Each for himself and God against all

Movie
Original title	Each for himself and God against all
Country of production	Germany
original language	German
Publishing year	1974
length	110 minutes
Age rating	FSK 12
Rod
Director	Werner Herzog
script	Werner Herzog
production	Werner Herzog
music	Popol Vuh
camera	Jörg Schmidt-Reitwein
cut	Beate Mainka-Jellinghaus
occupation
	Bruno S .: Kaspar Hauser ; Walter Ladengast : Georg Friedrich Daumer ; Brigitte Mira : Housekeeper Käthe; Willy Semmelrogge : ringmaster; Michael Kroecher : Lord Stanhope ; Hans Musäus : unknown man; Volker Prechtel : Hiltl prison guard; Gloria Doer : Ms. Hiltl; Herbert Achternbusch : Farm boy; Enno Patalas : Pastor Fuhrmann; Alfred Edel : Professor of Logic; Florian Fricke : Blind piano player;

Each for himself and God against all is a German feature film by Werner Herzog from 1974 about the life of Kaspar Hauser .

action

The film tells the story of Kaspar Hauser , who spends his first 18 years in a cramped cellar dungeon, isolated from any human contact except a stranger who brings him his food. One day in 1828 this stranger leads him out of his cell, teaches him to walk and a few sentences, and then leaves him alone in Nuremberg . It is the subject of the general public's curiosity and exhibited in a circus before the teacher Georg Friedrich Daumer rescues it. With his help, Kaspar quickly learns to read and write and develops unorthodox approaches to religion and logic , but music pleases him most.

He attracts the attention of the clergy , academics, and the nobility , but is attacked by an unknown person who leaves him with a bloody head. He recovers, but is again mysteriously stabbed in the chest - possibly by the same man who brought him to Nuremberg. Due to the serious injury, he falls into delirium , in which he describes visions of the nomadic Berber people in the Sahara desert , and dies shortly afterwards.

Adaptation

The film follows the life story of Kaspar Hauser roughly as it has been handed down in the folklore. He uses the wording of real letters found at Hauser's. Many of the details in the opening sequence about his imprisonment and release are deeply rooted in popular belief , but are rejected by historians and medical professionals as an invention.

production

Werner Herzog discovered the main actor Bruno S. in a documentary about street musicians . Fascinated by Bruno, Herzog cast him as the leading role in two of his films, Everyone for himself and God against all and Stroszek , regardless of the fact that he had no experience as an actor.

The historical Kaspar Hauser was 17 when he was discovered in Nuremberg. The film doesn't mention Kaspar's age, but Bruno S. was 41 years old when it was shot.

The film was shot from June to August 1974. The outdoor shots were made in Dinkelsbühl in the Ansbach district , including the nearby Hesselberg , in the western Sahara ( dream sequences ) and in Ireland . The world premiere took place on November 1, 1974 in Dinkelsbühl (Cinemobil).

Reviews

“With impressive stylistic consistency and a radical will to learn, the film describes the process of civilization as a dangerous tightrope walk, and social integration as a loss of identity and imagination. On the one hand an innocent child of nature, on the other hand an apocalyptic visionary who sensitively perceives the contradictions of his surroundings and experiences them painfully, the hero (eminently embodied by the amateur actor Bruno S.) becomes a tragic symbolic figure of modernity in the field of tension between rational thought of utility and cryptic existential fear. "

- Lexicon of international film

“Herzog (born 1942), currently one of the most popular filmmakers in the Federal Republic of Germany, challenges the comparison with the Frenchman Truffaut's ' wolf boy ' (film of the month April 1971) with his film about Kaspar Hauser's ordeal . While Truffaut, despite all the restrictions, was optimistic, Herzog did not give the pedagogical belief in progress a chance. With him, upbringing takes place as heartless training that leaves the object destroyed. The (aesthetically beguiling) film provides rich material for discussion. You should not, of course, overlook the objection of some critics who (as in his previous ones) believe they recognize Werner Herzog's traits of voyeuristic compassion in this film too. "

- Jury of Evangelical Film Work from December 1975

“Filmmaker Werner Herzog is not interested in a mere cinematic processing of history. The external data and facts of the case are only communicated to the extent that an orientation in the history is just possible. Herzog is also not interested in the criminological or time-critical aspect of the mysterious case. He is interested in Kaspar the man, who was locked up in a basement hole all his life, who at the time he is abandoned in the middle of the Franconian city does not know what a house, a tree, what language is, who has no idea of human Culture, has no concept of the world. He is interested in how a person experiences the world, someone who was kept in absolute isolation into adulthood and is devoid of all experience and knowledge. "

- prism

“Herzog sees his film as a passion story. [...] Education makes an important contribution to this process. Herzog answered the question about the possibilities of the foundling negatively. Kaspar Hauser has no chance of survival in society. Education not only fails, it also contributes to the foundling becoming a victim. "

- Friedrich Koch : Victor von Aveyron, Kaspar Hauser and Nell. A movie viewing.

Awards

Cannes International Film Festival 1975

Excellent

Fipresci Prize for Werner Herzog
Grand prize of the jury for Werner Herzog
Prize of the Ecumenical Jury for Werner Herzog

Nominated

Golden Palm for the best film for Werner Herzog

German Film Award 1975