a job...Eva, who speaks a little English, as a waitress and Bruno as a mechanic. To say the movie has a plot would be inaccurate. It has events that could be called a plot, but Herzog cuts away for a narrative and just presents us with events that make us unable to anticipate what's going to happen next. Many of the actors playing their characters draw from their personal lives, while many of the people in Wisconsin aren't actors but people who actually lived there. In fact the man who plays Mr. Scheitz's nephew was a mechanic who fixed Herzogs car. The ending of Stroszek (that is, the last 20 minutes) are some of the most fascinating scenes I've ever seen. After losing the mobile home and everything in it, Mr. Scheitz and Bruno decide to rob a bank. It's closed, so they rob the barbershop next door. I won't give away the rest, but it's all fascinating and...Trippy. The final line of the movie is something you'd rarely, if ever, see in an American film.
Stroszek has moments that are very dull, it doesn't really have a plot, the main character is played by a man who was said to be retarded, and it's in German. There are a lot of things wrong with it, but it's a film you'll never forget.

GRADE: B-

A bleakly uniquely uplifting downbeat Herzog wonder.......2006-12-16

With all the inherent contradictions that implies! The key image of a broken down car going round in endless circles from Herzog's earlier Even Dwarfs Started Small turns up again in Stroszek, but this film is much more impressive than that exercise in chaos and subversion. It's another tale of people who don't fit anywhere, in this case the almost alien Bruno S. and his dysfunctional adopted family of hooker Eva Mattes and eccentric Clemens Scheitz, who emigrate from Germany to find the American dream only to discover easy credit, unpaid bills, bailiffs, rifles and dancing chickens instead.

Yet for all the misfortune and grim subject matter, it's surprisingly not as bitter and dour as you might expect, with plenty of Herzogian moments that are so unlikely they seem strangely convincing - even when his two leading men rob a barber shop and immediately run to the convenience store across the road to spend their ill-gotten gains. It also has one of those unexpectedly prescient moments where Bruno S and Eva Mattes are talking about America's national parks where Grizzly bears run free...

The film is light on extras but does feature one of Herzog's excellent audio commentaries.

Everyone Knows Dollars Grow on Trees in Wisconsin.......2006-11-01

Werner Herzog, world reknown film maker and producer received the lifetime achievement award at the Sarasota Film Festival in April 2006. His films are primarily fictionalized documentaries. He adds fiction to bring focus on a larger truth by exaggerating events and making a bigger statement to prove his point. Herzog based the story of "Stroszek" on several real life events, some murders in Wisconsin and a street musician (who plays himself) who lived in Berlin, who was the son of a prostitute, who had been raised in reform schools and ended up in prison. He is lost in the real world because it is totally alien to him. Herzog provides an unusual cast of characters, many of whom are not actors, but play themselves, mostly working class (Wisconsin mechanics and Indians) and street low lifes (thugs in Berlin) who live unusually simple lives, just making ends meet in the world. The extra features include audio commentary with Werner Herzog who explains some of the innovative ideas on which he based the film. This is a tragi-comedy where no matter what improvements in life the main characters attempt, fate intervenes to twist them in a different direction, usually downward. There are humorous and ironic events which makes this a fascinating film from an artistic and creative aspect.

We meet Bruno Stroszek as he is being released from prison, he is given his belongings: cash, a flugel horn, his accordion and a lecture from the prison warden. The warden has a thankless job but when he sees someone released it brings him some measure of satisfaction: he lectures Bruno, to stop drinking beer which makes him crazy and break the a law. The warden tells him to buy a cup of coffee and a piece of pie instead. Bruno returns to the former apartment he shared with an eccentric elderly gentleman. He resumes relations with his prostitute girlfriend Eva, who is beaten up by street thugs. This event provides the impetus to emigrate to the United States, to Wisconsin, where the elderly gentleman had an American friend or cousin with whom he kept in touch.

In the US, Bruno gets a job as a mechanic, Eva becomes a waitress. They buy a mobile/trailer home and television set by taking a loan from the bank. It does not take long before they fall behind on their payments. They receive a visit from the bank loan officer, a very polite man, who makes it clear in the kindest of tones that unless they meet their obligations, the bank will confiscate their home and TV. Eva returns to her former way of life, finding clients at the truck stop restaurant, to provide extra money to pay the loan. Bruno falls into a funk, realizing no matter what they do, they will not make ends meet. Eva ends up leaving with a group of truckers to Canada ... Bruno and the elderly man go on a robbing spree, to get money in order to eat. It happens to be Thanksgiving, so the irony is they rob a store to buy a turkey. The elderly man is caught and arrested. Bruno's car breaks down but he obtains the truck from the mechanic's shop and goes on a driving rampage. He ends up at a Wisconsin tourist trap where he takes a ski lift type ride on which he sits and goes round and round. Prior to that he had turned on several of the exhibits in which different animals perform various tricks. The last scene is one of the most humorous and creative endings which earned Herzog fame. It depicts in a surreal manner that for some the American Dream becomes a bizarre nightmare from which there is no release. The film will appeal to those who are interested in unusual innovations and creativity in filmmaking. There is a lot of irony and off the wall humour which may appeal only to a selective audience. Erika Borsos {pepper flower}

What's with the chicken?.......2006-10-10

I watched the film twice in a row, the second time with the director's commentary, which added quite a bit. The director tells us that the lead character, Bruno, was just playing himself, often improvising, and had a miserable childhood living in institutions. He seems, to me, to be intelligent, hapless, and so odd.

The only professional actor I remember in the film is the woman playing the leading female role, Eva. She plays a German prostitute who gets mistreated by her pimp.

The rest of the cast is non-professional. Bruno is just a very odd man. The pimp is what he appears to be in the film, a tough guy who enjoys hurting and humiliating people. The elderly lunatic who accompanies Bruno to America is just that, an elderly lunatic. The minor characters are just people who were recruited or happened to be around during the shooting.

It's an interesting story. They flee from Germany to get away from the dangerous pimp who harasses them. They take a boat to New York City and show us the view from the Empire State Building, a magnet for tourists. The only time I went up there was at the insistence of a tourist friend I was showing the town to. Then they go across country to Wisconsin.

I'm happy for them that they have escaped the abuse they were experiencing in Germany, but they end up not doing well in America either. Bruno is a mess, what can I say. He's an interesting mess though.

The main reason I put on the director's commentary was to find out why he spent so much time showing a dancing chicken at the end of the movie. Well, he disappointed there. Instead of explaining why the scene was there, he just said how much he loves the scene, and then let it play in its entirety without a word of explanation.

That is one hell of an odd scene, that dancing chicken. You'd think it would be symbolic of something, and perhaps it is. Symbolic of the animated senselessness of our lives? Or of Bruno's? I really can't say. Unfortunately, it is one of those cases where the artist doesn't explain himself, and just lets you take out of it whatever you want. I hate that. I hate when artists refuse to explain what they meant. Maybe he was just enjoying the sensation of watching a dancing chicken.

The grass is always greener.......2006-09-27

Stroszek is not the film to watch if you are interested in special effects, slick Hollywood production values, studied, disciplined acting or uplifting, action-packed entertainment. In fact, some scenes appear to have been improvised. Its unpolished feel might be attributable to the claim it was allegedly written by Herzog specifically for its star, Bruno S., within a span of four days. This suits the film's style rather well, however, since its principle characters, Bruno Stroszek and his two friends, are nearly destitute and are not especially well established in their community. (Contributing to this is the fact that Bruno S. wasn't really an actor by trade) An alcoholic, ex-con loser in Berlin, Bruno Stroszek decides the United States is where his fate lies, so he heads for the Land of Promise with Eva and Scheitz, two disillusioned people who also believe in the dream of US salvation. Leaving Germany is not a very difficult decision for Bruno because he has but one worthwhile, earthly possession: his beloved piano. He believes the rewards of moving to the US will more than compensate for the loss of his piano. The US is the destination for many people because they believe in the promise it holds. After arriving here, all one has to do is work hard and one's dreams will all come true, correct? The dream does not come true for everyone, including millions of native-born citizens, because it is not as simple as that. No matter where Bruno Stroszek is in this world, he would have a difficult time making it because his survival skills are deficient. A baby will clasp its hands onto something and cling for dear life out of instinct, yet instinct alone will not suffice in order to succeed in life. Somewhere along the way, Stroszek has lost either some of his instincts or his ability to survive. I don't see this film as being anti-American because Bruno and his friends make some very poor decisions and their fates are decided by what they bring upon themselves. Tragically, their situation is contingent upon their location because they would not make these same decisions if they did not completely believe in the promise their location brings. So what is Herzog's purpose for making the film, if not an anti-US diatribe? It is ironic that so many US citizens have longed to leave the US since george bush was chosen as president in 2000. Are we that confident in our abilities to survive or thrive anywhere? Are we that full of hubris that we believe US citizens can maintain our lifestyles no matter where we live? Or perhaps we are ignorant of how the rest of the world lives, taking for granted our wages and way of life? There is no perfect place to live. If we are unhappy with our current conditions, we first need to ask ourselves what is the source of this displeasure. Then we must take action to change it, even if the difficult reality mandates changing ourselves. Perhaps Herzog was attempting to help his friend, Bruno S., come to this realization? After all, did he not write the script specifically for him? He really is quite magnanimous.

Stroszek [Non-US Format, PAL, Region 2, Import]

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Stroszek [Non-US Format, PAL, Region 2, Import]

ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD
ASIN: 8323793956

Product Description

A Berlin street musician is released from prison and moves to America with his girlfriend to live the American dream. Things don't go to plan and the dream soon becomes a nightmare in this tragic comedy.

Werner Herzog Box Set 2 (5 Disc Edition) [PAL, Region 2, Import]

Average customer rating:

Werner Herzog Box Set 2 (5 Disc Edition) [PAL, Region 2, Import]

ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

General | Art House & International | Genres | DVD | Video

General | Foreign & International | Stores | DVD | Video
Product Features:

Region 2, PAL (Europe, Japan, South Africa and the Middle East including Egypt)
Requires multi-region DVD player for the US.

ASIN: 8373021132

Product Description

Five features. In 'Stroszek' a Berlin street musician is released from prison and moves to America with his girlfriend to live the American dream. Things don't go to plan and the dream soon becomes a nightmare in this tragic comedy. Also features: 'Even Dwarves Started Small', 'Fata Morgana', 'Heart Of Glass' and 'The Enigma Of Kaspar Hauser'.

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