“Herzog’s idiosyncratic imagination finds an ideal counterpoint in the bleak flatlands of poor white America. His view of that country is the most askance since the films of Monte Hellman.”
Bruno S. stars as the titular Stroszek: an alcoholic Berlin-based busker who, upon being released from prison, joins his elderly friend and a prostitute in their dream to leave Germany and seek a better life in Wisconsin, USA. Populated by non-actors and written by Herzog specifically with his “muse”, Bruno S., in mind, Stroszek is, in the words of critic Roger Ebert, “one of the oddest films ever made.” It is an utterly unique (or utterly Herzogian) look at the emigrant experience in America. (It also featured in our recent screening of 24 Hour Party People as the film Ian Curtis was watching immediately prior to taking his own life. Make of that what you will…)
