Review of Woyzeck (1979) by Kajori A — 02 May 2008
The role of Woyzeck seems tailor-made for Kinski: he is brilliant in this film about a 19th-century German soldier slowly going out of his mind. It all ends with the grisly murder of his faithless mistress in an unforgettable scene filmed in slow motion and set to music.
Unlike Buchner's play, Herzog's film is less social commentary (although, as a lowly soldier, Woyzeck is routinely abused and humiliated by authority figures) and more a study of fear and individual loneliness.
The staginess of the dialogue (even minor characters regularly come up with philosophical profundities) and acting has an interesting estranging effect and gives the story a timeless folktale-like quality, rather odd in a film about madness set in the 19th century! But when has Herzog ever been a stranger to oddness?
This review of Woyzeck (1979) was written by Kajori A on 02 May 2008.
Woyzeck has generally received positive reviews.
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