The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser

Right - despite the fact that this is based on an actual man and actual events, it is pretty aptly titled. Werner Herzog takes a bit of a punt with his chronology of the life of Kaspar Hauser (a strong performance from Bruno S.) but there are very few definites here except for the fact that we know (or come to know) that he had spent most of his childhood chained to a bed in a cellar with his only human contact coming from a man clad in black who fed and watered him daily. Then he released him, barely mobile or able to speak, into 1820s Nuremberg armed only with the clothes he stood up in and a note for the local soldiers. The rest of the tale unravels via a mixture of a conversation from the man himself with housekeeper "Käthe" (Brigitte M...

The real-life story of the mysterious Kaspar Hauser put to film by Werner Herzog

A young man shows up in the square of a town in Bavaria in 1828 (Bruno S.), but he can only speak a few words and can hardly walk. The note in his hand was from someone who cared for him near the Bavarian border since he was an infant. It stated that he had never been let outside the house and wanted to be a cavalryman, like his father. The teenager finds himself becoming a hit and stirs up much attention.

The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser (1974) was Herzogs follow-up to his acclaimed Aguirre, the Wrath of God from two years prior. While I think Herzogs forthcoming Fitzcarraldo is great, I found this a little disappointing. For one thing, Bruno S was 42...