Review of Stroszek (1977) by Tom C — 31 Jul 2010

What is Stroszek? Stroszek is many things. Stroszek as a character is an archetype, as a movie it is *about* America but not *of* America. Stroszek is 'one of the oddest films ever made'; Stroszek is every inch the classic.

Any audience can see the source of inspiration for many modern films in Stroszek. 'Wise Blood'; Mike Leigh's 'Naked' among many others. Stroszek is full of wonderful, strange moments, memorable vignettes such as Stroszek, cigarette ablaze, seated in a dingy flat, asking his elderly neighbour questions about life, and being answered only by musical phrases from his 'black friend', that is, his old out-of-tune black grand piano; seemingly played for real.

Herzog without a doubt is an absolute lunatic. His cinematic lunacy knows no bounds. He does whatever is on his mind at that moment - reflecting his own world view, he is truly a chaotic person. And the very origins of this movie support that - he wrote it in a matter of days, to give Bruno S. something to do after he rejected him from Woyzeck.

The liner notes to the Werner Herzog boxset contains a few paragraphs about the film, written by author Jim Knipfel. Apparently many people read the film as 'a critique of American capitalism' but more importantly he also states that Herzog disagrees with this. And I would too. There is simply not enough insight into the characters' lives in America, not enough work goes into distinguishing their American life from their German life to truly justify calling the film 'anti-American' or anything of the sort. Stroszek doesn't fit in anywhere. He is a drifter. Was his life better in Wisconsin, or in Berlin? As Bruno tells us, they were horrible, and 'closed the doors to him' or 'kicked him to the curb' in totally different ways.