America is one of the strangest countries I’ve been to. There is so much going on there, but at the same time everything has a plastic feel to it and everywhere smells of greasy fast food. I’ve rarely seen a film that have conveyed a similar visual of America as I experienced it, but then again American filmmakers probably don’t sense these similar things that a foreigner would. That is why I was so pleased with Werner Herzog’s depiction of America, because it came quite damn close to what I experienced. When you visit a foreign country you are usually quite alienated towards it, and that sense is perfectly captured in Stroszek.
Stroszek is tired of Berlin and decides to immigrate to America with his old friend and his girlfriend. However as it turns out, the American dream is not exactly what myth says it is. What makes this film is the character Stroszek, or rather, Bruno S who portrayed him. Although many celebrate the relationship between Herzog and Kinski, Bruno S is a real find by Herzog. Throughout his whole life, Bruno S did two feature films, this and Jeder für sich und Gott gegen alle (Werner Herzog, 1974), and he deliver himself completely in both. There is something strange, almost naïve and childlike about his person and I don’t believe he actually ever performs, he is just being himself. He helps create a feeling of “otherness” in those two Herzog films. While Kinski was a professional actor and had worked before he started making films with Herzog, Bruno S was without doubt a discovery made by Herzog, and this is one of the examples that shows how great Herzog was at spotting the right talent or person to create his films. Everything about Bruno S is perfect for the two movies he did, his facial expression, the strange ways he structures his sentences verbally, it all makes for quite a fascinating character. There is something very real about the character, and much of the screenplay is based on Bruno S himself. Indeed, the characters name is Bruno Stroszek, he plays his own instruments in the film and some of it was filmed on his own flat. Herzog was always concerned with the “real”, and we see clearly this in the character of Stroszek, which is in many ways trying to be based on Bruno S himself.
But this is in many other ways also a very interesting film. The wonderfully sarcastic portrait of the USA is very funny while also being very true. In many ways Stroszek is a dark comedy, and very dark at that. The character Stroszek is a fighter who tries to survive and make it despite his own inadequacies and quirks. But from the beginning we know that poor Bruno is doomed. His monologue about his feelings on America later in the film is great, and captures the feeling of the film. The film is very concerned with small physical object, and manages to create resonance of meaning through them. Some of these aspects aren’t in any way important to the narrative, but gives the film strength as a whole and establishes a very peculiar mood. But I guess these sorts of things have always been true for Herzog’s film. In fact, Herzog is a director that at the same time as impressing also confuses one; his films have a truly strange sense of mood to them, bordering on the insane at times. There is a good reason why Herzog remains one of the most bewildering and fascinating characters in the world of cinema, and while he has his eccentric qualities, this never overshadows the genuine originality and quality of his films
Stroszek was quite a good film, with a lot of quirky moments and objects, not to mention the characters and settings. The way Herzog captures America is very true to my own observations and experiences, and for me that made the film even more interesting. The core of the film though is the tragic figure of Bruno S, who truly manages to convey some of the really dark moments of our existence.
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