The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser Review

• 8th Jun 2013

In Nuremberg, 1828, a young man was found standing in the town square. Barely able to speak or walk, he carried a note that gave no clue to his origins other than that he had recently been liberated from the cell in which he had spent his entire life to that point. The note was unsigned, provided no return address, and raised more questions than it answered. The young man was able to write what the townsfolk assumed was his own name, however – Kaspar Hauser.

From this true story, Werner Herzog crafted The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser, one of the masterpieces of 1970s European cinema. Herzog makes no attempt to speculate on who Hauser ‘really’ was or where he might have come from, nor even who may have clumsily nurtured him from baby to adult before abandoning him to the mercies of the people of Nuremberg.

Instead, Herzog expresses his own worldview, with Hauser as the uncorrupted and incorruptible innocent navigating a society that refuses to accept it has anything to learn from him, and constantly seeks to use him instead as a source of wealth and entertainment. Herzog’s real interest in Hauser’s story is far more ably expressed by the film’s original German title, Jeder für sich und Gott gegen alle (Every Man for Himself, and God Against All.)

“Truly, the day I was released into the world was a very hard fall indeed,” laments Hauser at one point – only to be admonished by his benefactor that he couldn’t possibly mean such a thing. Already in his early 40s when filming began, Bruno S’s middle-aged ‘foundling child,’ complete with his halting delivery, rigid posture and oddly expressive stare, is an enigma in and of himself, even if his mysterious origins are ignored.

Although Herzog’s painterly eye is on fine display in this newly restored edition (some of the interior scenes, in particular, are framed and lit like Old Masters), and his caustic humour in evidence, it is really Bruno S’s performance that has ensured Kaspar Hauser’s classic status, even though Bruno was (according to IMDB) “very difficult to work with…sometimes needing several hours of screaming before he could do a scene.” (This is hardly surprising given his background. Bruno was born to a prostitute who beat him so severely when he was a toddler that she damaged his hearing. Misdiagnosed with learning difficulties, he was sent to a succession of mental institutions where he was reportedly subjected to Nazi experimentation.)

By turns poignant, sarcastic, funny and affectionate, Kaspar Hauser remains one of the greatest films of modern cinema by one of its greatest directors.

The BFI is screening Kaspar Hauser in parts of England and Scotland as of 5 June 2013: http://www.bfi.org.uk/news-opinion/bfi-film-releases

 Clare Moody