(1979) ***1/2(1994) ***1/2
We're wary of people like Franz Woyzeck these days. At the very least, we make sure they're medicated. Woyzeck is probably schizophrenic. This falls below notice because he's got it together enough to have a job and something of a social structure -- albeit one that's pathetic even by the standards of the town he lives in. He's deferent and submissive, and the people around him recognize his inferiority.
Herzog's version succeeds largely because of a quirky, sympathetic performance by Klaus Kinski (does Klaus Kinski have any roles that aren't quirky and sympathetic?). He's soft-spoken, although he bears a certain resoluteness about his meager role in the universe, at one point commenting, "People like us are unhappy in this world and in the next, I guess if we made it to heaven, we'd have to help make it thunder."
He's got a self-righteous commanding officer and doctor who uses him as a test-subject for his quaint scientific theories -- for example, he's got Woyzeck eating nothing but peas. It's likely that poor diet plays as much a role in Woyzeck's mental decay as any other event in his pitiful existence. It's hard to say whether he started suffering from hallucinations before or after he starts his "treatment," but the hallucinations get a lot darker as the movie goes on.
He tolerates this treatment primarily because he's getting paid a little bit for it, and he's trying to provide for an out-of-wedlock child. Some of the saddest scenes in the movie are of Woyzeck visiting the child and mother, Marie. He obviously pines after her but she stiffens at his very touch, so he rarely musters up the nerve to go near her. She takes his support money, but hates herself for it. She pities Woyzeck, but it doesn't stop her from swelling with desire when a dashing (and pompous) drum major marches into her frame.
Szász's Woyzeck is tougher than Herzog's guy, and it's a good thing, because he has to endure a much harsher existence. This world is perpetually frigid. This Woyzeck has a more bullish, assertive relationship with Mari (different spelling because now we're in Hungary, not Germany), and she's not as beset by guilt as Herzog's Marie, so when she turns her attentions to another man, she does so with no qualms.
This incarnation of Woyzeck has a retooled relationship with his superior officer at the train station. The captain wields more brutality upon Woyzeck, but expresses at least a token sympathy for the man. The doctor is, as he is portrayed in the original, primarily concerned with his "scientific" "research" — again with the peas bullshit, and the result is the same.
Both films feature strong camerawork that evokes the particular circumstances of each portrayal of Woyzeck. Herzog's setting is pastoral and provincial. Establishing shots of the town are green and lush. Correspondingly, his incarnation of Woyzeck has a softer relationship with the people around him. He's docile until malnutrition and jealousy push him to murder.
Szász's film is unrelentingly bitter. The setting is shrouded in icy mist and everyone's poor, so nobody is properly outfitted for the chill. His characters are a lot more grim. The performances are like the setting, cold and austere. When this Woyzeck gets murderous, it's less of a surprise.
Nothing sums up the differences between the two movies like the final shots of each.
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