Review of Woyzeck (1979) by Stuart K — 01 Aug 2010

This is the fourth Herzog/Kinski collaboration I have seen out of the five they did before falling out. After seeing Aguirre, Fitzcarraldo and Nosferatu I was expecting much and wasn't disappointed.

POSSIBLE SPOILERS AHEAD.........

Woyzeck lives in a small provincial German town; he is poor and needs money to support his mistress Marie and their son. To obtain the money he has joined the army and also puts himself through various scientific studies for the local Doctor in return for small amounts of money.

He is treated with contempt by most people and like a laboratory animal by the doctor who has imposed upon him a diet consisting solely of peas which he hopes will drive Woyzeck gradually insane and give him the opportunity to study him.

He is a tragic and tormented character who seems to be continually struggling to stay amongst "civilised" men and not run off into the wild were he can be alone with his philosophical thoughts which are scorned by his fellows. But the responsibility of providing for Marie and their son gives him a goal and ultimately keeps him sane.

All this changes when Marie grows tired of Woyzeck and his absences and diverts her attention to the band leader, Woyzeck discovers this betrayal and loses his mind for good, in the process he changes and develops a stronger personality.

But his insanity leads him to brutally stab Marie to death (it's on the DVD cover so I'm hardly spoiling anything!), he then returns to town but his guilt forces him to return to the river to dispose of the knife while in the water he suffers a hallucination and that is the last we see of him, some people seem to think he dies but I really don't know what to think, it's all very strange.

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The direction was quite different from Herzog's other work, it is much more static and overall less powerful than is usual. The switches between real locations and sets are a bit too obvious. The use of light was not very subtle and not very natural especially during the indoor scenes.

The film contains little of the powerful imagery that Herzog is known for yet every now and then it appears, the murder scenes itself was masterfully directed as were a few others.

The film is adapted from a German play of the same name and the direction is often rather theatrical.

Seeing as Herzog ans his crew started filming this only about a week after completing Nosferatu they were rather exhausted, so I did notice a few slight problems such as during the murder scene Kinski is obviously hold the knife the wrong way round so as not to hurt the actress.

The acting was all right all around with nothing remarkable except of course Klaus Kinski, he gives what may be the greatest performance of his career and one of the greatest of all time, he used his exhaustion to great effect and delivers a haunting and flawless performance.

Kinski suffered from mental instability himself so he was the perfect choice to play Woyzeck. This film is worth watching for his performance alone.

The soundtrack was a very powerful one yet not always very pleasant to hear, the music used to represent Woyzeck insanity was rather strange and disturbing especially when used during the murder scene when he is overcome with madness, it is then followed by a short silence during which the madness subsides and then a terribly sad piece of music while he realises what he has done and mourns. That scene is masterfully directed, acted and the music really completes it.

The dialogue is in German and I don?t know if a dubbed version even exists; the dialogue is very strange indeed, Woyzeck seems to hear voices coming from nature which cause great fear in him, these voices are never heard only Woyzeck?s interpretations of them, when he is in an insane state he speaks in a an almost cryptic way and his words seem only to have sense in his ears.

The plot was interesting; the scale is smaller than Herzog?s other films as this film takes place in a small german town. I found the character of Woyzeck very interesting and since the films story revolves around him that is a good thing, he is a man that often questions the reasons for his existence and that of his fellows, for this he is often scorned by those that surround him who are probably meant to symbolise different aspects of humanity, there is the Doctor who doesn?t seem to care for Woyzeck and is only interested in studying his growing insanity instead of helping him, there is the Captain who doesn?t treat Woyzeck unkindly yet is too simple and superficial to understand him, and many other characters.

Overall Woyzeck is a tragic and fascinating but flawed film, which should be watched by all fans of Herzog and especially those who are interested in seeing one of the greatest performances ever by Klaus Kinski.

Highly recommended film that isn?t as amazing as Aguirre or Fitzcarraldo yet is captivating in a humbler way, necessary viewing for those who like Kinski?s amazing performances. Definitely not a film for everyone though.