Woyzeck (1979 film)

Woyzeck
Woyzeck DVD cover
Directed by	Werner Herzog
Produced by	Werner Herzog
Written by	Werner Herzog Georg Büchner (play)
Starring	Klaus Kinski Eva Mattes Wolfgang Reichmann Willy Semmelrogge
Cinematography	Jörg Schmidt-Reitwein
Editing by	Beate Mainka-Jellinghaus
Distributed by	Werner Herzog Filmproduktion
Release dates	August 24, 1979 USA
Running time	82 min.
Country	West Germany
Language	German

Woyzeck is a 1979 film by the German director Werner Herzog that stars Klaus Kinski and Eva Mattes. It is an adaptation of the play of the same name by German dramatist Georg Büchner.

Plot

Franz Woyzeck, a lowly soldier stationed in a provincial German town, is the father of an illegitimate child by his mistress Marie. Woyzeck earns extra money for his family by performing menial jobs for the Captain and agreeing to take part in medical experiments conducted by the Doctor. As one of these experiments, the Doctor tells Woyzeck he must eat nothing but peas. It is obvious that Woyzeck's mental health is breaking down and he begins to experience a series of apocalyptic visions. Meanwhile, Marie grows tired of Woyzeck and turns her attentions to a handsome drum major, who in an ambiguous scene taking place in Marie's bedroom, arguably rapes her.

With his jealous suspicions growing, Woyzeck confronts the drum major, who beats him up and humiliates him. Finally, Woyzeck stabs Marie to death by a pond. Woyzeck disposes of the knife in the pond, and while trying to wash the blood off, he hallucinates that he is swimming in blood and dies.

As critics disagree upon the order Büchner intended the surviving fragments of his work to be played, it is difficult to assert whether Herzog stuck to the play. He kept to the overall plot, but of necessity, his was an interpretation of how best the scenes should be pieced together to portray it.

Production

Filming for Woyzeck in Telč, Czechoslovakia, began just five days after work on Herzog's Nosferatu the Vampyre had ended. Herzog used the same exhausted crew and star. The scenes were accomplished mostly in a single take, which allowed the filming to be completed in only 18 days; it was edited in just four. Herzog had planned to use Bruno S. in the title role, but he then changed his mind, considering Kinski more suitable for the part. To compensate Bruno for this disappointment, Herzog wrote the leading role in the film Stroszek especially for him.

At the 1979 Cannes Film Festival, Eva Mattes won the award for Best Supporting Actress for her part in this film. Herzog was nominated for the Golden Palm.^[1] In 1981, the film won the Silver Guild Film Award from the Guild of German Art House Cinemas.^[2]

Cast

• Klaus Kinski as Friedrich Johann Franz Woyzeck
• Eva Mattes as Marie
• Wolfgang Reichmann as Captain
• Willy Semmelrogge as Doctor
• Josef Bierbichler as Drum Major
• Paul Burian as Andres
• Volker Prechtel as Handwerksbursche
• Dieter Augustin as Marktschreier
• Irm Hermann as Margret
• Wolfgang Bächler as Jew

Soundtrack

• The opening credits strings music is performed by the Fidelquartett Telč. The performance seems to have been created for the movie since no further reference is available.
• The last song of the closing credits is the second movement (largo) of Antonio Vivaldi's concerto for lute and two violins in D major (RV93), played with the guitar.

References

External links

• Woyzeck at the Internet Movie Database
• Woyzeck at allmovie
• Woyzeck at Rotten Tomatoes