Signs of Life (1968 film)

Infobox Film
name = Signs of Life


director = Werner Herzog
producer = Werner Herzog
writer = Werner Herzog
editing = Beate Mainka-Jellinghaus
cinematography = Thomas Mauch
starring = Peter Brogle
Wolfgang Reichmann
Athina Zacharopoulou
Wolfgang von Ungern-Sternberg
music = Stavros Xarhakos
released = July 5, 1968
runtime = 87 min.
language = German
imdb_id = 0063218

"Signs of Life" ( _de. Lebenszeichen) is a 1968 feature film written, directed, and produced by Werner Herzog. It was his first feature film, and his first major commercial and critical success. The story is roughly based on the short story "Der Tolle Invalide auf dem Fort Ratonneau", written by Achim von Arnim. [cite book
last = Herzog
first = Werner
title = Herzog on Herzog
publisher = Faber and Faber
date = 2001
pages = 38
isbn = 0-571-20708-1 ]

Plot Summary

During World War II, three German soldiers are withdrawn from combat when one of them, Stroszek, is wounded. They are assigned to a small coastal community on the Greek island of Kos while Stroszek recuperates. The men become increasingly stir crazy in their uneventful new assignment. Stroszek eventually goes mad.

Production

The fortress which gives the film's main setting is a real 14th century fortress built by the Knights Hospitaller. Herzog's grandfather, Rudolf Herzog, lived and worked for several years as an archaeologist at this site, and published translations of the ancient Greek engravings which appear in the film. The old Turkish man who appears in the film with a written translation was the last surviving worker from Rudolf Herzog's archaeological project.Werner Herzog, audio commentary for "Signs of Life" DVD]

During several shots, Peter Brogle could only be filmed from the waist up after he had been injured in a tight-rope accident and spent several months in a walking cast.

The man who appears as a pianist in one scene is keyboardist Florian Fricke of Popol Vuh, who composed and performed the music for many of Herzog's later films.

Many of Herzog's later films reference elements of "Signs of Life". "The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser" includes a scene with a hypnotized chicken, and the main character's name is given to Herzog's film "Stroszek". "The Wild Blue Yonder" contains a shot of a valley of windmills.

References

External links

*imdb title|title=Lebenszeichen|id=0063218