A Strange Scene in an Already Strange Movie

            Werner Herzog is a filmmaker that I greatly admire. I first came upon his works with his film “Grizzly Man,” which I first saw on DVD when I was in high school. Since then I’ve seen many of his movies. Herzog is certainly an original, someone who has truly committed himself to his craft. He’s also the only person to have directed at least one movie on every single continent (and yes, that includes Antarctica).

            One time I saw his movie “Heart of Glass” on DVD. It’s one of his earlier films, made in 1976, before he made his legendary and notorious film “Fitzcarraldo.” It takes place long ago in a remote Bavarian village. A glass blower dies, and he was the last one to know how to make a particular type of glass, a ruby glass. The townspeople, especially a rich man, become obsessed with figuring out how to create this ruby glass again.

            Along with the intriguing concept, the film is known for the fact that the vast majority of the actors were put under hypnosis. The only exceptions were one actor and real life glass blowers (probably not a good idea to have people under hypnosis work with dangerous equipment and fire). So the performances are kind of otherworldly. Also both the cinematography and the soundtrack are great.

            There’s one scene that sticks in my mind because I find it so odd. It’s a bizarre scene, and that’s saying a lot since this is a Werner Herzog film we’re talking about. It is also the movie’s one and only nude scene. Now, when you think of a nude scene in a movie, what do you usually picture? A sex scene? Maybe a scene involving someone posing for an artist, like in “Titanic”? Maybe a skinny-dipping scene, or a movie in which someone goes streaking? Maybe even a scene of a mermaid becoming human?

            The scene I am talking about involves a woman simply sleeping naked. Now that doesn’t sound too unusual. Lots of people sleep naked. In America almost one in five people sleep without a stitch of clothing on. There have even been scientific studies saying that there are health benefits to sleeping nude.

            Anyway in this particular scene, we see a young woman (a barmaid) sleeping, at first with the covers on. An older woman who runs the tavern this room is a part of comes into said room and goes to wake her up. She pulls off the covers, revealing that the woman is lying on her stomach naked. At worst one might expect the now woken up girl to be slightly embarrassed, or at least feeling a little awkward. On the other hand, maybe she wouldn’t care if a fellow woman saw her naked first thing in the morning, and would easily be able to laugh it off. But instead, the older woman (who is also her boss) rolls her eyes and says, “You’re sleeping naked again!” She then proceeds to slap the poor girl’s bare bottom very hard.

            This scene is strange to me for several reasons. One, like I mentioned earlier, lots of people sleep nude. I also feel for this poor woman. She works as a barmaid, so I’m sure she works very hard at night, dealing with the town drunks and all of their nonsense. When she goes to bed I doubt she would want to wear her sweaty, beer-stained clothes. Apparently in addition to her pay, she also gets room and board. So her boss not only tries to control what she wears in bed, during her off hours, but also physically punishes her for it. Not to mention that this is not a child but a grown woman, so she shouldn’t have to deal with someone punishing her like that.

            Maybe this was a common thing back in the day. This movie does after all take place in Germany of the 1700s. So maybe there’s some ancient folktale that says, “Don’t sleep naked or the demons will eat you! They’re afraid of nightgowns and pantaloons!” Maybe the only way to ward off demons was to have a tavern owner slap the sleeper’s bare butt if she ignored the folk wisdom. Also, like I said earlier, most of the actors in this movie were put under hypnosis. So maybe this was just some impromptu thing that the actress playing the tavern owner did to the naked one while she was in a trance, and the director decided to leave it in. I don’t know, I may never have an answer for why this scene exists. It just seems like a very bizarre scene in an already strange movie.

Note: If you'd like to check out my fantasy novel "The Princess of Infinite Tomorrows," you can currently read it for free at https://princessofinfinitetomorrows.blogspot.com/.