Woyzeck

Filmed in a series of desolate long shots juxtaposed with punishing facial close-ups--call it SqualorScope--this 1994 adaptation of Georg Buchner's classic drama of existential crisis impresses visually but fails to connect emotionally. The plot involves a disgruntled railway flagman who takes part in a strange medical experiment, then erupts into violence when he discovers that his wife is cheating on him. What lingers in the memory are the ugly-gorgeous industrial locations, shot so vividly that you can practically smell the steam and feel the mildew. Unfortunately, the monotonously gloomy tone--very Eastern European, I must say--frequently verges on the self-parodic, while scenes that should seem elemental instead come across as a bit too pointedly abstract. (The same is true of Werner Herzog's 1978 adaptation, as it happens; perhaps the material is simply too blatantly symbolic to translate well to the screen.) Optional. (M. D'Angelo)