Double Feature #1

The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser [ Jeder für sich und Gott gegen alle / Every Man For Himself and God Against All / The Mystery of Kaspar Hauser ] - dir. Werner Herzog - 1974 - West Germany
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Bad Boy Bubby - dir. Rolf de Heer - 1993 - Australia/Italy

I remember reading a column in the loathesome Entertainment Weekly about how home video can allow for some of the strangest and wonderful double-features (this was in a review of Election and The Rage: Carrie 2). I didn't think I was going to say anything about Rolf de Heer's Bad Boy Buddy after viewing it a couple of days ago, but it has become rather prevelant in my thoughts (mostly in regards to Herzog's The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser), and yet strangely all this relates back to my viewing of J'irai comme un cheval fou. Strange how films you initially dismiss sneak up on you later on. Both Bad Boy Bubby and Kaspar Hauser deal with the attempt at integration of men who've never experienced the world outside of their non-literal prisons. Neither Bubby (Nicholas Hope) nor Kasper (Bruno S.) have any real skills in language -- they mostly just repeat word and phrases spoken to them by their captors, er... disturbed parental figures. And both have attraction to animals. Upon their release from captivation is where the two films differ and where the comparison becomes quite interesting... especially when one consideres the separate outcomes of the two men -- and how the directors view essentially the same extreme tale of a fish-out-of-water. I may consider posting some other strange double features as they come to me.