The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser

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The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser
Directed by	Werner Herzog
Produced by	Werner Herzog
Written by	Werner Herzog
Starring	Bruno S. Walter Ladengast
Music by	Florian Fricke
Cinematography	Jörg Schmidt-Reitwein
Editing by	Beate Mainka-Jellinghaus
Release date(s)	1974
Running time	110 min.
Country	West Germany
Language	German
IMDb profile

The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser (1974) is West German film written and directed by Werner Herzog about the legend of Kaspar Hauser. Its original German title is Jeder für sich und Gott gegen alle, which means "Every man for himself and God against them all".

Contents 1 Plot 2 Adaptation 3 Production 4 See also 5 External links

[edit] Plot

The film tells the story of Kaspar Hauser (played by Bruno S.), who lived for the first 17 years of his life chained in a tiny cellar with only a toy horse to occupy his time, devoid of all human contact except for a stranger who feeds him. One day in 1828, the same stranger takes Kaspar out of his cell, teaches him a few phrases and how to walk, and then leaves him in the town of Nuremberg. Kaspar is the subject of the curiosity and is even exhibited in a circus before being rescued by Herr Daumer (Walter Ladengast) who patiently attempts to transform him. Kaspar soon learns to read and write and develops unorthodox approaches to religion and logic, but music is what pleases him most. He attracts the attention of clerics, academics, and nobility, but he is attacked by persons unknown who leave him unconscious with a bleeding head. He recovers but is again mysteriously attacked, stabbed in the chest possibly by the same man who brought him to Nuremberg. Kaspar rests in bed describing visions he had of nomadic Berbers in the Sahara Desert, and he dies shortly thereafter. An autopsy reveals an enlarged liver and cerebellum.

[edit] Adaptation

The film follows the real story of Kaspar Hauser quite closely, using the text of actual letters found with Hauser, and following many details in the opening sequence of Hauser's confinement and release. One departure is his age: the historical Hauser was 17 when he was discovered in Nuremberg. The film does not specify Kaspar's age, but Bruno was 41 years old at the time of filming.

[edit] Production

Herzog discovered the lead actor, Bruno S., in a documentary about street musicians. Fascinated by Bruno, Herzog cast him as the lead in two of his films, The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser and Stroszek despite the fact that he had no training as an actor.

Bruno's own life bears some similarities to Kaspar Hauser's, and his own unbalanced personality was often expressed on set. In Herzog's commentary for the English language DVD release, he recalls that Bruno remained in costume for the entire duration of the production, even after shooting was done for the day. Herzog once visited him in his apartment, to find him sleeping on the floor by the door, in his costume.

The outdoor scenes were filmed in the town of Dinkelsbühl.

[edit] See also

• Feral child

[edit] External links

• The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser at the Internet Movie Database

v • d • e Films directed by Werner Herzog 1960s Herakles (1962) • Game in the Sand (1964) • The Unprecedented Defence of the Fortress Deutschkreuz (1967) • Last Words (1967) • Signs of Life (1968) • The Flying Doctors of East Africa (1969) Precautions Against Fanatics (1969) 1970s Even Dwarfs Started Small (1970) • Handicapped Future (1971) • Land of Silence and Darkness (1971) • Fata Morgana (1971) • Aguirre, the Wrath of God (1972) • The Great Ecstasy of Woodcarver Steiner (1974) • The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser (1974) • Heart of Glass (1976) • No One Will Play With Me (1976) • How Much Wood Would a Woodchuck Chuck (1976) • Stroszek (1977) • La Soufrière (1977) • Nosferatu the Vampyre (1978) • Woyzeck (1978) 1980s Huie's Sermon (1981) • God's Angry Man (1981) • Fitzcarraldo (1982) • Ballad of the Little Soldier (1984) • The Dark Glow of the Mountains (1984) • Where the Green Ants Dream (1984) • Portrait Werner Herzog (1986) • Cobra Verde (1987) • The French as seen by... (1988) • Wodaabe - Herdsmen of the Sun (1989) 1990s Film Lesson 1-4 (1990) • Echoes From a Somber Empire (1990) • Jag Mandir (1991) • Scream of Stone (1991) • Lessons of Darkness (1992) • Bells from the Deep (1993) • The Transformation of the World Into Music (1994) • Gesualdo: Death for Five Voices (1995) • Little Dieter Needs to Fly (1997) • The Lord and the Laden (1999) • My Best Fiend (1999) 2000s Wings of Hope (2000) • Invincible (2001) • Pilgrimage (2001) • Ten Minutes Older (2002) • Wheel of Time (2003) • The White Diamond (2004) • Grizzly Man (2005) • The Wild Blue Yonder (2005) • Rescue Dawn (2007) • Encounters at the End of the World (2007) • The Cheese and the Worms (2008)

v • d • e Cinema of Germany Film chronology • German Empire 1895-1918 • Weimar Germany 1919-1933 • Nazi Germany 1933-1945 • East Germany (1945-1990) • (West) Germany 1945-present Actors • Directors • Films A-Z • Cinematographers • Festivals • Producers • Composers • Screenwriters

Preceded by Arabian Nights

Grand Prix Spécial du Jury, Cannes 1975

Succeeded by Cría Cuervos tied with La Marquise d'O...