Bruno S. [Schleinstein], Street Musician Turned Lead Actor In Herzog Classics, 78, NY Times
DGH
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/15/arts/music/15bruno.html?ref=obituaries
Bruno S., Street Musician Turned Lead Actor in Herzog Classics, Dies at 78
By DOUGLAS MARTIN [New York Times]
He wrote songs and sang them on the streets of Berlin. One told of a poor
boy who grows up wishing for a little horse. The horse arrives years later
pulling his mother's hearse.
The man who sang it in a croaky voice, accompanying himself on the accordion
and glockenspiel, was known as Bruno S. He was a street musician, a painter
of pictures, a forklift operator in a steel mill and, at one time, a mental
patient. But, perhaps most remarkably, he was the lead actor in a movie that
won the Grand Jury Prize at the Cannes International Film Festival in 1975.
His full name, which he seldom used, was Bruno Schleinstein. He died
Wednesday at the age of 78 in Berlin, according to the German Press Agency,
quoting his friend the artist Klaus Theuerkauf.
Werner Herzog, one of the innovators of postwar German cinema, twice in the
1970s cast Bruno to play pretty much himself - a damaged but somehow
transcendent character.
The first of those films, the one that won at Cannes, was "The Enigma of
Kaspar Hauser" (1974), based on a true story. In the film the character
played by Bruno appears in a square in 19th-century Nuremburg. He cannot
speak and can barely stand, having apparently been kept in a kind of
dungeon. The only clue to his identity is a paper giving his name as Kaspar
and asking that he be taken into service as a soldier.
Kaspar is taught to speak and to read and write, and then, in a fashion as
mysterious as his appearance, he is murdered.
Bruno's acting moved Richard Eder of The New York Times to write: "Kaspar's
extraordinary face, his eyes strained wide to see better, his whole posture
suggesting a man trying to swallow, trying to grasp a world of strangeness,
is the film's central image."
As he learns to speak, Kaspar finds much of society repulsive. "Every man is
a wolf to me," he says. He has no ego: "Nothing lives less in me than my
life."
"The story of Kaspar is more fascinating than the story of Jesus Christ,"
Anaďs Nin was quoted as saying in an advertisement for the film.
Bruno Schleinstein was born on June 2, 1932, most likely in Berlin. Some
accounts say his mother, a prostitute, had beaten him so badly when he was 3
that he became temporarily deaf. This led to his placement in a mental
hospital, where he was the subject of Nazi experiments on mentally disabled
children.
Nobody visited him, not even relatives he knew. He spent 23 years in
institutions, including jails and homeless shelters. When on his own, he
broke into cars for a warm place to sleep.
As an adult he held various jobs, including forklift driver, and began to
sing in courtyards around Berlin in the oral tradition that inspired
Brecht's "Threepenny Opera."
He didn't sing songs, Bruno said; he transmitted them. One song, "Thoughts
Are Free," concerned the impossibility of finding refuge even in one's
thoughts.
Mr. Herzog first glimpsed Bruno in a 1970 documentary about street
musicians.
"I instantly knew he could be the leading character in 'Kaspar Hauser,' "
Mr. Herzog said in an interview with NPR in 2006. Bruno did not want his
name known, and so Mr. Herzog began calling him "the unknown soldier of
cinema." During filming, Mr. Herzog said, Bruno would have moments of "utter
despair" and start talking, sometimes screaming, in the middle of a shot and
continue in that way for two hours.
Bruno's second film, "Stroszek" (1977), was based on his life; Mr. Herzog
had written the script expressly for him. Some scenes were shot in Bruno's
own apartment. In the film, Bruno, a prostitute he befriends and his aging
landlord move to the mythical Railroad Flats, Wis., where they live in a
trailer.
In the film, Bruno, who refers to himself in the third person, has sharp
comments about America. "Bruno is still being pushed around," he says, "not
physically but spiritually; here they hurt you with a smile."
Bruno said in interviews that he had never wanted to be a movie star, and in
time the benefits of fame faded, other than the occasional free haircut by a
friendly barber.
"Everybody threw him away," Bruno said of himself.
He continued to carve out a life with his music and artwork, some of which
was compelling enough to be exhibited at shows of so-called outsider art,
including one in New York. When playing for street audiences, he never asked
for money. Sometimes a friend would pass a hat for him. He drew a small
pension. He apparently had no survivors.
In 2002, the German filmmaker Miron Zownir made a documentary called "Bruno
S. - Estrangement Is Death." In it, Bruno seems to answer the many who
worried that he had been exploited by Mr. Herzog.
"I have my pride, and I can think," he said, "and my thinking is clever."
BobF
Previously on alt.obituaries (Sat, 14 Aug 2010 22:01:26 -0500 to be
exact), "DGH" <peri...@eudoramail.com> wrote thusly:
>-
>
>http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/15/arts/music/15bruno.html?ref=obituaries
>
>Bruno S., Street Musician Turned Lead Actor in Herzog Classics, Dies at 78
Thanks for posting such a fascinating obituary.
--
"It's not that I'm afraid to die. I just don't want to be there when it happens." - Woody Allen
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Wax-up and drop-in of Surfing's Golden Years: <http://www.surfwriter.net>
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~