The Enigma Of Kaspar Hauser (Jeder Fur Sich Und Gott Gegen Alle)

Werner Herzog, Germany 1975, 110 minutes

The film won Herzog the Grand Jury Prize at Cannes and features Bruno S as Kaspar Hauser. Set in 19th century Germany, Hauser arrives in the centre of a sleepy town square neither able to talk nor having had virtually any contact with other humans (bar his provider the mysterious man in black). When Hauser learns to talk, it is revealed that he has been living in a cellar for years. - unable to either walk or speak and provided for by the man in black who eventually abandons him, leading to his arrival in the town square.

Some of the town's people show compassion to Hauser, teaching him the mannerisms of civilisation (in an often comic way), while others spy on his every move - not trusting his story and using their powers of logic and rationality to try and uncover Hauser's past by studying his every move. Hauser duly shows up the limitations of, and satirises, such rationality. Kaspar departs from the town as mysteriously as he arrived.

Bruno S is the perfect actor for the role and is actually a non-professional actor and street performer who spent most of his childhood in mental institutions. Another actor performing a similar role (Peter Sellers in his penultimate role as Chancey the Gardener in Jerzi Kosinski's Being There) said of the role, it was perhaps the hardest he had carried out in his career as one cannot use words or actions to give the viewer a picture of what is going on in the subject's head. It must all be in the face. The film although whimsical has some insightful moments. It is both dreamily hypnotic and awe inspiring in it's beautiful and highly crafted look at landscape and human aspiration. The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser is equally a work of masterful under statement by the main actor, making it thoroughly deserving of it's Cannes award.

Review by Stephen J Brennan
Taken from EUFS Programme 1997-98