Directed by:
Werner HerzogCinematography:
Jörg Schmidt-ReitweinCast:
Klaus Kinski, Eva Mattes, Josef Bierbichler, Herbert Fux, Irm Hermann, Willy Semmelrogge, Volker Prechtel, Dieter Augustin, Wolfgang Reichmann, Paul BurianVOD (1)
Plots(1)
In a mid-nineteenth century provincial German town everything appears calm, placid, lovely. But Woyzeck (Klaus Kinski), a rifleman assigned as an orderly, hears voices – the times are out of joint, at least in his cosmos. To his captain, Woyzeck is a comic marvel: ignorant but courageous, full of energy to little purpose. To a local doctor, Woyzeck is a curiosity, the object of cruel study. Woyzeck, 40, has a young wife, Marie, and a small child. He dotes on them, but Marie, even though she has periods of guilt and remorse, carries on affairs and flirtations. When the captain lets drop broad hints of Woyzeck's being a cuckold, his inner demons and the voices of the spheres take over. Will madness bring action? Of what sort? (Cinemax)
(more)Reviews (1)
Adapting Georg Büchner's tragic fragment into a film is a difficult task, especially because it is still unknown how the scenes and events follow each other, but Werner Herzog did a pretty good job. I've rated the film three stars, mainly because of the uninteresting plot, which was already awkward and inconsistent in the source material (which again refers to problems with its structure). The performance of Klaus Kinski, Herzog's court actor, must be singled out for praise, as he took very well to the role of the deranged Woyzeck slowly sinking into madness. In short, a film that is undermined by its source material, but was nevertheless filmed quite solidly.
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