Director Werner Herzog's second feature film is a triumph of cinematic irreverence and uncompromising creativity. A cast that's comprised entirely of dwarfs stages an uproarious and chaotic rebellion in a remote and picturesque mountain asylum of undetermined purpose. Shot in harsh yet sumptuous black and white, the film features the upturned idyll of the sanitarium playing host to the erotically obsessed and absurdly acting dwarfs as they create a microcosm of the real world's ridicules. Unforgettable images, such as a group of blind dwarfs wearing oversize darkened goggles while hobbling along a mountain path and a dwarf couple attempting to consummate their relationship by leaping from a stack of magazines onto the conjugal bed, make EVEN DWARFS STARTED SMALL a thoroughly challenging visual experience as well as a compelling allegory for society and its outcasts. As the visual absurdity of the film reaches a sort of slow-motion fever pitch, Herzog's innate humanism injects the seemingly inhuman scenario with a deep pathos that captures viewers' attention as well as sympathy.
Herzog's irreverent film features a cast that's comprised entirely of dwarfs.
EVEN DWARFS STARTED SMALL was banned from Germany, and director Werner Herzog had to distribute the film himself despite various death threats.
EVEN DWARFS STARTED SMALL was initially to be shot in Mexico, but was eventually filmed in the Canary Islands.
Herzog placed an ad in a German paper in order to find someone to make wedding clothes for insects for a scene in the film.
Herzog promised the all dwarf cast of EVEN DWARFS STARTED SMALL, that if they made it through the film unscathed, he would jump into a cactus field, which he eventually did.
DVD Features:
Region 1
Keep Case
Full Frame - 1.33:1
Single Side - Single Layer
Dolby Digital Mono 2.0 - German
Additional Release Material:
Audio Commentary - 1. Werner Herzog - Director, Norman Hill, Actor Crispin Glover
Interactive Features:
Scene Access
Interactive Menus
Additional Products:
Liner Notes by Crispin Glover
Packaged in a Deluxe Blue Alpha-Pack
Director of Photography
Thomas Mauch: Director of Photography, ST. CYR (2000)
Review 1:
"[A] satire of bourgeois niceties..."
Source: Sight and Sound
p.92 09/01/2005
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