The sounds of the 19th century and all of Bruno’s dialogue had to be captured on set and there’s an immediacy to each and every scene as a result. The resulting back-and-forth conversation is wonderful.ĭue to Bruno’s inexperience as an actor and mental state (something Herzog would be criticized for, saying he took advantage of the man), Herzog had to capture all the audio on set, knowing there would be no way to dub any of the lines after the fact. Kaspar is a man that has been tormented all his life, but he’s also a man that can see the world for what it is, unencumbered by societal norms, such as when he asks a woman, “What are women good for?” The question is blunt, and misunderstood out of context, but it comes from observation rather than gender defined roles in society. As much as we may feel sorry for the way Kaspar (and by relation Bruno) has been treated by society, there’s something to envy in being able to look at the world with such clear eyes. He’s a blank slate as much as he’s a reasoning young man, and to convince him the universe was born out of nothing by an all powerful, unseen God isn’t going to be possible. The mere fact Kaspar Hauser is not a child changes everything. It’s a conversation that begs the question of how much we “know” or believe comes from what we’ve been told or comes from what is generally accepted in society. Another exchange finds Kaspar doubting God in the face of three religious figures. Kaspar’s answer is so simple and flawless, that within this one exchange you finally realize Kaspar is slowly gaining the upper hand. This, to me, is what Kaspar Hauser is building to, specifically a scene where a professor attempts to test Kaspar with a logic question with which there can be only one answer, or so says the professor. Kaspar takes a liking to the piano, eventually coming to the attention of academics and the aristocracy.

He eventually comes into the care of Herr Daumer ( Walter Ladengast) who teaches him to read and write. He’s cared for in a general sense, though he is kept locked away at the top of a tower and eventually becomes part of a trio of circus freaks so as to “pay his way”. The small town’s initial reaction to Kaspar is one of curiosity. The result is as heart-breaking as it is enlightening. Herzog saw Bruno in a documentary and knew he was the man to play Kaspar Hauser, a role he says Bruno realized “was just as much about how society had destroyed him” as it was about how society destoryed Kaspar Hauser. She used the opportunity to have him placed in a mental asylum and for the next 23 years he’d be in and out of institutions, foster homes and prisons.

It’s a performance you can’t neatly describe or fit in a box, it’s otherworldly and considering Herzog’s past with Klaus Kinski, it’s only fitting he’d find a quieter, yet just as intriguing lead as Bruno S.Īs Herzog tells it in his book “ Herzog on Herzog“, Bruno was beaten so badly by his mother, a prostitute, when he was three that he stopped speaking. He plays the character as pensive, yet curious shy, yet attentive. Bruno portrays the character, who comes to the small town barely able to walk or even talk, with such innocence. Thankfully, the age of Kaspar Hauser doesn’t matter. The film is based on a true story, though Herzog holds little allegiance to reality as he cast Bruno (as I’ll refer to him throughout the rest of this review), a man in his forties portraying what history would tell us is only a boy in his late teens. (full name Bruno Schleinstein) holds eerie similarities to the title character in The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser, a 19th century Germany-set story of a man who was locked away in a dungeon for the first 17 years or so of his life only to one day be found in a small town square outside Nuremberg, alone and holding only an anonymous letter.

In discovering Bruno S., Werner Herzog found exactly the kind of actor he needs, someone who doesn’t necessarily “act” in a role, but someone that more-or-less is the character he/she was hired to portray.

The enigma of kaspar hauser