Themes: Teachers and Students, Mysterious Strangers, Innocence Lost
Main Cast: Bruno S., Brigitte Mira, Walter Ladengast
Release Year: 1975
Country: WG
Run Time: 110 minutes
Plot
German director Werner Herzog's internationally acclaimed "breakthrough" film is based on the famous story of mysterious 19th-century child genius Kasper Hauser. As played by Bruno S., Hauser shows up unannounced in the middle of a village square, frightening the populace with his bizarre behavior. He cannot talk, nor is there any indication of his parentage, thus Kaspar is immediately the object of close scrutiny from the authorities. When he finally does develop the power of speech, he reveals a highly advanced state of intelligence, as well as a seeming gift of prophecy. The winner of the 1975 Grand Jury prize at the Cannes Film Festival, Every Man for Himself and God Against All was originally released in Germany under the title Jeder für Sich und Gott Gegen Alle. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Review
Visionary New German Cinema director Werner Herzog's U.S. breakthrough, Jeder für Sich und Gott Gegen Alle or The Mystery of Kaspar Hauser is a poignant, visually exquisite allegory of how civilization breeds despair. Based on a true story similar to the case in François Truffaut's The Wild Child (1970), Herzog's rendering of isolated, preverbal foundling Kaspar Hauser's release into the world as an adult reveals the perverse effects of "rational" thought and culture on natural, soulful innocence. While the painterly landscapes and lustrous dream images of deserts, mountains, lakes, and a golden, wind-swept field underline the beauty and wonder of the natural world outside his cellar, the limits imposed by language and the absurd urge to codify all experience become a "hard fall" to earth for the instinctually insightful and inadvertently threatening Kaspar. Along with Herzog's odd angles and compositions, former mental patient Bruno S.'s ethereal, evocatively affectless performance as Kaspar makes him both endearing and strange, emphasizing his impossible place in 19th century society. Enhancing Herzog's burgeoning reputation as an intense iconoclast after Aguirre, the Wrath of God (1972), The Mystery of Kaspar Hauser won the Grand Jury Prize at the 1975 Cannes Film Festival and became an international success. ~ Lucia Bozzola, All Movie Guide
Cast
Bruno S. - Kaspar Hauser
Brigitte Mira - Servant
Walter Ladengast - Professor Daumer
Johannes Buzalski - Police Officer; Alfred Edel - Logic Professor; Michael Kroecher - Lord Stanhope; Hans Musaus - Unknown Man; Volker Prechtel - Hiltel, the Prison Guard; Clemens Scheitz - Registrar; Willy Semmelrogge - Circus director; Henry van Lyck - Calvary Captain; Herbert Achternbush; Reinhard Hauff - Farmer; Kidlat Tahimik - Hombrecito; Florian Fricke - M. Florian; Enno Patalas - Pastor Fuhrmann; Herbert Fritsch - Mayor
Credit
Ann Poppel - Costume Designer, Gisela Storch - Costume Designer, Werner Herzog - Director, Beate Mainka-Jellinghaus - Editor, Orlando di Lasso - Composer (Music Score), Henning Von Gierke - Production Designer, Jörg Schmidt-Reitwein - Cinematographer, Werner Herzog - Producer, Werner Herzog - Screenwriter, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart - Featured Music, Tommaso Albinoni - Featured Music, Johann Pachelbel - Featured Music
The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser (1974) is a West Germanfilm 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". The film was part of the competition for the Palme d'Or at the 1975 Cannes Film Festival, where it won 3 awards including the Grand Prize of the Jury and Prize of the Ecumenical Jury.[1][2]
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 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 the same man who brought him to Nuremberg, who leaves him unconscious with a bleeding head. He recovers but is again mysteriously attacked, this time stabbed in the chest. 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.
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.
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 hotel room, to find him sleeping on the floor by the door, in his costume. The outdoor scenes were filmed in the town of Dinkelsbühl.
