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Similar themes/style found in other films


Besides the obvious similarites between this film and "The Elephant Man", what other films do you deem similar to "Kasper Hauser" ?

I found its overall tone and pacing extremely similar to "Barry Lyndon", specially in its somewhat cynical view of "high european culture" (classical music, ettiquete, religion, etc).

Also, some parts (for reasons that aren't that surprising) bring Bergman to mind, in relation to his "Silence of God" themes.

Anything else ?

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[deleted]

Of course all Herzog films are somewhat similar, but I think what world2you meant were the similarities with other filmmakers creations. I personally saw Kaspar Hauser first and then about six months ago Elephant Man and was shocked about the similarities. I was also surprised that imdb haven't pointed it out.

I think many American and English filmmakers have taken Herzog films as an influence, even when they don't admit it. People have parallelled Aguirre with Apocalypse now, and as I was yesterday watching Fitzcarraldo for the first time in the local cinema I saw many similarities with Peter Weir's Mosquito Coast. Actually I find Herzog and Weir to be very similar with their romantic tones, "surrealism of the reality", tragic idealistic characters and hypnotic music used.

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Being There

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[deleted]

Clemens Scheitz' concluding monologue always reminded me of the tail end of Hamlet.

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I'm glad that I just recently was reminded about this film, and furthermore, that I stumbled into this room.

I must have seen the movie when it first showed in America back in the 70s ... in Philadelphia at TLA (Theater of the Living Arts) when the place was in its cinema incarnation. The place had been, right before being a hippie movie house, a place to see real, live plays. For a period of time, André Gregory (of My Dinner with André), put on some really dynamite theater there!

If you haven't seen My Dinner with André, please do. André Gregory's comments in the movie will recreate some of the zeitgeist of the time. This may also put Herzog in context with other artists whose work he may be (have been) familiar with. For some odd reason, I'm recalling the music album by Terry Riley called [b/]A Rainbow in Curved Air[/b] (the eponymous work being a great piece on the album, along with "Poppy Nogood and the Phantom Band"). These people, along with currently more recognized artists such as playwright Tom Stoppard, enriched the artistic/intellectual/spiritual world at a time, when "expanding the mind" was an active pursuit of many, many people. Would that it were so these days!

Let me get back on-topic. OK, so the muse that sang to Herzog also was heard by others such as Stoppard, Gregory, and Riley, to name a few.

Certainly, we can't leave out Jim Jarmusch. I would love to hear these two talk shop.

Then there's a recent Finnish movie: The Man Without a Past. If you haven't seen it, and if you like Herzog's work, then you might give this one a try. Here's a blurb that I copied from http://www.jigsawlounge.co.uk/film/withoutapast.html

THE MAN WITHOUT A PAST
Mies Vailla Menneisyytta : Finland 2002 : Aki Kaurismaki : 97 mins

Moments after a middle-aged man (Markku Peltola) arrives in Helsinki by train, he’s attacked and left for dead by baseball-bat-wielding thieves. In hospital he apparently dies from his injuries – but then jumps off his death-bed, his memory a complete blank, and starts a whole new life from scratch. Existing in very Finnish zone between film noir, fairytale cartoon, David Lynch, and morality play, Kaurismaki’s latest is a typically whimsical, stylised, deadpan comedy, played – after that startlingly violent opening – at a seductively gentle pace. With the exception of the murderous thugs, Kaurismaki is clearly in love with everyone on screen – but thankfully manages to avoid any trace of sentimental gloop, delivering instead a genuinely delightful romantic fable set to a cracking soundtrack of 50s-flavoured rockabilly-ish hits

I loved The Man Without a Past. The actors aren't pretty or hip. The relationships are inspiring without being Hollywood sweet. This is IMHO a good companion film to Kaspar Hauser.

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Two films i can think of that have very similar themes are Bad Boy Bubby and Being there.

Other films that share similar themes and are worth seeing include Sling blade, Forrest Gump,Rain Man,The man without a past,and Stroszek - another Herzog film with very similar style.

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Truffaut's "The Wild Child", one of his best films.

-What would you like to have been?
-Everything you hate

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I couldn't stop thinking of that film whilst watching this. Coincidentally, Truffaut once declared Herzog "the most important director alive". Truffaut knew what he was talking about.

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"The Return of Martin Guerre". Great film! Martin is Kasper’s also lost brother. Also "Sommersby", that's a ripoff job of Martin Guerre. Lawsuit about it I'm almost certain, it's entertaining because it's so hammy and stupid, that one line is amazing, "I know because I never loved him the way that I love you!!!!" ha ha.

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The Japanese film Kikujiro, directed by and starring Takeshi "Beat" Kitano, goes over similar themes of alienated outsiders and has a similar tone and pacing, albeit more directly comic.

"don't think...feeeeel"
james-clayton.blogspot.com/

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Also, Oldboy by Park Chan-wook is also similar in its plot of someone being mysteriously imprisoned for years in a room by an unknown stranger. That's also worth seeing, even if it is bleakly depressing and ultra-disturbing...

"don't think...feeeeel"
james-clayton.blogspot.com/

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I wouldn't be suprised if the scenes, where the little boy and the girl teaching Kaspar Hauser some words, influenced Spielberg, when he made E.T. The the moment when you saw Kaspar from behind writing his lifestory on a desk reminded me to one of the early scenes in Fellowship of the Rings, when Bilbo wrote his book.

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Andrey Tarkovskiy's "Stalker"...
Werner Herzog's "Cobra Verde"
Terry Malick's "Days of Heaven"
and maybe Frank Darabont's "The Majestic" with Jim Carrey and Martin Landau...

and "Nell" with Liam Neeson and Jodie Foster...

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"The Mind of Mr. Soames", with Terence Stamp. Man falls into a coma immediately after birth, and comes to 30 years later.

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