Alternate Best Actor 1977: Bruno S. in Stroszek

Bruno S. did not receive an Oscar nomination for portraying Bruno Stroszek in Stroszek. 

Stroszek follows an idiosyncratic German musician who moves to America. 

Stroszek is the second of two films directed by Werner Herzog to feature Bruno S., after playing the peculiar man who had a natural musical ability who had gone through many years of a strange imprisonment in The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser, this film too follows a man we see released from prison, who is a musician, although now during the modern era. In both instances of Herzog's use of Bruno S., there is a clear specificity of the choice as an alternative to Klaus Kinski, as there's a certain innocence to Bruno S. as opposed to the spawn of Satan's innate presence of Kinski. But I think in both instances this goes beyond that choice, as the fact that he plays a character nearly with his own name I would say is no coincidence. If one were to read about Bruno S.'s life, which is rather heartbreaking, where he was abused as a child, apparently tortured by Nazis, and spent time also imprisoned in mental institutions, the casting of Bruno S. in both instances has a certain autobiographical quality. Although I wouldn't say he is being cast as "himself" in both instances, as there is a progression within his character in Hauser that certainly is performed, the certain particular way Bruno S. interacts with the world, supported also by an interview I watched of him, is very much his personal thing. I won't make any diagnosis of S., but I think it is safe to say he takes in and reacts to stimuli differently from the average person. What Herzog seems to be doing, especially in this film, is merely presenting this unique man to us through the theoretical character of Stroszek. And I should note, I don't think this is a case of someone "not acting", as obviously what Stroszek is going through is not what Bruno S. is going through, these are fictional scenarios, but nonetheless what we do get is the reaction of this man that is very much his own if filtered through performance. 

And we see this man going about his life of leaving prison, to find himself in a world accosted by local thugs, while being friendly towards a local prostitute. S. doesn't react to any of this as a man with hardship, even when they are torturing him, but rather just a man kind of taking it in, in his own particular way, that is very much his way. This is one of those instances where it is hard to say what Bruno S. has, but he has *it* in that there is just something innately captivating about Bruno S., even if to say exactly why, isn't the easiest. He moves to America even and even then, Bruno S. looks at every sight his own way, every interaction his own way, later when things start not going his way for his small group, including the prostitute, there is frustration in the words he speaks, however even that is Bruno S.'s own way about himself. He never exactly states anything to anyone, it is this internalized sort of spoken way. Even as things go wrong, such as that prostitute running off with a trucker, his other companion getting arrested, his house getting taken away, being lost in America, Bruno S. presents Stroszek as just going through these landscapes, these moments as his man does, as he does, which is as he is, in this way that only he can be. I mean there truly should be nothing to a man riding an amusement park ride by himself while seeming to be lost, but just the particular expression that Bruno S. is making as he goes around and around is oddly fascinating, in just being so much himself that it is hard not to look at what he is doing. The sequences that are contrasting the rest of his work are when he plays music, and if one thing I wholeheartedly wish was there had been more scenes of Stroszek playing music and singing. One segment in particular where he takes the street to perform, simply seeming to do so, Bruno S. is absolutely captivating and suddenly he communicates in such a universal way it is kind of beautiful. This is not your traditional performance, or film, yet just like the film, Bruno S. delivers performance here that does captivate, even if the *how* may remain a bit enigmatic.