Skip to main content

Posts

Showing posts with the label Kaspar Hauser

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...