ABSTRACT
Stating that his films are always about the same subject, Werner Herzog once described himself as a “limited” filmmaker. 1 A variety of textual characteristics readily provide persuasive confirmation for this claim of continuity of interest on Herzog's part: his films' consistent creation of central characters out of synch with, if not in open rebellion against, the societies within which they live; the repeated casting (and acting styles) of Bruno S. and, especially, Klaus Kinski as these characters; the mysteriously evocative landscape-and-music punctuation of the narratives; and, even, literal references to earlier films in later works, for example, the recurrence of the name “Stroszek” (in Signs of Life and Stroszek), the circling vehicles of Even Dwarfs Started Small and Stroszek, or the side-show of Kaspar Hauser (Every Man for Himself and God Against All) whose attractions are drawn from all of Herzog's earlier features, including an unrealized project on the young Mozart.
