Woyzeck

Woyzeck is a 1979 German drama film written, produced and directed by Werner Herzog and starring Klaus Kinski and Eva Mattes. It is an adaptation of the unfinished play Woyzeck by German dramatist Georg Büchner. Plot synopsis Franz Woyzeck, a lowly soldier stationed in a mid-nineteenth century provincial German town, is the father of an illegitimate child by his mistress Marie. Woyzeck earns extra money for his family by performing menial jobs for the Captain and agreeing to take part in medical experiments conducted by the Doctor. As one of these experiments, the Doctor tells Woyzeck he must eat nothing but peas. Woyzeck's mental health is breaking down and he begins to experience a series of apocalyptic visions. Meanwhile, Marie grows tired of Woyzeck and turns her attentions to a handsome drum major who, in an ambiguous scene taking place in Marie's bedroom, sleeps with her. After some time, and with his jealous suspicions growing, Woyzeck confronts the drum major, who beats him up and humiliates him. Finally and at the verge of mental breakdown, Woyzeck stabs Marie to death by a pond. Woyzeck disposes of the knife in the pond, and while trying to wash the blood off, he hallucinates that he is swimming in blood and apparently drowns himself and dies. While recovering the corpses, the townspeople relish the fact that "a real murder" has taken place, distracting everyone from their mind-numbingly boring lives. Cast Klaus Kinski as Friedrich Johann Franz Woyzeck Eva Mattes as Marie Wolfgang Reichmann as Captain Willy Semmelrogge as Doctor Josef Bierbichler as Drum Major Paul Burian as Andres Volker Prechtel as Handwerksbursche Dieter Augustin as Marktschreier Irm Hermann as Margret Wolfgang Bächler as Jew