Werner Herzog
1971
43 minutes
This is a very early Werner Herzog documentary, about people with disabilities. In particular, many of the people featured had missing or deformed limbs due to their mothers taking Thalidomide while they were pregnant.
The first girl you ever kissed had a mangled claw of a hand with a misplaced thumb and ungrown fingers. You didn't notice this until after she kissed you. She was a year or two behind you in school, and you had rarely if ever crossed paths. Your school was large enough for this to be possible, and you ran in very different circles. You were in the reference room of the public library and she took an interest in what you were doing. She was asking you questions about it and she suddenly lunged for you and plunged her tongue into your mouth mid-explanation. After taking a breath, you both went back for seconds, and in your mutual groping you quickly discovered the external parts of her that were missing. This didn't discourage you much at the time. She gave you her phone number but not much came of it. When you tried to use it, her father answered the phone and warned you to stay the fuck away from his daughter or he was going to kill you. And that was that. It didn't seem worth testing this threat, although it must be said that she was a very good kisser.
A year or two later, when you had a steady girlfriend, this girl ended up sitting next to you in your French class. You hadn't spoken in the interim, and during that time she had earned a rather bad reputation. After a few weeks of playing dumb, one day she walked in and looked over and laughed and declared, "HEY I REMEMBER YOU!" You smiled and nodded and tried to avoid the awkwardness, which she seemed to respect.
Time to choose something different: