The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser

Starring:Bruno S., Walter Ladengast, Brigitte Mira, Willy Semmelrogge, Michael Kroecher, Hans Musaeus, Marcus Weller, Gloria Doer, Volker Prechtel, Herbert Achternbusch, Wolfgang Bauer, Wilhelm Bayer, Franz Brumbach, Johannes Buzalski, Helmut DÃ¶ring, Alfred Edel, Florian Fricke, Heribert Fritsch, Peter Gebhart, Andi Gottwald
Director: Werner Herzog
Studio: Anchor Bay
Product Type: DVD

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.

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Enigma of Kaspar Hauser
Every man for himself...
Hooked on Herzog
The Poetry Of Kaspar Hauser
What constitutes normalcy and civility?

The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser
Starring: Bruno S. , Walter Ladengast , Brigitte Mira , Willy Semmelrogge , and Michael Kroecher
Director: Werner Herzog
Manufacturer: Starz / Anchor Bay
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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ASIN: B00005R248
Release Date: 2002-01-08

Amazon.com

In his widely acclaimed attempt to fathom The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser, director Werner Herzog probes a real-life mystery that has puzzled German society for nearly two centuries. In the title role, Herzog ingeniously cast the equally mysterious street musician Bruno S., whose mesmerizing performance is unique in the history of film. Isolated since infancy in a dank cellar, the now-adult Kaspar is abandoned in 1820s Nuremburg by his unknown custodian; townsfolk futilely speculate on his origins, and he's shaped by a bourgeois villager who places rigid, conflicting restraints on his new and peculiar perspective on the world around him. It's telling that Herzog's preferred title is Every Man for Himself and God Against All, for this is an eerily effective cautionary tale about an innocent man of nature who moves from one prison to another in a cruelly fateful universe. The mystery lingers, making The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser a deep, resonant reflection on the nature of humanity. --Jeff Shannon

Description

The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser - The true and mysterious story of Kaspar Hauser, a young man who suddenly appeared in Nuremberg in 1828. He had been held captive in a dungeon for his entire life that he could remember, and had only just been released, for reasons unknown. Who is this man, and who would want him dead?

Customer Reviews:

Enigma of Kaspar Hauser.......2007-07-05

With "Kaspar," a somber yet engrossing drama accentuated by the lilting strains of Pachelbel's Canon, Herzog found an unusually rich metaphor for man's primitive state. Bruno S., a mental patient taken in by the audacious Teutonic filmmaker, fully embraced the role, refusing even to doff his 19th-century costume at the end of a day's shoot. He plays Kaspar as a perpetually shell-shocked, almost autistic innocent whose strained efforts to communicate and assimilate are thwarted by a profound, perhaps prophetic otherness. The question for Herzog, of course, is whether reason enlightens or imprisons us--an "Enigma" well worth pondering.

Every man for himself..........2006-09-03

Every Man For Himself and God Against All aka The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser is a prime slice of pre-nutter-in-the-jungle Werner Herzog and makes an interesting companion piece to Truffaut's L'Enfant Sauvage/The Wild Child. Where Truffaut used his true story of a foundling more animal than boy as proof of the human soul, Herzog uses the real-life mystery of Hauser as a means of showing that society's accepted way of looking at the world may not necessarily be the most valid - as demonstrated when Hauser's contention that apples are tired is seemingly proved by the inability of his guardian to demonstrate that they are inanimate objects subject to man's will.

Thanks as much to a truly alien performance from Bruno S. in the lead role - he really does seem to have suddenly fallen to Earth and not recovered from the shock - as to Herzog's unique mixture of the restrained and the hypnotic in his approach, the end result is one of those films that's definitely greater than the sum of its parts.

Hooked on Herzog.......2006-06-01

Saw this film in the late 70's and it hooked me on Werner Herzog movies. Agree with the other reviewers as to its humanism, message etc. This reflects well in the Director's commentary on the DVD since he had to manage Bruno, the "Kasper" character as well as direct him because Bruno had such a damaged life (23 years in public institutions/jail).

Want to also recommend the DVD for some of the wonderful and near dreamlike images offered; a field of ripe rye whipped by a swirling wind, a fog-shrouded mountain with weary Irish pilgrims, a temple-covered plain, et. al. Beautiful as they are, it is the genius of W. Herzog to introduce these short hallucinatory segments as a way to bring to the viewer the sensation of how Kasper perceived a world we see as so familiar, but was all so new to him.

The Poetry Of Kaspar Hauser.......2006-02-27

Based on true story. In inimitable Herzog style at his artistic best, Kaspar stands for a poet and dreamer. There's that poignant scene in which he's being verbally assailed by the professor of "logic" and Kaspar refutes him with common sense and utterly poetic counter-argument. The prof gets floored but they still harass and torment the poet.
Kaspar is a pantheist -his notion of apples being live beings, his attunement to the oniricos -so many profound moments, many deep layers in this brilliant film.

What constitutes normalcy and civility?.......2006-02-13

"The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser" is the true account of one early 19th century foundling, Kaspar Hauser, who was locked and shackled in a dungeon from birth, only to be freed and exposed to society after 17 years in isolation (save for the lone keeper who fed and abused him). To add to his tragic circumstance, he was murdered almost as mysteriously as he was confined.

What makes "The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser" so compelling is not so much this man's biography. Rather it is Werner Herzog's exploration of the individual's role in society, especially when he has a personal history like Kaspar Hauser. Herzog looks at what would happen to such a person were he to interact with ordinary villagers, children, bureaucrats, clergymen, scientists and educators.

We discover over the course of the film that his perceptions would be different from their own. As he learns to walk, develop language skills, process logic, interpret dreams, understand the concept of God and perform piano solos, we realise what constitutes normalcy and civility according to society. We see man's incessant need to analyse, to explain, to classify and to codify that which is seemingly different than himself. More importantly, we see how individuality is broken and conformity becomes the norm. Not that all men are such cruel and intolerable ogres, Herzog lets us also see the tenderness and kindness humanity possesses.

Herzog's symbolism is quite subtle too. The abrupt cut to a still photograph and silence at the beginning is reflective of Kaspar Hauser's life. It too began peaceably and was cut short. It's a scene that foreshadows and epitomises the events to come.

The symbolism can even be ironic. I was particularly amused at the end when the crippled bureaucrat walks away thinking about Kaspar Hauser's 'abnormal' brain after an autopsy has been performed. Once again, one has to wonder who and what is normal, or so Herzog would have us think.

As you watch the film, you cannot help but feel empathy for Kaspar Hauser. This is owed partly to the performance of Bruno S. He is brilliant. The rigidity, the blank stare, the child-like innocence could perhaps only be depicted by someone who had lived and endured a similar fate. When you see Bruno S., keep in mind he was a 41 year old, non-actor playing a teenager. He, himself, had been abused, not unlike Kaspar Hauser, by his mother who was a prostitute; he was sent to an asylum and incarcerated for a petty crime.

Overall, "The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser" is a wonderful film. The DVD package is not bad either. It comes with a commentary from Werner Herzog synced to the film, if one so wishes. A biography on Herzog is also included. Subtitle options are in English and German.

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

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

ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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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'.

The Enigma Of Kaspar Hauser [Non-US Format, PAL, Region 2, Import]

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The Enigma Of Kaspar Hauser [Non-US Format, PAL, Region 2, Import]

ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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