Franz Woyzeck (Klaus Kinski) is a hapless, hopeless soldier, alone and powerless in society, assaulted from all sides by forces he can not control.
Filming for "Woyzeck" in Telč, Czechoslovakia, began just five days after work on Herzog's "Nosferatu the Vampyre" had ended. Herzog used the same exhausted crew and star. The scenes were accomplished mostly in a single take, which allowed the filming to be completed in only 18 days; it was edited in just four. This does not surprise me in the slightest given the huge body of work that Herzog has put out.
This film really begins and ends with Klaus Kinski, one of the strangest actors who ever lived. In real life, he was a terrible person. But in many ways, this made him a great actor. He was never handsome, and always had crazy just beneath the surface. You could call him the German Jack Nicholson, bu it would be more accurate to call Nicholson a pale shade of Kinski. This may be his finest role, though for my taste I prefer such films as "Crawlspace".
Filming for "Woyzeck" in Telč, Czechoslovakia, began just five days after work on Herzog's "Nosferatu the Vampyre" had ended. Herzog used the same exhausted crew and star. The scenes were accomplished mostly in a single take, which allowed the filming to be completed in only 18 days; it was edited in just four. This does not surprise me in the slightest given the huge body of work that Herzog has put out.
This film really begins and ends with Klaus Kinski, one of the strangest actors who ever lived. In real life, he was a terrible person. But in many ways, this made him a great actor. He was never handsome, and always had crazy just beneath the surface. You could call him the German Jack Nicholson, bu it would be more accurate to call Nicholson a pale shade of Kinski. This may be his finest role, though for my taste I prefer such films as "Crawlspace".