Invincible

Director: Werner Herzog Werner Herzog

Overview

Werner Herzog returned to dramatic filmmaking for the first time in a decade with this historical drama, based on a true story, about a man who rose to fame and fortune in 1932 as the Nazis rose to power in Germany, only to renounce his career in order to stand beside his people as a symbol of strength and resistance. Zishe (Jouko Ahola) is the son of a Jewish blacksmith living in a small town in Eastern Poland. A giant of a man with remarkable physical strength, Zishe is discovered by Landwehr (Gustav Peter Wohler), a theatrical agent who believes a successful nightclub act can be built around the Polish Adonis. Landwehr brings Zishe to Berlin, where he lands a spot in the revue of a nightclub run by Hanussen (Tim Roth), a stage hypnotist who claims to be a Danish nobleman with psychic gifts. Hanussen is also a confirmed anti-Semite who is in cahoots with many of the leading members of the Nazi Party, who are becoming a political force to be reckoned with. Zishe's act, in which he performs feats of strength while costumed as a Roman soldier, becomes a great success, but when he falls for Marta (Anna Gourari), a pianist at the club, he discovers he has a rival for her affection -- Hanussen, who is her lover but is also physically abusive towards her. One night, while performing for an audience comprised of Hanussen's Nazi friends, Zishe reveals to the crowd that he is actually a Jew. He soon becomes a champion of the Jewish cause and a hero to his fellow Poles, but earns the wrath of Hanussen and his comrades in the process. As he has often done in the past, Werner Herzog aimed for realism in his casting for Invincible; Jouko Ahola, who plays the Polish strongman, is actually a champion weightlifter from Poland, while Anna Gourari is known to music aficionados as a gifted concert pianist.

Product Details

Release Date:	11/21/2017
UPC:	0888574564773
Original Release:	2001
Rating:	PG-13
Source:	Warner Archives
Presentation:	[Wide Screen]
Sound:	[Dolby Digital Stereo, Digital Theater Systems, Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround]
Language:	English
Time:	2:13:00
Sales rank:	54,765

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Tim Roth	Hanussen
Jouko Ahola	Zishe Breitbart
Anna Gourari	Marta Farra
Gustav Peter Wohler	Landwehr
Renate Krösner	Mother Breitbart
Max Raabe	Master of Ceremonies
Udo Kier	Count Helldorf
Jacob Wein	Benjamin,Rebecca,Raphael,Daniel,Chana
Herbert Golder	Rabbi Edelmann
Ben-Tzion Hershberg	Gershon
Gary Bart	Yitzak Breitbart
Torsten Hammann	Ringleader
Jurgis Krasons	Rowdy
Klaus Stiglmeier	Circus Director
James Reeves	Colossus of Rhodos
Ulrich Bergfelder	Carter's Man
Jakov Rafalson	Laughing Man
Ieva Aleksandrova	Delilah
Natalie Holtom	Chorus Girl
Karin Kern	Chorus Girl
Amanda Lawford	Chorus Girl
Francesca Marino	Chorus Girl
Beatrix Reiterer	Chorus Girl
Adrianne Richards	Chorus Girl
Sabine Schreitmiller	Chorus Girl
Kristy Wone	Chorus Girl
Rudolph Herzog	Magician
Les Bubb	Rothschild
Tina Bordhin	Hedda Christiansen
Sylvia Vas	Mrs. Holm
Hans-Jurgen Schmiebusch	Mr. Peters
Joachim Paul Assbock	Stormtrooper
Alexander Duda	Himmler
Klaus Haindl	Goebbels
Hark Bohm	Judge
Anthony Bramall	Conductor
Andre Hennicke	Detective
Ilga Martinsone	Woman
Valerijs Iskevic	Young Man
Juris Strenga	Teacher
Grigorij Kravec	Woodcutter
James Mitchell	Doctor
Milena Gulbe	Nurse
Peter Ruehring	Actor
Gerd Lukas Storzer	Actor
Beat Presser	Actor
Jurgen Klein	Actor
Ieva Jursta	Actor
Peteris Lapins	Actor
Gregori Kravitc	Actor
Nikita Kobrin	Actor
Daniel Schuster	Actor
Ivars Zvingulis	Actor
Hivars Visockis	Actor
Juris Silins	Actor
Guntis Pilsums	Innkeeper
Max Raab	Master of Ceremonies
Klaus Badelt	Composer
Hans Zimmer	Composer

Technical Credits

Werner Herzog

Werner Herzog	Director,Screenwriter,Producer
Michael Andre	Executive Producer
Gary Bart	Producer
Mike Kelt	Special Effects
Alan Marques	Special Effects
James Mitchell	Executive Producer
Michael Mohr	Stunts
Christine Ruppert	Producer
Tanja Schwichtenberg	Casting
Simone Stewens	Executive Producer
Lucki Stipetic	Executive Producer
Paul Webster	Executive Producer

Scene Index

Disc #1 -- Invincible
1. A True Story/Main Title [3:04]
2. A Rooster at the Table [4:31]
3. "Hercules Has a Challenger" [4:38]
4. Visitor in a Motorcar [2:50]
5. Zishe's Gill of Strength [3:46]
6. Seeking a New World [6:20]
7. Berlin, May 1932 [3:31]
8. Hanussen's Palace of the Occult [5:19]
9. Siegfried the Iron King [6:35]
10. Haussen, Master Clairvoyant [7:08]
11. The Power of Body and Spirit [5:42]
12. Hitler's New Oracle [4:14]
13. Princess Maria's Music [4:40]
14. "Everything Is A Track" [2:00]
15. A Changed Samson [6:45]
16. Zishe Finds His Faith [3:37]
17. The Support of the Party [:01]
18. The Laws of Nature [4:13]
19. Future Ministry of the Occult [2:43]
20. Protecting Maria [3:18]
21. ...and Exposing Hanussen [4:44]
22. A Public Spectacle [2:57]
23. An Unknown Just Man [5:56]
24. A Gift From the Heart [5:45]
25. Closed Due to Illness [5:29]
26. Prophet in His Own Home [1:25]
27. Preparing for the Worst [1:06]
28. The Invincible Zishe Breibart [5:06]
29. Epilogue/End Credits [3:38]
30. Chapter 30 [6:55]

Menu

Disc #1 -- Invincible
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Editorial Reviews

Invincible, German auteur Werner Herzog's first fiction feature to be released in the U.S. in 18 years, is one part parable, one part fairy tale, and quite possibly the idiosyncratic director's most traditional film to date. The story is based on the life of Zishe Breitbart (Jouko Ahola), a Polish Jew who in 1932 rose to short-lived fame as a strongman in Berlin and has since become a sort of Jewish folk hero. Nearly overnight, Zishe goes from blacksmithing in the country to playing an Aryan strongman named Siegfried for upper-crust Nazis at the Palace of the Occult, a cabaret run by the self-proclaimed clairvoyant and Nazi ladder-climber Erik Jan Hanussen (Tim Roth). A sudden, onstage proclamation by Zishe that he is actually a Jew -- he calls himself "the new Samson" -- ruffles the Nazi audience and even erupts in showstopping violence. But soon the strongman finds himself a hero among Jews, just as he becomes increasingly aware of Germany's unexpected and imminent invasion of Poland. A real-life Finnish strongman, Ahola is not necessarily strong as an actor, but his uncomfortable onscreen carriage becomes part of Zishe's disarming, gentle-giant character. Roth is the truly shining member of the cast, making Hanussen both frightening and, after a revelation not to be spoiled here, downright tragic. Herzog's return to narrative after years of documentary filmmaking is not quite a return to the singular form of his films like Aguirre, the Wrath of God, but it is still a fascinating tale shot through with spirituality and the director's occasional visual poetry. In a story set on the eve of the Holocaust, dream sequences involving hordes of crabs and an oncoming train are nothing but pure Herzog.

Barnes & Noble - Tony Nigro