Films/DVD Asylum

Posted by tinear (A) on August 29, 2006 at 04:31:37

more and begins to beat him until, at age three, the child that had managed to speak some words becomes so terrified and traumatized he cannot utter a sound. About this time, the child is removed from the mother and, because of its lack of emotiveness, is declared retarded and placed in an institution.
Thus begins what will be a life wherein 23 fo the first 26 years will be spent incarcerated in such institutions, reform schools, and then prisons.
This is the non-actor Werner Herzog chose to play the lead in "Stroszek."
Stroszek is released from prison and reverts to the life which he had so earnestly been warned against returning to by the warden: days spent drinking beer and playing music in the Berlin courtyards for money.
Almost immediately, he meets and befriends a prostitute whose pimps unmercifully have been beating her.
Meanwhile, Stroszek's lone friend, a very old man, hears from a relative in the US that invites him to emigrate.
The three set out for the farm country of Wisconsin with sky-high hopes of "making it in America."
This is a fascinating film which paints an equally accurate portrait of inner Berlin and rural Wisconsin. I have never seen an American director portray the Midwest with anything like Herzog's unrelenting and penetrating lens.
But all this, of course, only serves as the frame for Herzog's view of human hope and aspiration.
I have seen Herzog's more famous films "Fitzcarraldo" and "Aguirre: Wrath of the Gods," of course, but this neglected gem, the screenplay of which was written by the director in four days to fulfill a promise to the lead actor, is my favorite.