Signs of Life (1968 film)
- June 1968 (1968-June) (Berlin Film Festival)
- July 5, 1968 (1968-July-05) (Germany)
Signs of Life (German: 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" by Achim von Arnim.[1]
Plot
During World War II, three German soldiers are withdrawn from combat when one of them, Stroszek, is wounded.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.
Cast
- Peter Brogle - Stroszek
- Wolfgang Reichmann - Meinhard
- Athina Zacharopoulou - Nora
- Wolfgang von Ungern-Sternberg - Becker
- Wolfgang Stumpf - Captain
- Henry van Lyck - Lieutenant
- Julio Pinheiro - Gypsy
- Florian Fricke - Pianist
- Heinz Usener - Doctor
- Achmed Hafiz - Greek resident
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.[2]
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.[2] 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.
Themes
Many of Herzog's later films reference elements of Signs of Life. Stroszek includes a scene with a hypnotized chicken, and the main character's name is reused in Herzog's film Stroszek. The Wild Blue Yonder contains a shot of a valley of windmills.
Critical responses
The film was entered into the 18th Berlin International Film Festival, where it won the Silver Bear Extraordinary Prize of the Jury.[3] The film won a German Film Award.
Signs of Life has a 91% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes.[4]
References
- ^ Herzog, Werner (2001). Herzog on Herzog. Faber and Faber. pp. 38. ISBN 0-571-20708-1.
- ^ a b Werner Herzog, audio commentary for Signs of Life DVD
- ^ "Berlinale 1968: Prize Winners". berlinale.de. Retrieved 2010-03-03.
- ^ "Signs of Life". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved 2021-10-11.
External links
- Lebenszeichen at IMDb
- v
- t
- e
- Signs of Life (1968)
- Even Dwarfs Started Small (1970)
- Fata Morgana (1971)
- Aguirre, the Wrath of God (1972)
- The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser (1974)
- Heart of Glass (1976)
- Stroszek (1977)
- Nosferatu the Vampyre (1979)
- Woyzeck (1979)
- Fitzcarraldo (1982)
- Where the Green Ants Dream (1984)
- Cobra Verde (1987)
- Scream of Stone (1991)
- Lessons of Darkness (1992)
- Invincible (2001)
- The Wild Blue Yonder (2005)
- Rescue Dawn (2006)
- Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans (2009)
- My Son, My Son, What Have Ye Done (2009)
- Queen of the Desert (2015)
- Salt and Fire (2016)
- Family Romance, LLC (2019)
- The Flying Doctors of East Africa (1969)
- Handicapped Future (1971)
- Land of Silence and Darkness (1971)
- The Great Ecstasy of Woodcarver Steiner (1974)
- How Much Wood Would a Woodchuck Chuck (1976)
- La Soufrière (1977)
- Huie's Sermon (1981)
- God's Angry Man (1981)
- Ballad of the Little Soldier (1984)
- The Dark Glow of the Mountains (1985)
- Herdsmen of the Sun (1989)
- Echoes from a Sombre Empire (1990)
- Jag Mandir (1991)
- Bells from the Deep (1993)
- The Transformation of the World into Music (1994)
- Gesualdo: Death for Five Voices (1995)
- Little Dieter Needs to Fly (1997)
- My Best Fiend (1999)
- Wings of Hope (2000)
- Pilgrimage (2001)
- Ten Thousand Years Older (2002)
- Wheel of Time (2003)
- The White Diamond (2004)
- Grizzly Man (2005)
- Encounters at the End of the World (2007)
- Happy People: A Year in the Taiga (2010)
- Cave of Forgotten Dreams (2010)
- Into the Abyss (2011)
- On Death Row (2012)
- Lo and Behold, Reveries of the Connected World (2016)
- Into the Inferno (2016)
- Meeting Gorbachev (2018)
- Nomad: In the Footsteps of Bruce Chatwin (2019)
- Fireball: Visitors from Darker Worlds (2020)
- The Fire Within: A Requiem for Katia and Maurice Krafft (2022)
- Herakles (1962)
- Game in the Sand (1964)
- The Unprecedented Defence of the Fortress Deutschkreuz (1967)
- Last Words (1968)
- Precautions Against Fanatics (1969)
- No One Will Play with Me (1976)
- Portrait Werner Herzog (1986)
- Les Gaulois (1988)
- La bohème (2009)
- Incident at Loch Ness (2004)
- Of Walking in Ice (1978)
- The Twilight World (2021)
- Every Man for Himself and God Against All: A Memoir (2022)
- Lena Herzog (wife)
- Lucki Stipetić (brother)
- Werner Herzog Eats His Shoe (1980)
- Burden of Dreams (1982)
- Location Africa (1987)
- Plastic Bag (2009)