Stroszek
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Movie Reviews of Stroszek
Movie Review: Need some help...
Summary: 5 Stars
In the first half of the movie, Bruno and the old man are in Berlin yet and the old man is playing a classical piece on the piano. Soon after, those pimps bust in again and harass Stroszek.
Any idea what this song is? It's driving me crazy!
Movie Review: excellent
Summary: 5 Stars
The fist time I watched it I could only watch ten minutes of it. The next day I watched a bit more. then finished it on the third day and ended up liking it. But then I watched it again with the director's commentary and absolutely loved it.Movie Review: Means To An End
Summary: 5 Stars
Joy Division lead singer, Ian Curtis, hung himself within an hour or so of watching this. One thumb down, heh?
Movie Review: Easy times come hard...
Summary: 4 Stars
I missed out seeing the 70's films by German director Werner Herzog--after all, I was only a child at the time. Anyway, I recently viewed & reviewed the director's very weird, neo-horror flick HEART OF GLASS. In that review I expressed concern that Herzog had more or less "lifted" the styles of the great European directors of same era. However, I was interested enough to view Herzog's 1977 film STROSZEK. This film is more literal & realistic...AND very good.
Herzog follows in the footsteps of other talented directors in that he works with a sort of core or repetory group of actors who appear in one film after another. I recognized many faces from HEART OF GLASS also playing in STROSZEK.
At the center of the script is the character Stroszek, who I think is the same as the actor Bruno S., who is more or less playing himself. The American satrical director John Waters (HAIR SPRAY, PINK FLAMINGOS, POLYESTER, LOVE IN THE DUST etc.) is also known for casting people off the street to act in his films--often with good results. This seems to work for Herzog as well. Just as in HEART OF GLASS, you can catch a few actors who seem to be looking at the off-camera director during a shoot. Nonetheless, it's an interesting technique that can be traced back to the European mediaeval Miracle Plays.
Another production element that Walters & Herzog have in common is that pop music is an important component used to illustrate--or counterpoint--the script. Unlike Waters though, some of the music & sounds in Herzog's films are grinding & nerve rattling. There is good music too, such as in the movie's's opening sequence.
Stroszek is released from a "reformatory." You get the impression he's been in & out of jail and/or mental institution most of his life. One of the first things he does is to haul an accordian & some kind of percussion instrument in a beat up old wagon, taking his 1 man band into an alley where he gives a "recital." There are elements of Berlin "dark cabaret" in the performance that reminded me of today's Tiger Lillies "Shockheaded Peter." Stroszek's recital is wonderful.
Herzog sets his film in the underworld of the Berlin "lumpen prolitariat." This is the lowest strata of the low. (German theatre director Bertolt Brecht set most of his "epic theatre" operas & musicals in this milieu.) Stroszek is attracted to a young prostitute called Eva, and she in turn is totally dominated by her abusive pimp/boyfriend and his equally vicious associate. The movie is extremely brutal in these opening scenes, as Eva is physically & sexually abused & Strosek is physically & mentally abused by the louts.
In another apartment--or sharing the same apartment--there is a strange little man. He is the same actor who played a strange little man in HEART OF GLASS. He has the most fragile face I've ever seen.
The little man says that he is moving to rural Winconsin where a relative has a ranch ("pile of crap" would be more apt.) He invites Stroszek & Eva to join him. Stroszek thinks it's a great idea & convinces Eva that this is just what they need to keep their relationship intact. This is like when a man & a woman can't get along, so decide to have a baby in order to improve their relationship. It's a recipe for complete d-i-s-a-s-t-e-r.
Wincosin is a bust. Other reviwers have covered the plot from that point, so I'll focus on a couple points that struck my fancy. As stated above, music plays a subtle role in the movie. The song EASY TIMES COME HARD FOR ME is playing on the radio in one secene. It is an instrumental version, but the lyrics, I feel, are relevant. "Easy times come hard for me and oh, my darling/ time again to dream that you are coming home/Happy times I've had with you, do you know, my darling/ will there ever be a time I'm not alone?"
I'm not sure if the director assumed that everybody knew the un-sung lyrics, but for me the quoted verse above sums up Stroszek's mental/emotional impairment projected into his hopeless non-relationship with Eva.
Near the end of the film, the little man & Stroszek are on the run from the law (and that's another whole story). They go into a convenience store to purchase some on-the-lam provisions, and Strosek elects to purchase...a 30 lb. frozen turkey!
I believe STROSZEK is an imporant (AND entertaining) cross-cultural film...and what does Herzog do with the last precious minutes? He places his hero at a sort of barnyard animal freak show. You drop a coin in an open-view cage. In one cage when you drop in the coin, a miniature juke box starts playing & the chicken inside does a little dance! In another cage a chicken plays a piano, and yet in another a duck beats on a drum...and you know what? The little hen can really dance! She really does captivate attention.
The film concludes without even trying to supply any kind of ends-tied-up conclusion. This is a hallmark of European neo-realism. You can see this in Vittorio De Sica's UMBERTO, D and Francois Truffaut's THE 400 BLOWS. I appreciate this aspect because it's very true to life. No fudged, romantic endings.
Just more questions, often left unanswered.
Umberto D. - Criterion Collection
The 400 Blows - Criterion Collection
Polyester
John Waters Collection #3: Pink Flamingos/ Female Trouble
Hairspray
The Threepenny Opera - Criterion Collection
Shockheaded Peter and Other Songs from the Tiger Lillies
Twin Peaks - The Definitive Gold Box Edition (The Complete Series)
The Damned
Movie Review: Everyone Knows Dollars Grow on Trees in Wisconsin
Summary: 4 Stars
Werner Herzog, world reknown film maker and producer received the lifetime achievement award at the Sarasota Film Festival in April 2006. His films are primarily fictionalized documentaries. He adds fiction to bring focus on a larger truth by exaggerating events and making a bigger statement to prove his point. Herzog based the story of "Stroszek" on several real life events, some murders in Wisconsin and a street musician (who plays himself) who lived in Berlin, who was the son of a prostitute, who had been raised in reform schools and ended up in prison. He is lost in the real world because it is totally alien to him. Herzog provides an unusual cast of characters, many of whom are not actors, but play themselves, mostly working class (Wisconsin mechanics and Indians) and street low lifes (thugs in Berlin) who live unusually simple lives, just making ends meet in the world. The extra features include audio commentary with Werner Herzog who explains some of the innovative ideas on which he based the film. This is a tragi-comedy where no matter what improvements in life the main characters attempt, fate intervenes to twist them in a different direction, usually downward. There are humorous and ironic events which makes this a fascinating film from an artistic and creative aspect.
We meet Bruno Stroszek as he is being released from prison, he is given his belongings: cash, a flugel horn, his accordion and a lecture from the prison warden. The warden has a thankless job but when he sees someone released it brings him some measure of satisfaction: he lectures Bruno, to stop drinking beer which makes him crazy and break the a law. The warden tells him to buy a cup of coffee and a piece of pie instead. Bruno returns to the former apartment he shared with an eccentric elderly gentleman. He resumes relations with his prostitute girlfriend Eva, who is beaten up by street thugs. This event provides the impetus to emigrate to the United States, to Wisconsin, where the elderly gentleman had an American friend or cousin with whom he kept in touch.
In the US, Bruno gets a job as a mechanic, Eva becomes a waitress. They buy a mobile/trailer home and television set by taking a loan from the bank. It does not take long before they fall behind on their payments. They receive a visit from the bank loan officer, a very polite man, who makes it clear in the kindest of tones that unless they meet their obligations, the bank will confiscate their home and TV. Eva returns to her former way of life, finding clients at the truck stop restaurant, to provide extra money to pay the loan. Bruno falls into a funk, realizing no matter what they do, they will not make ends meet. Eva ends up leaving with a group of truckers to Canada ... Bruno and the elderly man go on a robbing spree, to get money in order to eat. It happens to be Thanksgiving, so the irony is they rob a store to buy a turkey. The elderly man is caught and arrested. Bruno's car breaks down but he obtains the truck from the mechanic's shop and goes on a driving rampage. He ends up at a Wisconsin tourist trap where he takes a ski lift type ride on which he sits and goes round and round. Prior to that he had turned on several of the exhibits in which different animals perform various tricks. The last scene is one of the most humorous and creative endings which earned Herzog fame. It depicts in a surreal manner that for some the American Dream becomes a bizarre nightmare from which there is no release. The film will appeal to those who are interested in unusual innovations and creativity in filmmaking. There is a lot of irony and off the wall humour which may appeal only to a selective audience. Erika Borsos {pepper flower}