The richness of "Stroszek" strengthens with multiple viewings. Haunting cinematography by Thomas Mauch has a bitter-sweet humor faithful to mid-century American experience. Underscored by sentimental American popular tunes many from Chet Akins presage "Aguirre, der Zorn Gottes" enhanced by pensive editing by Beate Mainka-Jellinghaus.
The late Bruno Schleinstein plays a protagonist. If you do not know his story,watch the film and then read about him. In the film, he also plays (his) piano, accordion, glockenspiel, and hand bells. This is music by Bruno S. himself. Even though the movies tells a story set in America, it is a film about Bruno S. and, in an important way, a film for him.
Eva Mattes, famous for her work in four masterworks by Rainer Maria Fassbinder, brings a dry, sardonic sense to what might have been a maudlin role. Many who play in the film are amateurs the crew met on location. The second cameraman Edward Lachman often improvised English language dialogue in the moment. Literally, Mr. Herzog used the people he and the crew met at the moment. Sometimes, especially in the sections shot in Germany, those playing the role were known ahead of the shooting. The scenes early in the movie with a brutal pimp are played by a brutal pimp. The premature baby is with an actual doctor who works with premature babies.
Editor Beate Mainka-Jellinghaus took part in the shooting. Improvisation plays a major part in the tonality of "Stroszek". With Bruno S. and others, improvisation plays a vital and central role though Bruno knows what he is to do.
This is a terrific film that I relate to Michael Ritchie's "Smile", another masterwork that explores similar themes. Yet, Herzog's view of American life is not bitter like that of Mr. Ritchie. It is brutal—but not meanly so. I think that the meanness has more to do with the story than with Mr. Herzog's opinion of the United States. He admits to having deep affection for the heartland of American and to the people who live there.
For one who loves the immense formal beauty of European Modern French, Swedish, and Italian films, watching German movies is sometimes hard in some ways. Many films from the wave of German movies of which Herzog's work is part and example have a hard look. Some of them are hard to watch. The humour is hard even if it softens bitterness. This is not an optimistic film but that is not the mood that Herzog finds about America. It is simply the mood of the story.
Do not listen to the commentary on the DVD until you first watch this film without it. Then do listen to the commentary. From the commentary, you learn precisely how the movie blurs lines between documentary and fictional film narrative.
In the end, we realize the "Brave New World" image of conditioned life in America—in the trained rabbit and poultry, a duck and especially a chicken, at Cherokee,North Carolina. Sonny Terry, blowing his fierce blues harmonica, beats the frantic and pointless pace at which we live. Funny and tragic but not mean, these images infect your memory.
The late Bruno Schleinstein plays a protagonist. If you do not know his story,watch the film and then read about him. In the film, he also plays (his) piano, accordion, glockenspiel, and hand bells. This is music by Bruno S. himself. Even though the movies tells a story set in America, it is a film about Bruno S. and, in an important way, a film for him.
Eva Mattes, famous for her work in four masterworks by Rainer Maria Fassbinder, brings a dry, sardonic sense to what might have been a maudlin role. Many who play in the film are amateurs the crew met on location. The second cameraman Edward Lachman often improvised English language dialogue in the moment. Literally, Mr. Herzog used the people he and the crew met at the moment. Sometimes, especially in the sections shot in Germany, those playing the role were known ahead of the shooting. The scenes early in the movie with a brutal pimp are played by a brutal pimp. The premature baby is with an actual doctor who works with premature babies.
Editor Beate Mainka-Jellinghaus took part in the shooting. Improvisation plays a major part in the tonality of "Stroszek". With Bruno S. and others, improvisation plays a vital and central role though Bruno knows what he is to do.
This is a terrific film that I relate to Michael Ritchie's "Smile", another masterwork that explores similar themes. Yet, Herzog's view of American life is not bitter like that of Mr. Ritchie. It is brutal—but not meanly so. I think that the meanness has more to do with the story than with Mr. Herzog's opinion of the United States. He admits to having deep affection for the heartland of American and to the people who live there.
For one who loves the immense formal beauty of European Modern French, Swedish, and Italian films, watching German movies is sometimes hard in some ways. Many films from the wave of German movies of which Herzog's work is part and example have a hard look. Some of them are hard to watch. The humour is hard even if it softens bitterness. This is not an optimistic film but that is not the mood that Herzog finds about America. It is simply the mood of the story.
Do not listen to the commentary on the DVD until you first watch this film without it. Then do listen to the commentary. From the commentary, you learn precisely how the movie blurs lines between documentary and fictional film narrative.
In the end, we realize the "Brave New World" image of conditioned life in America—in the trained rabbit and poultry, a duck and especially a chicken, at Cherokee,North Carolina. Sonny Terry, blowing his fierce blues harmonica, beats the frantic and pointless pace at which we live. Funny and tragic but not mean, these images infect your memory.