Woyzeck (1979)

Franz Woyzeck (Kinski) is a hapless, hopeless soldier, alone and powerless in society, assaulted from all sides by forces he cannot control.

Director:

Werner Herzog

Writers:

Georg Büchner (play), Werner Herzog

Stars:

Klaus Kinski, Eva Mattes, Wolfgang Reichmann

3 wins & 2 nominations.

Cast

Complete credited cast:
Klaus Kinski	...	Woyzeck
Eva Mattes	...	Marie
Wolfgang Reichmann	...	Captain
Willy Semmelrogge	...	Doctor
Josef Bierbichler	...	Drum Major
Paul Burian	...	Andres
Volker Prechtel	...	Handwerksbursche (as Volker Prechtl)
Dieter Augustin	...	Marktschreier
Irm Hermann	...	Margret
Wolfgang Bächler	...	Jew
Rosemarie Heinikel	...	(as Rosy-Rosy Heinikel)
Herbert Fux	...	Unteroffizier
Thomas Mettke
Maria Mettke

Storyline

Everything in town appears calm, placid, lovely. But Woyzeck, 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?

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Plot Keywords:

soldier | one word title | uniform | brutality | character study | 

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Genres:

Drama

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Details

Country:

West Germany

Language:

German

Release Date:

24 August 1979 (USA)

Also Known As:

Werner Herzog's Woyzeck

Filming Locations:

Telc, Czech Republic

Company Credits

Production Co:

Werner Herzog Filmproduktion, Zweites Deutsches Fernsehen (ZDF)

Technical Specs

Runtime:

82 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color (Eastmancolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.66 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The entire 80-minute film was shot with only 27 cuts.

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Goofs

As a barber, Woyzeck smears some foam on the Captain's forehead, but when the camera changes, the foam's gone.

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Quotes

Marie: [to her man during a fight] I'd rather have a knife in my body than your hand on me.

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Connections

Version of Woyzeck (1993)

User Reviews

Klaus Kinski; professionally deranged and disturbed person.

Thing that I often love about early Werner Herzog movies is how incredibly simplistic and also minimalistic they actually are. Often it got made by literally just an handful of crew-members and everything got shot within just a couple of weeks, on location.

For this movie Herzog and Kinski team up once more, only days after finish shooting "Nosferatu: Phantom der Nacht" together. I won't call it their best collaboration but it is a very interesting one.

What really makes this movie is Klaus Kinski and his character. Like so often, he plays a troubled person, that gets kicked around by about every person around him. He's kind and quiet but at the same time it's also very obvious how disturbed he actually is beneath the surface. It's a great characters study, in which a man slowly snaps and breaks down completely. This is really were the movie its interesting aspects all come from, since honestly the movie has very little else to offer. But that's OK, since it's still really more than enough!

I can understand this movie coming across as quite pointless and slow to some. It has a very simple and straightforward story, that is entirely set in a small town, somewhere in the distant past. Admitedly, I also felt that way at times but luckily the movie slowly but steadily manages to suck you in to its world and the main character's mind, making this movie a very compelling and effective one.

I had really no idea what to expect from this movie beforehand but as it turned out it was one great and intriguing little movie to watch, greatly directed by Werner Herzog and acted out by Klaus Kinski!

8/10

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