Letzte Worte [short] + Lebenszeichen - Werner Herzog (1967-68)

Director: Werner Herzog
Writer: Werner Herzog
West Germany - 1967 & 1968 - b&w
Cast:
LETZTE WORTE: non-professionals
LEBENSZEICHEN: Peter Brogle, Athina Zacharopoulou, Wolfgang Reichmann, Wolfgang von Ungern-Sternberg, Wolfgang Stumpf, Henry van Lyck

LEBENSZEICHEN
Stroszek is an injured soldier sent to recuperate at the quiet city of Kos with his new wife Nora, a Greek nurse, and two other soldiers recovering from minor wounds. Billeted in a decaying fortress, they guard a munitions depot. There's little to do: Becker, a classicist, translates inscriptions on ancient tablets found in the fortress, Meinhart devises traps for cockroaches, Nora helps Stroszek make fireworks using gunpowder from grenades in the depot. The newlyweds adjust to their new life on this enchanted desert isle and attend to their simple duties, but soon, the heat, the exotic locale, and the suspicious, eccentric natives push Stroszek towards insanity. He finally snaps, tries to kill his wife, then plans to ignite the ammunition dump. With care, the German command must figure out how to get him down. Ultimately, soldiers swarm the area, trying to capture the psychotic Stroszek before he blows up the whole island.

There's a wonderful original musical score by Greek composer Stavros Xarhakos.
"Lebenszeichen" is the debut feature from Werner Herzog ("Aguirre, the Wrath of God", "Fitzcarraldo", "Nosferatu"), the director that both Milos Forman and François Truffaut have called "the greatest filmmaker alive today".
The next Herzog's film will be the weird and great "Auch Zwerge haben klein angefangen" (Even Dwarfs Started Small) in 1970.

LETZTE WORTE
During the making of "Lebenszeichen", Herzog also shot the experimental short "Letzte Worte" (Last Words), about a hermit who is brought back to civilisation, where he refuses to speak; meanwhile, other members of society obsessively repeat themselves to the point of nonsense. This film would mark the start of Herzog's investigation into human language, and his continued steps toward increasing narrative stylisation.