Empire Magazine (2008) Greatest Movies List - #428: The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser

Life is often stranger than fiction, which is why many fiction writers look to real life for their stories. German cinema icon Werner Herzog, who has made as many documentaries as fiction films, clearly has a passion for real-life stories about extraordinary characters. In The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser (1974) his focus is on a man whose origins has remained an unsolved mystery since the 1800s. From an anthropological standpoint it’s a fascinating story, anchored by an actor tasked with portraying a character that is essentially a blank state.

Herzog has written, directed, and starred in dozens of movies since the start of his career and sadly I have only seen a few. Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans is probably his most known commercial work since it features Nicolas Cage going full Nicolas Cage. Then of course anyone with a Disney + subscription now knows Herzog as “The Client” in The Mandalorian. The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser is nowhere near as flashy as any of these projects, but it is definitely worth watching. No need for any subscription to see it since it is currently available for free on the Tubi movie app, minus the occasional interruption for commercials.

The movie tells the true story of a young man (Bruno S.) who was found in the town of Nuremberg, Germany, in 1828 holding a letter with mysterious information. Authorities quickly realized the man could barely speak, stand, walk, or write. He could however write his name: Kaspar Hauser. Kaspar claimed to have been kept in a cellar for his entire youth with only a toy horse and his unknown captor for company. Due to the lack of human interaction, he didn’t know how to eat with cutlery, seemed to have no concept of object permanence, and did not comprehend the meaning of danger. When a man swings a sword in front of him, Kaspar just stares ahead because he has no idea what a sword does.

Kaspar’s mysterious origins became a national mystery. At first, he becomes a circus attraction, but thankfully that is short-lived. Over time with proper education he learns how to read, write, and also how to play the piano for distinguished guests. He’s no Mozart, but I have an education and I can’t play a single instrument so Kaspar is ahead of me on that one.

I have a fondness for self-made characters who surmount the odds and become much more than what they were. There is the Count of Monte-Cristo who went to prison and came out a rich and educated man. You have the Bane character from the Batman comics who was born in prison but read his way through the prison library to become one of the Caped Crusader’s most cunning villains. Kaspar Hauser never achieved such outlandish adventures, but he does get very far in life compared to where he started.

Herzog’s movie was interesting enough for me to go on Wikipedia and read up a bit more about the enigmatic Mr. Hauser. It turns out many people assumed he was a fraud who was lying to the public in order to feed his own legend. That is never alluded to in the movie, but then again Herzog is not making a documentary. The legend is fascinating enough as it is without too many additional facts.

The movie of course owes a lot to the performance of Bruno S., whose own life was so interesting he eventually became the subject of a documentary. He fully embodies the character of Kaspar with a series of unique mannerisms and a distinct speech pattern. He seems a bit too old for the character, but from the moment you see him you really believe this is a person that has been cut off from society for years. It is truly one of the best performances captured on film.

Empire Magazine (2008) Greatest Movies List - #85: Blue Velvet

Exactly how do you describe a David Lynch movie? He is one of the few directors whose style is so distinctive that his last name has become an adjective. According to Urban Dictionary, the definition of Lynchian is: “having the same balance between the macabre and the mundane found in the works of filmmaker David Lynch.” To see a prime example of that adjective film lovers need look no further than Lynch’s Blue Velvet (1986), which does indeed begin in the mundane before slowly sinking in macabre violence. My first introduction to the world of David Lynch was through his ground breaking, but unfortunately interrupted, early 1990s TV series Twin Peaks . This was one of the first television shows to grab viewers with a series-long mystery: who killed Laura Palmer? A mix of soap opera, police procedural, and the supernatural, it is a unique show that showed the darkness hidden in suburbia and remains influential to this day. Featuring Kyle MacLachlan as an FBI investigator with a l...

Empire Magazine (2008) Greatest Movies List - #147: Notorious

Alfred Hitchcock’s Notorious (1946) has many of the master director’s signature elements: spies, lies, a handsome leading man, a domineering mother, and of course a MacGuffin. As it is set after World War II the villains are logically former Nazis, but the plot is so tense in many scenes that it remains an effective thriller to this day. It also bears a huge influence on John Woo’s Mission Impossible 2 , which retains plot elements and similar dialogue, but of course has more explosions than all of Hitchcock’s films put together. Notorious is so well-made it can be studies in film classes, which is exactly what I did while taking a course on Hollywood Cinema 1930-1960 during the summer of 2009 at the University of British Columbia. As this is Hitchcock we are talking about here, there are subtler things to analyze than explosions in Notorious , no offense to the skills of Mr. John Woo. Famously there is a kissing scene between stars Cary Grant and Ingrid Bergman that seemingly las...

Empire Magazine (2008) Greatest Movies List - #102: The Hustler

Robert Rossen’s The Hustler (1961) is proof that any sport can be used for good cinematic drama even if that sport is pool. Although this is not a game that involves a massive sport arena and bloody boxing gloves, things can get dramatically interesting if the monetary stakes are high, and visually arresting if the filmmakers shoot from the right angle. It also helps a lot if the man putting his money on the table is played by a young Paul Newman in a career-breaking role. Prior to watching the film I had a vague idea of the meaning of the word “hustling” and a rather passive interest in the game of pool. It’s a fun game to play if you are having a couple of nachos and chicken wings on a Friday evening with friends, but I didn’t see it as a spectator sport. Watching The Hustler in the classics section of Netflix two years ago was a bit of an education since it shows the sport as a way of life for some people, and a huge source of revenue for big time gamblers. Newman star as...

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