Woyzeck

I seriously need to re-watch *all* of Herzog's films, but in the flicker of memory this is my favorite.

For me, the static camera-work fits the hothouse atmosphere of Buchner's play perfectly. I think especially of the early scene where Woyzeck is shaving the Captain, and the camera doesn't move *at all* for what seems like forever ... technically, it is reminiscent of some of Jim Jarmusch's early films where the camera is hilariously static. Here, it is horrifyingly static.

And Kinski has never been more possessed, more demonically almost out of control. I just can't watch him, particularly during the intense (slow motion!) climactic sequence, and then "come back" to Hollywood movies and watch ... well, say, Kevin Costner. Sorry. Guess I'm a snob.

Finally, the strange, sawing music just sends me over the top every time, my skin tingling. To me this is an absolutely unforgettable, brilliant film experience. It disturbs the living hell out of me, and I like that.

Klaus Kinski gives a couragous effort that deserved an Oscar for Best Actor in 1979. Woyzeck(1979) deals with a lower level solider who's clinging to the small amount of sanity left in him. The film is competently done by Werner Herzog. The motion Picture comes on the heels of Herzog's Nosferatu(1979). Its one of the best films by Werner Herzog that isn't as notorious as films like Fitzcarraldo(1982), Aguirre:The Wrath of God(1974), and The Mystery of Kaspar Hausar(1975).

There is a murder in the movie that's worthy of the shower scene in Psycho(1960). Woyzeck(1979) follows a few themes that were prominent in Herzog's debut Signs of Life(1967). The fast motion scene at the beginning is marvolous. Klaus Kinski was really being kicked around in the opening scene. Klaus Kinski did such a great job at his realistic portrayal that the actor almost ended up like the main character.

Sadly it was only when looking this up after seeing it, and noting that it was an adaptation of an unfinished play, that Woyzeck made any sort of sense to me. It feels very empty and skeletal, which lends it a haunting ambience not really backed up by depth of plot. Kinski, playing a gaunt and penniless soldier driven mad by a diet of exclusively peas, is the central character here but plenty of others pop up and soliloquise at random. The ending seems unclear, the reasoning and purpose equally seem fairly opaque - all that's left in my mind are some picturesque images of the stunningly idiosyncratic Czech town of Telc where it was all filmed.

One of Werner Herzog's most unrecognized films, Woyzeck is utterly brilliant.

Few films succeed at portraying frustration and madness as much as this. Among them are Scorsese's "Taxi Driver" and Lodge Kerrigan's "Clean Shaven"

Klaus Kinski's performance is so good that just watching him is tiring, and the viewer is left anticipating when he will finally snap. Few films stick with me as much as this one and the sped up opening sequence is one of the most memorable opening scenes of any film I've seen.

This movie is far from perfect, but there are a few scenes here and there that are absolutly hair-raising : Kinski in a state of total exaustion at the begining, the scene in the woods when he starts to hear voices and the unbeleivable murder scene consisting of two shots disguised as one that last about 5 minutes in slow motion (it has to be seens to be beleived). The use of music is fantastic, the photography impecable. Herzog does as usual and captures another world while Kinski is plainly living in it. There are a few off scenes and some of the dialogue gets a bit obvious in it's openly nialistic cliches, but most of the movie holds up. One of those movies that you simply have to see at least once.