THE ENIGMA OF KASPAR HAUSER

As well as his onscreen relationship with Klaus Kinski, Werner Herzog had, perhaps, an even more profound one with the 'actor' Bruno S. I say 'actor' since watching Bruno S.'s work with Herzog it becomes very difficult to separate the man from the performer. He was discovered by Herzog and cast as 'the wild child' Kaspar Hauser in Herzog's film "The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser" which was based on the story of a boy, (though Bruno S. was in his forties at the time), who wandered into a small German town in 1828 after having spent his entire life locked in a cellar and away from humanity. With another, professional actor in the role this might have seemed like fiction, an exercize in the kind of acting almost destined to win Oscars but with Bruno S. in the part it feels more like anthropology, an account, not of the life of Kaspar Hauser, but of Bruno S. himself and from what we know about Bruno S. this film, and his subsequent work, feels just a little perverse.

Nevertheless, this is an extraordinary piece of work, one of Herzog's best films. Every shot is composed solely for the purpose of our getting closer to Kaspar, even if he himself isn't on screen. Of course, Herzog has always been a relentless film-maker, whether exploring the mind of Kaspar Hauser or having Fitzcarraldo drag a ship over a hill. In this case, little things mean a lot and it's this accumulation of small details that makes "The Engima of Kaspar Hauser" so fascinating. The same story has, of course, been told in a very different film, namely Truffaut's "L'Enfant Sauvage" and while very different, both are works of art and really should not be missed.