Bruno S. Movies

Can anything be bleaker than the shabby slums of Berlin? Yes, argues director Werner Herzog in Stroszek: try Wisconsin sometime. Bruno S.. stars as an ex-mental patient who dreams of the so-called promised land of America. He aligns himself with like-minded prostitute Eva Mattes and elderly, near-senile Clemens Scheitz. Upon their arrival in Wisconsin, the three misfits find that they're just as trapped in Dairy Country as they'd been in Germany--if not more so. The sour and bitter Stroszek earned worldwide critical and commercial acclaim. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

German filmmaker Miron Zownir turns his lens toward a nearly famous German actor from the 1970s with a history of mental problems in his biographical documentary Bruno S. - Die Fremde Ist Der Tod (Bruno S. - Estrangement Is Death). Bruno S. was plucked out of obscurity by director Werner Herzog to star in the filmmaker's breakthrough 1974 picture, The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser. The film became an international sensation, earning Herzog a Grand Jury prize from the Cannes Film Festival and Bruno S. many kudos for an emotionally raw performance that seemed destined to transform the actor into a cinematic legend. After starring in one more film for Herzog -- Stroszek (1977) -- Bruno S. never worked with the director or in the medium of film again until meeting with Zownir to produce this documentary. Painting and performing at various nightclubs throughout Berlin, Bruno S. uses both artistic mediums as a means to express his various emotional responses to the numerous obstacles he had to endure over the course of his troublesome life. Bruno S. was screened at the 2003 Berlin Film Festival as a selection in the Panorama Documentary schedule. ~ Ryan Shriver, Rovi