Week Five

Lecture Two:   Werner Herzog,

THE ENIGMA OF KASPAR HAUSER 1974 (DVD)

EVERY MAN FOR HIMSELF AND GOD AGAINST ALL (VHS)

Yet another VERSION of Kaspar’s tale

Herzog: prolific filmmaker: Feature Films and documentaries

Aguirre; Fitzcarraldo; Woyzeck; Nosferatu; Heart of Glass, Stroszek

Herzog’s feature films tend to move slowly

to feature shots that are held for some duration.

have quirky elements that do not fit into a straightforward narrative (if there is a straightforward narrative).

This film is based on Kaspar Hauser's history

--follows Kaspar’s description of his life pre-discovery and Feuerbach’s and Daumer’s descriptions of his life post-discovery,

--some invented scenes and elements thrown in.

This film is about LOOKING closely and carefully at things.

[opening sequence]

1. A LONG SCROLLING TEXT      (background info on KH)

2. Sustained shot of Amber waves of grain    (blowing in wind)

3. Büchner text added to the grain image after a pause

Very important to see this juxtaposition of image and text at the very beginning

Bruno S.

Bruno S. is 41 years old--street musician, forklift driver

Bruno's life and its parallels to Kaspar's--locked up for years in institutions

WRITING KASPAR

Writing: Where it comes up.

--Kaspar is told to WRITE in the dungeon.  

[based on K's autobio.   p.190]

--He shows up in the town with LETTERS that are read aloud

--He begins to communicate with his finders, to enter their realm WHEN HE WRITES HIS NAME.  

--A report is written most ostentatiously when he appears in town

[THE SCRIBE'S REPORT: Ch, 7, "The Foundling]

What do they accomplish by writing it all down?

More references to writing:

----Writing in nature: Kaspar plants the kress seeds

----K writing autobio as Daumer reads obituaries aloud [lives in writing]

Thesis: 2 parts

1. The film involves a juxtaposition of image and writing. Writing is bureaucratic and it belongs to the state and to civilization, whereas image is more aligned with individual and family.

2. Speech, like writing, has an institutional quality, but Kaspar’s use of speech, both before and after he masters language, undermines institutions.

Eating at the Jailer's table

They speak of attributes (abstract) and he understands them as objects (concrete).

---Kaspar moves from single words (leer) to arguments that undermine institutions

Daumer and the Tower.   Kaspar's imagistic understanding of size

1. K: A big man must have built the tower and I would like to meet him.

    D. explains about scaffolds

2. K: The room I occupied was larger than the tower.   I turn around and the tower is gone. When I was in the room, no matter which way I turned, the room was still there.

Kaspar has a completely different notion of size and perspective.

---Religion and the requirements of faith

Kaspar argues with the priests. He can't understand how God could create the world out of nothing, so he does not believe it.

Priests: "You must believe."    Faith before understanding

Kaspar: Will not believe if he cannot understand

--Apples

Kaspar anthropomorphizes the apples

Logic Professor

[Ch. 18, "A problem of logic"]

Kaspar undermines the academy

Kaspar's reasoning to solve the problem vs. the refined and regulated deductions of the logic prof.

What are women good for?

[Ch. 25, "Autopsy"]

Looking for a physiological explanation of Kaspar that they can commit to writing

1. enlarged liver

2. overdeveloped cerebellum

3. underdeveloped cerebrum; left hemisphere is too small and shows deformities

A good day for the scribe (Clemens Scheitz)