Werner Herzog Collection

[therewillbeblus]

Stroszek is the last narrative feature I had left from Herzog, and it turned out to be my favorite. There's this seemingly-impossible balance of humanistic empathy and absurdist comedy -as if it's toying with its characters- only the former approach offsets any cruel impositions by its artist. Rather, this is a sobering tale about accepting who you 'are', in the worst possible way. I'm reminded of the saying that, when an alcoholic quits alcohol, they are relinquishing the "solution to the problem that is 'me';" indicating that one is unwell beyond the external circumstances they use to cope. Bruno's alcoholism is addressed right from the beginning, but it's a red herring, because his drinking never gets him into trouble in this film - at least, for the events we witness. What we do encounter is Bruno's shortcomings as a result of stunted growth, inevitably leading to self-destruction. There are wonderfully intimate moments, graceful notes of light comedy, and tragedies all intermixed. How sad is it that the best the institutional professionals can come up with is to lead Bruno (and us) on to the faux-culprit of his problems. The fatalism on display is rampant - he goes right back to the bar straight from lockup, though he drinks a single beer and we hardly see him imbibe at all after that - and he follows others from there, across the world, into more foreign and unstable territory, when his familiar and comfortable space could barely hold him in check. The chickens' instinctual repetitive actions say it all.