Werner Herzog Rhapsody

[Sam]

Recently I got pm'd for a Herzog recommendation or two.

I realised there are a lot of knowledgable Herzog fans here. There have been a number of wonderful threads over the years on this board, but I thought it would be nice to gauge a response to how his films are viewed in relation to films in general that get made nowadays, his earlier output and german cinema and cultural history in general.

Why is Herzog amazing?

He's a writer, producer, actor, director, poet, opera director, raconteur, mentor, traveller, icon.

He has made films on every continent.

He has made films on blasted volcanic islands, in the jungle, in Central American child warfare, around an active volcano, in the oil fires of the Gulf, in Pacific islands, on the tip of Alaska.

He can conceive, write, direct and release a masterpiece in the time it takes most directors to check their emails.

He can speak German, English, Spanish, native Indian dialects, Greek, Ancient Greek, Latin, French (only when being held at gunpoint in Africa) and he says his desert island book is the complete Oxford English Dictionary.

He wanted to make a film of the biggest chicken in the world riding on the smallest horse in the world around the biggest tree trunk in the world.

He has chosen as subjects for documentaries:

The beauty and sadness of the world as experienced through deaf, dumb and blind people; a ski jumper's ecstasy of flight; Russian spirituality; the death of a man eaten by Grizzly Bears and the survival of an escapee of a prisoner of war camp; the dangers of texting and driving (emotional, stark and compelling); the language of auctioneers; the eating of his shoe; a tele-evangelist; death row...)

He recorded the soundtrack to Even Dwarfs Started Small by instructing a wailing girl in a cave to 'sing until your soul comes tumbling out'.

He has seen and articulated for the world the pre-historic existential man, his beliefs in blurred lines between this life and the next, between man and animal. It's the visuals promise of Cioran's arresting aphorism of the Hamlets in pre-history uttering their soliloquies to the cave wall, an apogee of torment.

He remade Murnau's Nosferatu and if anything improved on it (watch the scene where the camera tracks around the square with the most haunting tableaux you can imagine).

He has used early music and German electronics (Popul Vuh) as pure atmospheric soundscape.

At the end of Heart of Glass he creates the most pure and orgasmic cinema this side of Tarkovsky. The mise-en-scene here is to die for, all the more remarkable because Herzog claims he doesn't pre-plan or storyboard films but just arranges the actors and set immediately out of instinct.

The sullen black clothed women contorting themselves and holding the posture as frightened monks row off to the edge of the world.

Stroszek is a film imbued with pathos (the hospital scene where Bruno, head in hands, is comforted by the doctor, with the tender yet visceral scenes of the newborn baby). The black comedy of the old man's interactions with police officers, the doomed robbery and the absurd chicken dancing. One of the sparest dramas ever created, this is stuff that even the best playwrights and literary minds such as Chekhov, Strindberg or Kleist would have been proud to have written.

Feel free to add more reasons!

[Petey Pate]

He hates chickens.

[great_badir]

Barefoot, he pulled Jaoquin Phoenix from a car wreck and then just casually wandered off.

He's funny.  REALLY funny.

Fitzcarraldo.  Just Fitzcarraldo.

[Petey Pate]

He's the best person who's ever directed Nicolas Cage, somehow transforming what are usually his worst traits as an actor into a brilliant performance that makes perfect sense in the context of the film (Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans).

[BlodwynPig]

That rhapsody would inspire even the dullest mall rat to go watch his material. Great stuff.

[Sam]

More on Heart of Glass:

He created a shot of 'a river in the sky' by waiting in the mountains for days to painstakingly get the time lapse effect of clouds moving.

He thought it appropriate to shoot scenes in Alaska, Yellowstone National Park and the Irish Sea for a period drama set in 18th century Bavaria.

He fired the hypotist and hypnotised the entire cast himself, except the Prophet who wrestles an imaginary bear and tells prophecies of a future time where there'll be too many benches. The film opens with yodelling and him staring at cows in the mist for too long.

Of course, he walked from Munich to Paris in a snowstorm to say goodbye the the dying film theorist Lotte Eisner, who intoned the Mayan book of the dead over his hallucinatory docu-sci-fi about mirages.

He successfully made Firzcarraldo, a film that featured pulling a real 200 ton steamship over a steep hill with no special effects, during a border war, with thousands of Indian extras, in the tropical heat, wrestling great acting from Kunski between his raving episodes of mania. He dealt with all this stress perfectly (Claudia Cardinale described him as completely professional and unruffled as well as a gentleman).

He wrote the script for Aguirre, drunk, on the bus back from a footy game. A team mate vomited all over the script, ruining it, so he just started again. Then he made the film in the jungle in ridiculously inhospitable locations (on mountainsides, in rapids) with a tiny crew.

He made the bulk of Grizzly Man - one of the best documentaries ever made - by sifting through 100 hours of footage, shooting his own, writing and recording a narration, all in 2 weeks.

He got shot in the stomach with a high powered air rifle during an interview and just carried on, even though the bullet was lodged in his body and he was bleeding into his trousers.

[Tiny Poster]

"If two people are on one bench and one asks the other to move over and the other does not, it will be his death.


That will be the time of the Clearing of the Benches."

[thenoise]

He got shot in the stomach with a high powered air rifle during an interview and just carried on, even though the bullet was lodged in his body and he was bleeding into his trousers.

It's not significant

[Rolf Lundgren]

He wrote the script for Aguirre, drunk, on the bus back from a footy game. A team mate vomited all over the script, ruining it, so he just started again. Then he made the film in the jungle in ridiculously inhospitable locations (on mountainsides, in rapids) with a tiny crew.

Similarly wrote Stroszek in 4 days. He told Bruno S he wanted him to play Woyzeck so Bruno booked the time off work for shooting. When Herzog realised it was a horrible idea Bruno told him he'd already taken the time off so Herzog wrote Stroszek for him instead.

[great_badir]

He successfully made Firzcarraldo, a film that featured pulling a real 200 ton steamship over a steep hill with no special effects, during a border war, with thousands of Indian extras, in the tropical heat, wrestling great acting from Kunski between his raving episodes of mania. He dealt with all this stress perfectly (Claudia Cardinale described him as completely professional and unruffled as well as a gentleman).

And also refused the natives' offer to kill Kinski for him.  But only so he could finish making the film.


Also the way he says the word "jungle".

[Thursday]

I also like the story that the natives were more unsettled by Herzog because he remained perfectly calm while Kinski was screaming at him.

[Urinal Cake]

I always liked this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=90OrQIpF60o

[Moribunderast]

I watched Lessons of Darkness, Little Dieter Needs To Fly and Wings of Hope in one sitting last night. Two of those (Dieter and Darkness) are now two of my favourite films. I've got three seperate Werner box-sets - basically all of his films - and it excites me greatly that there's so many I've yet to see. He is my favourite man and I'm saying that as someone who's YET TO SEE Fitzcarraldo. I don't know why. I guess I like the idea of having it still to watch. He is also very fun to impersonate and sometimes I can't stop speaking in his voice.

That's wot I think about Werner Herzog today.

[Phil_A]

All the insults Kinski uses to describe Herzog in his autobiography(eg "Herzog is a miserable, hateful, malevolent, avaricious, money-hungry, nasty, sadistic, treacherous, cowardly creep. His so-called "talent" consists of nothing but tormenting helpless creatures and, if necessary, torturing them to death or simply murdering them, etc") were actually co-authored by Herzog himself.

I love his speech about the jungle from "Burden Of Dreams":
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uL99NDUWJ0A

[Queneau]

Now is probably the best time to hold up my hands and say I've never seen anything by Herzog. This thread[nb]Sam's excellent opening post in particular.[/nb] has certainly made me want to change that though.

I am thinking of starting with Fitzcarraldo but Where the Green Ants Dream looks bloody tempting too. Anyone care to nominate a starting point?

[great_badir]

So many good films to choose from as a starting point, but I would just go with Fitzcarraldo.  It is a breathtaking achievement in general, let alone as just a film.  Watch it as a two-header with Les Blank's excellent Burden of Dreams making-of (which itself is so much more than just a making-of).

[Viero_Berlotti]

I was looking for some Saturday night trash to watch a few weekends ago and opted for Tom Cruise's 'Jack Reacher'. I was pleasantly surprised when Herzog turned up as the villain, and was the best thing in what was an oddly quaint and old-fashioned American action flick with right-wing undertones.

[Sam]

Now is probably the best time to hold up my hands and say I've never seen anything by Herzog. This thread[nb]Sam's excellent opening post in particular.[/nb] has certainly made me want to change that though.

I am thinking of starting with Fitzcarraldo but Where the Green Ants Dream looks bloody tempting too. Anyone care to nominate a starting point?

Firzcarraldo is good. Grizzly Man, Stroszek and The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser next!

[Funcrusher]

Anyone have any thoughts on 'The Wild Blue Yonder'? It doesn't seem to get much attention in his filmography, I don't even seem to have been aware of its release and only saw it later in a season of films on science in film or somesuch. It's a long while since I saw it , but I remember being quite impressed - I kind of takes Herzog's theme of man's existence as an existential hell in an uncaring and deadly world to its logical conclusion - our whole species is doomed, as the planet will eventually expire, and the only planet we will have any hope of travelling to will be inhospitable and deadly as well. The sections with Brad Dourif as the extraterrestrial no one will listen to are very good.

[great_badir]

It's a beautiful looking film, and quite lyrical, but a similar basic premise was handled much better in Herzog's (much) earlier Fata Morgana, in my opinion.

But even a bad Herzog film is usually better than most other shit out there.

In fact, the only two films of his that I haven't been able to get through more than once are Even Dwarves Started Small (because its odd-for-the-sake-of-being-odd nature bores and annoys me) and Invincible (because it is, for the mostpart, dreadfully acted).

I've seen pretty much everything he's made, including his early short films.

[Tairy_Green]

I just watched the Death Row series that he made alongside Into the Abyss and thought it was phenomenal, perhaps even better than that already outstanding feature. Presumably, he wanted to make a death row doc so cast a wide net, and chose to further develop one strand, but Herzog's offcuts are better than most directors' opuses. 

In one section, Herzog informs his subject, "I have sympathy with your legal struggles but that does not necessarily mean that I have to like you." The man later confesses to two unsolved murders for the first time on camera.

[Paaaaul]

A few weeks after I buy the two deleted boxsets, I find that this is to be released on July 21st...


WERNER HERZOG COLLECTION

The Werner Herzog Collection an extensive Blu-ray box set compiling 18 films from the legendary German director. Features digitally remastered High Definition presentations of classics such as Aguirre, Wrath of God (1972); The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser (1974); Nosferatu, the Vampyre (1979) and Fitzcarraldo (1982) plus many of Herzog's hugely acclaimed short films. Extras include Jack Bond's long-unseenSouth Bank Show on Herzog from 1982 and Les Blank's Burden of Dreams.

Contents

The Unprecedented Defence of the Fortress Deutschkreuz (1967)
Last Words (1968)
Precautions Against Fanatics (1969)
Handicapped Future (1970)
Fata Morgana (1971)
Land Of Silence and Darkness (1971)
Aguirre, Wrath of God (1972)
The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser (1974)
The Great Ecstasy of Woodcarver Steiner (1975)
Heart of Glass (1976)
How Much Wood Would a Woodchuck Chuck (1976)
Stroszek (1977)
Nosferatu, the Vampyre (1979)
Woyzeck (1979)
Huie's Sermon (1980)
God's Angry Man (1980)
Fitzcarraldo (1982)
Cobre Verde (1987)

Special features*

All films remastered to High Definition
Alternative German and English versions of Nosteratu, the Vampyre
Nosferatu On set documentary (1979, 13 mins)
Burden of Dreams (Les Blank, 1982, 95 mins)
South Bank Show: Werner Herzog (Jack Bond, 1982, 50 mins)
Illustrated booklet with extensive essay by Laurie Johnson; full film credits
Full-length audio commentaries with Werner Herzog on selected titles

[Unoriginal]

I'm in the camp who finds Herzog as a person more interesting than his films. Not that his films are bad, but he's so interesting that I find myself just wanting to listen to him speak. I think most of us would agree that Burden of Dreams is the most interesting documentary about making a film that's ever been put to camera and Herzog on Herzog is so full of superb quotes that it's difficult to pick out the best ones.

And he ate a shoe. What a guy.

[hedgehog90]

I've only seen his docs, I've never known where to start with his earlier stuff.
Now I know, and I've learnt of many more Herzog docs that I wasn't previously aware of.
What's the one where he eats a shoe called? And why does he eat a shoe?

[Paaaaul]

Www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Werner_Herzog_Eats_His_Shoe

[hedgehog90]

I probably could've found that quite easily if I tried.
I was on my phone at the time.

[Paaaaul]

Me too, hence the fucking awful link.

[hedgehog90]

He remade Murnau's Nosferatu and if anything improved on it (watch the scene where the camera tracks around the square with the most haunting tableaux you can imagine).

I got the original Nosferatu, eine Symphonie des Grauens a couple years ago and after seeing a bit of it on TV - the bit where the villagers are chasing after the mental fellar. When I got round to watching it fully it didn't hold my attention for long and it became a bit of a chore to finish.

I watched Werner Herzog's Nosferatu last night, not realising it was a remake/reinterpretation of the original (sounds weird but I don't know what I was expecting really)
I have to agree that it surpasses the original and the final act in particular is massively improved.

Apparently there was some pretty awful animal cruelty on the film... I say apparently, but it's almost definitely true. The amount of rats they must have got through is quite sickening.
Herzog wanted the rats to be black, so thousands of rats they were dyed and boiled - a process that kill half them. When you watch the film you'll notice they're still white, so they did all that and it didn't even work!
There's also a scene where there's a very real looking dead horse in the background, and now I can't help thinking now that it had probably died due to neglect.
Is he notorious for being a bit 'off' with animals? That video of him talking about chickens and this account of animal cruelty certainly points towards a kind of heartless, careless attitude towards them.

[Nobody Soup]

klaus kinski is always chucking animals about.

this thread made me go right, need to actually see some of these. I'd wanted to see grizzily man for a while and was aware of aguirre, wrath of the gods but hadn't really made the effort to see them. I got hold of grizzily man at the weekend and watched My Best Friend last night after I found it on a national geographic site that shows documentaries free. (both really good, Grizzily Man in particular)

I'm glad I watched My Best Friend though, I always thought his films were like, super low-budget and very, very arthouse, like Chien Andalou level weird, I was surprised by how cinematic they actually looked and they sounded quite fun. So I'm going to start getting hold of a few of the more famous ones.

[Paaaaul]

For anyone looking for a cheap(and lo-res) fix, loads of his documentaries are on YouTube, including Grizzly Man.