Werner Herzog Rhapsody

[great_badir]

Is he notorious for being a bit 'off' with animals?

Not really.  At least not in the same notorious sense as most Italian horror directors in the 70s and 80s.  Herzog looks back on the rat thing with some shame (I'm pretty sure he talks about it in that respect on the film's commentary), and there were a few other instances of...questionable animal treatment in his earlier films as well (Even Dwarves Started Small, for example) that he's since admitted feeling quite bad about.  But then it was, unfortunately, quite often the done thing throughout the 60s, 70s and 80s, even in American films - you've got Peckinpah blowing up chickens, and just about every single American western from that period using trip-wires for horses.

Which is not to excuse those actions in any way, but just to say that times were different and people didn't really think about it that much back then.

[Paaaaul]

I watched a documentary he made in the 80s about child soldiers the other night, and it has some graphic scenes of turtles being hacked open in it. Obviously, they would have been hacked open whether he was filming or not, but he did choose to film it and include the footage in his final film.

[phantom_power]

I feel I should like his films but I tried to watch Aguirre once and found it a bit dull

[great_badir]

I watched a documentary he made in the 80s about child soldiers the other night, and it has some graphic scenes of turtles being hacked open in it. Obviously, they would have been hacked open whether he was filming or not, but he did choose to film it and include the footage in his final film.

There's a huge difference between a real-life everyday occurrance being documented by a camera acting as a fly on the wall, and something being orchestrated purely for entertainment purposes - one is to show you that these things happen in other parts of the world, the other is unnecessary and inexcusable.

That's a great doc, though.

[Sam]

I feel I should like his films but I tried to watch Aguirre once and found it a bit dull

I think it has great opening and closing sequences but does drag in the middle unless you're in the mood. It's probably not the best to see as your very first. Fitzcarraldo is much more accessible.

[Paaaaul]

Bad Lieutenant is a good place to start. Plenty of weirdness, but with more plot and inertia than his earlier work. It also shows Herzog's sense of humour much more graphically which helps understanding his classics better, as you have a deeper understanding of the mind behind them.

[Dyl Spinks]

Is Incident at Loch Ness worth picking up? Have wanted it for ages, but pretty expensive on Amazon...

[Sam]

Is Incident at Loch Ness worth picking up? Have wanted it for ages, but pretty expensive on Amazon...

It's fairly mediocre and throwaway. Quite fun and passes the time but don't go out of your way to see it.

[Bored of Canada]

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

Is there going to be a multi-region release of this? I was looking into picking it up, especially if it's Blu-Ray, but there's no way I can unlock the regions on my Aussie Blu-Ray player. I'm genuinely really upset if I'm not going to be able to get a copy of this. I love Herzog's films but I've missed quite a lot that are in here, and I don't own any at the time being. I'd love to experience these.

EDIT: According to the Amazon Region things. This is Region B/2, which is a Blu-Ray region, which works differently from the old DVD ones, and covers both Europe and Australia. Pre-ordering now.

[garbed_attic]

He inspired one of the best and most concise readings in all of Deleuze's two Cinema books:

[garbed_attic]

I mean, relatively speaking.

[garbed_attic]

I think Herzog's charisma and the Great Feats of Will for which some of his films are remembered means that, when we come to the man's cinema, it are often gentler and more poetic than we might expect. Sure, there is a great deal of Sturm und Drang that rages away against the landscape, but there are also long takes of nature bubbling away in silence as the wind rocks the trees. Personally, The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser is perhaps the most touching of all of Herzog's works and the most haunting. It tells the sad tale of Kaspar Hauser, a 19th century German man who grew up among extraordinary privation so that he was barely able to speak and walk. Entering into German society at Nuremberg, nearly mute, with a letter that proclaimed him to want to be a cavalryman as his father was, Kaspar was socialised by well-meaning, rationalising men of the Enlightenment, but in doing so caused him as much sadness as they did joy. Herzog tells the story simply and sympathetically, but with a quietly jaundiced eye, though never closed to the wonders of the world. Nature speaks through the film, whispering more sense that do the eminently capable men. Bruno S, who grew up in situations not dissimilar to Kaspar's own, inhabits the role with a beauty and commitment that is perhaps unparalleled within the history of cinema and his performance, augmented by Herzog's delicate cinematography, can reduce me to tears.

"Don't you hear? Don't you hear the dreadful voice that screams from the whole horizon, and that man usually calls silence?"

---

As for the treatment of animals in his films... yeah, it makes me a little wobbly, though I think Herzog's less exploitative in that regard than Haneke. I also felt particular sympathy for the pig hammered to death in Godard's Weekend. But then, I have a real fondness for pigs.

I'd love to see an article, or even a short book, written on the treatment of animals in European art-house and horror cinema of the late 60s through to the early 80s. Actually, I think there should be more written about animals in film in general. I don't fancy watching a litany of such horrors though, so I'll leave it to one of you otherwise academic 'whores.

[Retinend]

I was amazed to learn that this exists: Werner Herzog, Cormac McCarthy and Laurence Kraus together in a room for almost an hour. Cormac McCarthy says that he has a deep interest in physics and Kraus says he's a fan of the other two; Werner Herzog performs a reading from McCarthy's "All The Pretty Horses."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=glW7G1SgRCY

[WesterlyWinds]

Anyone seen the short he did on texting and driving? In equal parts harrowing and touching. I won't go into the detail too much - you should just watch it - but it's a film about both transgression and forgiveness.

[Paaaaul]

The new boxset will be out next week. The release date slipped a couple of times, but my copy had just been shipped. WH Eats His Shoe has been added to the set since I posted its contents earlier.

[Bored of Canada]

The new boxset will be out next week. The release date slipped a couple of times, but my copy had just been shipped. WH Eats His Shoe has been added to the set since I posted its contents earlier.

Yeah. I was supposed to get mine in July and apparently I'll be receiving mine sometime in September. Regardless, looking forward to it. Going to dedicate a weekend and shut myself away with it.

[Paaaaul]

1341 minutes, plus extras. I'll. spread it over a week or so.

[Moribunderast]

Is this a blu-ray box-set? I already have 3 DVD box-sets which have pretty much everything up until Grizzly Man. Not sure whether it'd be worth upgrading but I'll be tempted because Herzog.

[Paaaaul]

Is this a blu-ray box-set? I already have 3 DVD box-sets which have pretty much everything up until Grizzly Man. Not sure whether it'd be worth upgrading but I'll be tempted because Herzog.

It's DVD or Bluray. Everything remastered. Includes everything from The Werner Herzog Collection and Herzog Kinski boxsets, expect My Best Fiend and Even Dwarves... but adds a load that I don't believe have been released on DVD in the UK before, or at all.

[Moribunderast]

Well then looks like I'm buying a fourth Herzog box-set. Christ, all the money I've spent, it'd probably be cheaper just to buy the man. I'd love to have Werner in my house. Narrating my life with cool detachment and trying to hypnotise my stupid cat.

[Bored of Canada]

I've been slowly making my way through the blu-ray collection.
I'd seen Grizzly Man, Werner Herzog Eats His Shoe, and Lessons of Darkness previously, and I think a few of his other short films, so this has been my first experience for a lot of them.

I watched a lot of them on the discs a month ago, and then jumped back in today with Heart of Glass.
Didn't know anything about it going in, because I actively try to avoid knowing anything about films I watch. Think about 50 minutes in, I realised this was likely the one where he hypnotised most of the cast. Which I'll get back to.

It's an interesting film. I'd probably say it's a poem, or even a lamentation about humanity.
I think it was in an essay by David Bordwell in regards to Art Cinema where he talks about the different way you have to watch films of this type. When characters do things that don't make sense, or aren't making sense to you, the audience needs to make that switch to stop asking why are they doing this, and "What is the filmmaker trying to say by showing us this?".
I genuinely treat all movies like this, always trying to figure out the premise. What's the point? What am I getting out of this?

You either accept the challenge and allow it to wash over you, and allow your mind to start thinking of it more cerebrally, or you're going to disconnect and get fucking frustrated and bored.

It took me about an hour in before I felt I really got to terms with my interpretation of the premise of the film, and that's when I started connecting with it more. The first hour had little moments that I really loved. The long one shot of the woman staring at the two men lying on top of each other in the barn, with the scared yet curious cat walking backing away further and further nervously, because to me, it wasn't sure if the actors were actually dead/asleep or just playing a trick on it, and wanted to back away, but couldn't take it's eyes off the scene. That was just a great moment, but I wasn't connecting with it mentally because I was lost in what the film was about.

But to me it all clicked and I really started enjoying it a lot after I figured out my premise for it, and then started looking at everything through that lens, and trying to see what Herzog had to say about it.

For me, the premise of the film is "Everything is finite. We are all doomed. This is the natural conclusion of our existence, but we're too complacent and selfish to do anything about it, and we don't have the courage to see it coming."

It's really fascinating, in that everyone knows the saying, "Those who don't look to the past are doomed to repeat it" or however it's phrased, but in this film, these people are sleepwalking through their existences, and commune with a compelling man who can see the future. He proves in his first moment that he can predict the future. Throughout the film, he repeatedly proves to people he can see the future. He warns everyone, and they don't fucking do anything with it. They just continue with their lives.

The old man is dying, and has sat in his chair for 12 years. Given up, dying, sitting there waiting for it for 12 years. It'd be funny if it wasn't scarily true.

Hais tells them the Glass Factory's going to burn down.
He tells them people are going to die.
And one man asks the question, "What about beer? Will there be free beer?".

And yeah, there is, but it's so fucking self-centered and human that we don't look outside ourselves. We can joke and look to the next day, but more so than "Those Who Don't look to the past doomed to repeat it", those who don't look to their inevitable future are doomed to fucking live through that. Terrifying stuff.

The film ends with that startling epilogue. As a man looks towards the abyss on a mountain every day for 6 years. And three men join him. Just staring towards it.

And then they make the decision, they're not going to just keep staring at it. They're going to actively row to it, on a tiny boat, and see the abyss for themselves, actively confront it. Everyone else is too scared to look or even think about it, except for these men.

I think the hypnotising thing is interesting though unnecessary if you just told the actors to, y'know, act. But whatever!
It does show how passive the people are as they almost sleepwalk through scenes, and really separates Hais from them, as he's just got a lot going on in his face and his performance, and you immediately warm to him in this really cold film because everyone else is a bloody robot.

I think the plodding pace and the performances of those people really make it very difficult first hour though. The pace is almost non-existent because of it.
It's long. It's slow. But you can push through that trying to figure out what the film means to you, and it does have something good to say, and it's definitely well told. Especially the epilogue, which is actually breathtaking, but I don't think I ever could take another film with performances like that though. It makes sense with the point of the film, but christ, it can be a bit tedious at times.

It's a poem and a lamentation, like I said, and only works when you start actively trying to figure out what the images mean to you.

But you definitely need to be in the mood.

Aguirre on the other hand is fucking exciting as shit. That whole film rushes by.

[Sam]

Good post and interpretation. I agree with most of what you said, although I find HoG slightly more exciting to watch than Aguirre. Have you watched HoG with the director's commentary yet? It's funnier than most comedy!

[Bored of Canada]

Good post and interpretation. I agree with most of what you said, although I find HoG slightly more exciting to watch than Aguirre. Have you watched HoG with the director's commentary yet? It's funnier than most comedy!

Nah! I might tonight, actually. That's the thing with this Blu-Ray collection that I find most intimidating.
There's all these commentaries that I'd absolutely love to watch, but I barely have enough time with life to watch through the weeks of content that's already there that they're commentating on.

Crispin Glover's on the commentaries for Fata Morgana with Herzog for some reason!   

[Sam]

Nah! I might tonight, actually. That's the thing with this Blu-Ray collection that I find most intimidating.
There's all these commentaries that I'd absolutely love to watch, but I barely have enough time with life to watch through the weeks of content that's already there that they're commentating on.

Crispin Glover's on the commentaries for Fata Morgana with Herzog for some reason!

He's on a few, including Heart of Glass. Look out for a hilariously mad tangent about milking cows.

[newbridge]

It's an interesting film. I'd probably say it's a poem, or even a lamentation about humanity.
I think it was in an essay by David Bordwell in regards to Art Cinema where he talks about the different way you have to watch films of this type. When characters do things that don't make sense, or aren't making sense to you, the audience needs to make that switch to stop asking why are they doing this, and "What is the filmmaker trying to say by showing us this?".
I genuinely treat all movies like this, always trying to figure out the premise. What's the point? What am I getting out of this?

Do you think this kind of approach unfairly boxes in what someone like Werner Herzog might be trying to do, though? It seems very "academic" (for lack of a better word) to try and decipher the hidden meaning/message/symbolism, whereas Herzog seems like one of the last "academic" directors around. Maybe the point of something like Heart of Glass is that there is no point other than the experience of watching it.

...Not sure if I articulated that well.

[Bored of Canada]

Do you think this kind of approach unfairly boxes in what someone like Werner Herzog might be trying to do, though? It seems very "academic" (for lack of a better word) to try and decipher the hidden meaning/message/symbolism, whereas Herzog seems like one of the last "academic" directors around. Maybe the point of something like Heart of Glass is that there is no point other than the experience of watching it.

...Not sure if I articulated that well.

But when you put a series of images together, there is a purpose there. That purpose or premise will be a Thematic one, and an experiencial one. They're interconnected.

A filmmaker could make a non narrative film that was incredibly fragmented and inaccessible all trying to capture a mood. A feeling. Or maybe they're trying to put you in a certain perspective, maybe this non narrative film is all about the filmmaker trying to put you in the place of how it feels to wake up as a man with alzheimers. His grandfather.

As soon as you edit two images together next to each other, you're doing something.

I think academic is the wrong term to be using. Herzog may not have been to film school but he's a poetic man and his favourite books he's recommended have unique purposes.
Trying to put yourself in the mind of the filmmaker and trying to understand the point of what they're saying is vital to being a human being.

Art can build a self awareness. It can put you in an emotional state. It is always an experience.

Just because it has a point to make doesn't mean that the experience it puts you in is negated. They're all interconnected.

The images and sounds we're shown as Heart of Glass goes through has recurring images and themes. I'd argue that the filmmaker is trying to do something with that.

Especially since it takes a village to make a film and at certain points in production, you're going to have to direct people to make this film with you, and the fact that all the elements of the film still in my mind go towards making a point. Everything on screen has a reason because the directors told the production designer to get that and do this colour scheme which has this effect. And the DP Has framed it this way with this film grammar and consistency and he's gone on to direct the gaffers to set the lights in these ways to evoke this feeling. And of course the edit has even more to do with this narrative.

The fact that there are consistencies ththroughout the film when a whole team makes a film shows the director has purpose.

Sorry if I've been a bit confusing. Been writing this on my phone!

[Sam]

NAKES SEMSE YOUR BOTH RIGJT NOW LETS ALL WATXH HERZOG FILMS AND HAVR A LAQER

[kittens]

my copy of herzog on herzog arrived today. gonna be great. i'm also now downloading every one of his films available to download. what a treat

[newbridge]

my copy of herzog on herzog arrived today. gonna be great. i'm also now downloading every one of his films available to download. what a treat

Director-marathon it! Could probably knock out Herzog in like 2 weeks at 2-4 full-length movies per day. Might be difficult sourcing some of his early shorts and stuff, I'm not sure.

[kittens]

it was inspired by your thread that i downloaded them all. best i could manage would be a film a day, and even then i'm pushing it. my attention span is so low. i just watched little dieter needs to fly and all i could think about in the last half hour was the bath i am going to have later and wanking