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The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser

Original title: Jeder für sich und Gott gegen alle
  • 19741974
  • Not RatedNot Rated
  • 1h 50m
IMDb RATING
7.7/10
18K
YOUR RATING
  • Cast & crew
  • User reviews
  • Trivia
  • IMDbPro
Bruno S. in Jeder für sich und Gott gegen alle (1974)
A young man named Kaspar Hauser suddenly appears in Nuremberg in 1828, barely able to talk or walk, and bearing a strange note.
Play trailer2:50
1 Video
96 Photos
  • Biography
  • Drama
  • History

A young man named Kaspar Hauser suddenly appears in Nuremberg in 1828, barely able to talk or walk, and bearing a strange note.A young man named Kaspar Hauser suddenly appears in Nuremberg in 1828, barely able to talk or walk, and bearing a strange note.A young man named Kaspar Hauser suddenly appears in Nuremberg in 1828, barely able to talk or walk, and bearing a strange note.

IMDb RATING
7.7/10
18K
YOUR RATING
  • Director
    • Werner Herzog
  • Writers
    • Werner Herzog(book)
    • Jakob Wassermann(uncredited)
  • Stars
    • Bruno S.
    • Walter Ladengast
    • Brigitte Mira
Top credits
  • Director
    • Werner Herzog
  • Writers
    • Werner Herzog(book)
    • Jakob Wassermann(uncredited)
  • Stars
    • Bruno S.
    • Walter Ladengast
    • Brigitte Mira
  • See production, box office & company info
    • 73User reviews
    • 46Critic reviews
  • See more at IMDbPro
    • Awards
      • 5 wins & 3 nominations

    Videos1

    Trailer
    Trailer 2:50
    Trailer

    Photos96

    Hans Musäus and Bruno S. in Jeder für sich und Gott gegen alle (1974)
    Hans Musäus and Bruno S. in Jeder für sich und Gott gegen alle (1974)
    Bruno S. in Jeder für sich und Gott gegen alle (1974)
    Hans Musäus and Bruno S. in Jeder für sich und Gott gegen alle (1974)
    Jeder für sich und Gott gegen alle (1974)
    Bruno S. in Jeder für sich und Gott gegen alle (1974)
    Bruno S. in Jeder für sich und Gott gegen alle (1974)
    Bruno S. in Jeder für sich und Gott gegen alle (1974)
    Bruno S. in Jeder für sich und Gott gegen alle (1974)
    Jeder für sich und Gott gegen alle (1974)
    Jeder für sich und Gott gegen alle (1974)
    Jeder für sich und Gott gegen alle (1974)

    Top cast

    Edit
    Bruno S.
    Bruno S.
    • Kaspar Hauseras Kaspar Hauser
    Walter Ladengast
    • Professor Daumeras Professor Daumer
    Brigitte Mira
    Brigitte Mira
    • Kathe, Servantas Kathe, Servant
    Willy Semmelrogge
    • Circus directoras Circus director
    Michael Kroecher
    • Lord Stanhopeas Lord Stanhope
    Hans Musäus
    • Unknown Manas Unknown Man
    Henry van Lyck
    Henry van Lyck
    • Cavalry Captainas Cavalry Captain
    Gloria Doer
    • Frau Hiltelas Frau Hiltel
    Volker Prechtel
    Volker Prechtel
    • Hiltel the prison guardas Hiltel the prison guard
    Herbert Achternbusch
    Herbert Achternbusch
    • Bavarian Chicken Hypnotizeras Bavarian Chicken Hypnotizer
    Wolfgang Bauer
    Wilhelm Bayer
    • Taunting Farmboyas Taunting Farmboy
    Franz Brumbach
    Johannes Buzalski
    Johannes Buzalski
    Helmut Döring
    Helmut Döring
    • Little Kingas Little King
    Alfred Edel
    • Professoras Professor
    Florian Fricke
    • Florianas Florian
    Heribert Fritsch
    • Director
      • Werner Herzog
    • Writers
      • Werner Herzog(book)
      • Jakob Wassermann(uncredited)
    • All cast & crew
    • See more cast details at IMDbPro

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    Storyline

    Edit
    Herzog's film is based upon the true and mysterious story of Kaspar Hauser, a young man who suddenly appeared in Nuremberg in 1828, barely able to talk or walk, and bearing a strange note; he later explained that he had been held captive in a dungeon of some sort for his entire life that he could remember, and only recently was he released, for reasons unknown. His benefactor attempts to integrate him into society, with intriguing results. —Mike D'Angelo <mqd8478@is2.nyu.edu>
    • 1830s
    • 1820s
    • lord
    • english
    • nuremberg germany
    • 50 more
    • Plot summary
    • Add synopsis
    • Genres
      • Biography
      • Drama
      • History
    • Certificate
      • Not Rated
    • Parents guide

    Did you know

    Edit
    • Trivia
      Werner Herzog's said at his Rogue Film School, that the following scenes were shot with a Super-8mm camera: a) The opening scene on the river. b) The montage of landscape shots early in the film. c) Right after the man in black teaches Kaspar how to walk. d) The Caucasus pyramid sequence. e) The caravan in the desert with the old man tasting the sand. Herzog talked about how, for some of the landscape shots early in the film, he mounted a telephoto lens on the end of wide angle lens onto his Super 8 camera. This distorted the edges of the images and created a white/halo effect around the frame. On the DVD audio commentary of this film, he mentions how for the Caucasus pyramid sequence he projected the image onto a screen and then re-photographed the image with a 35mm camera at a different frame rate from the projected speed. He also used this technique with the caravan in the desert sequence.
    • Goofs
      In a brief scene we see a stork eating a frog with its legs tagged (ringed), Bird ringing didn't start until the end of the XIX century, decades after the life of Kaspar Hauser.
    • Quotes

      Opening caption: Do you not then hear this horrible scream all around you that people usually call silence.

    • Crazy credits
      Opening credits prologue: One Sunday in 1828 a ragged boy was found abandoned in the town of N. He could hardly walk and spoke but one sentence.

      Later, he told of being locked in a dark cellar from birth. He had never seen another human being, a tree, a house before.

      To this day no one knows where he came from - or who set him free.

      Don't you hear that horrible screaming all around you? That screaming men call silence?
    • Connections
      Featured in I Am My Films (1978)
    • Soundtracks
      Canon in D major
      Composed by Johann Pachelbel

    User reviews73

    Review
    Top review
    One of my top ten films of all time!
    Herzog has a way with documenting history as if it was our own past we were re-living. It all seems strangely familiar, yet slightly surreal. This film is rich with detail of the period (19th century), yet it's not the slightest bit in-your-face like so many of the current period films that seem to be about nothing more than lush furniture and the people who sit on them. Yet there are images here that you'll never forget! There are some especially stunning sepia dream sequences of an Arabian caravan strolling in soft, slow-motion across a windswept desert. They reminded me of Sam Fuller's effective use of raw colour footage of distant lands in "Shock Corridor". Images that seem to burst out at us from the B&W angst of a mental ward. Such contradictory images seem perfectly normal in Herzog's world, since after all, they're from the world of our dreams.

    As always, Herzog finds great music for his score in this film, and he uses it in a very subtle way. But he also is a master at allowing silences to tell part of his story. If one is really listening, they can hear a great many things that define the world that his characters are inhabiting. This of course, was more obvious in films like 'Aguirre', where one swears they can still hear the wild birds squawking in their head for days! Can any film-going experience be more real?

    But this film is not all just sound and imagery! The story is a puzzle. It's up to us viewers to decide who this man is and how his mind functions. It also challenges us to think about how our own minds function. While various "instructors" try to cram a lifetime of education into Kaspar's brain in just a few short years, we are forced to re-evaluate the logic that we have been taught. This is illustrated with great tongue-in-cheek humour when Kaspar approaches a lesson in logic with a Zen-like understanding that leaves his instructors livid. Needless to say, this film is a good preamble to "Being There", only more subtle, more haunting, and far more memorable.

    The film will also bring to mind "The Elephant Man", not just in its depiction of circus "freaks", but in its illustrations of cruelty, madness, kindness and alienation. It is in essence, a movie about humanity. Told in a poetic vision with just the right doses of wit, intelligence and mystery. For this is, The MYSTERY of Kaspar Hauser. The film never pretends to be a documentation. It is simply an interpretation. One man's imagining of what might have gone inside the mind of a man who was born into the world at sixteen. See it with that in mind, and you'll have one of the richest movie-going experiences in your life!
    helpful•36
    6
    • Zen Bones
    • Nov 10, 2000

    Details

    Edit
    • Release date
      • November 1, 1974 (West Germany)
    • Country of origin
      • West Germany
    • Language
      • German
    • Also known as
      • Every Man for Himself and God Against All
    • Filming locations
      • Croagh Patrick, Westport, Mayo, Ireland
    • Production companies
      • Werner Herzog Filmproduktion
      • Zweites Deutsches Fernsehen (ZDF)
      • Filmverlag der Autoren
    • See more company credits at IMDbPro

    Box office

    Edit
    • Gross worldwide
      • $2,874
    See detailed box office info on IMDbPro

    Technical specs

    Edit
    • Runtime
      1 hour 50 minutes
    • Sound mix
      • Mono
    • Aspect ratio
      • 1.66 : 1

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