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Werner Herzog appriciation thread

Dillinger4

Dillinger4

Es gibt Zeit
I have been meaning to post a Werner Herzog appriciation thread for quite a while. I have watched loads of his films recently.

Aguirre, Wrath of God is on BBC Four on Monday at 11.30, and I highly recommend it, if you get the chance.

I will come back and gush about his films in a bit. He has to be one of the greatest living film makers.
 
Dillinger4 said:
Yeh! Funnily enough, this is the one I was about to mention.

I love the beginning, with Klaus Kinski on his 'Jesus' tour. What a brilliant film.

:D
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The bit where he locked himself into a toilet for 3 days and smashed it to pieces when he was a young actor. :D
 
The Enigma of Kasper Hauser is probably my favourite, if pushed. The German title 'Every man for himself and God against all' is a fantastic title for a film, and suitably Romantic for Herzog the arch-Romantic. He brings out an extraordinarily still performance from Bruno S.

He can be too much of a Romantic sometimes, seeing meanings that aren't really there, but his documentaries are all well worth checking out, particularly his film about a deaf-blind woman called Land of Silence and Darkness. Herzog is only interested in extremes, in the furthest you can get in terms of ambition (Fitzcarraldo, Aguirre), deprivation (Kasper Hauser) and perspectives on the world as far from his as possible (many of his documentaries). He's a seeker, and sometimes he misses (Even dwarfs or Woyzek, for instance), but even his bad films are interesting.
 
I think I mentioned this somewhere else, on another thread, but the last film of his that I watched was White Diamond.

It is ostensibly a film about a man and his balloon. A man who designs small airships that have the purpose of exploring the canopy of a rainforest, as this is fairly difficult to explore in any other way. Herzog follows him to Guyana whilst he tests his airship. However, the film doesn't really have much focus on the Airship or its tests, but he focuses in on the man himself, and some terrible tragedy in his past, which comes out over the course of the film. But what I really liked is the fact that the camera, or Herzog, would almost wander about, focusing in on whatever he finds interesting. Like the camera itself is a subject. It reminds me of Zerkalo by Andrei Tarkovsky, almost.

But LBJ is right, Herzog does only seem interested in extremes, and he is only interested in people who are trying to fulfil mad dreams. Another example is another one of his documentaries, Encounters at the End of the World (which I admit I have *still* not seen fully), but as he travels to antarctica, he seems more interested in the kinds of people who end up on a research base like that. And it is an interesting question, and he gets some pretty interesting answers. Something similar seems to recur in all of his films - that he really grasps the human element in any given - often extreme - situation. There is nobody else who can do it quite like he does.

I have still not seen Kasper Hauser! I will watch that tomorrow.
 
RenegadeDog said:
I've only seen Aguirre and Rescue Dawn but they were both very good. :cool:
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You really should watch the doc Little Dieter Needs To Fly that this is based on. It's infinitely superior to Rescue Dawn with its infuriatingly Hollywood Star Wars ending (even though that did actually happen, it still pissed me off massively).
Dieter Dengler is a such a beguiling narrator of his own ordeal and it's difficult to imagine how he managed to recount his experiences so cheerfully. The most interesting scene in it is him showing Herzog round his house and expressing his delight at being able to open and close the door when he chose to. Then he shows him the huge stockpiles of food in his cellar, just in case. Rescue Dawn was just a simplified war escape movie and his next movie looks like another wrong turn. Shame.
 
Don't know about his later material, it all seemed to get quite dull at one stage (after Fitzcarraldo) but the early ones are brilliant - Aguirre, Herz Auf Glas, Kaspar Hauser, Woyzek, Stroszek, etc
Herz Auf Glas is probably my favourite though I've only got the vaguest idea what's going on. :)
 
The only one I struggled with was Heart Of Glass, I have to say. It's so stilted, though I know that's possibly the intention with the cast being hypnotised.
 
gnoriac said:
Don't know about his later material, it all seemed to get quite dull at one stage (after Fitzcarraldo) but the early ones are brilliant - Aguirre, Herz Auf Glas, Kaspar Hauser, Woyzek, Stroszek, etc
Herz Auf Glas is probably my favourite though I've only got the vaguest idea what's going on. :)
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I didn't really get Heart of Glass when I saw it, but that was a few years ago. I've got it on DVD and should give it another go. Maybe I should give Woyzek another go too - I thought Kinski was badly miscast when I saw it and that left me not believing anything that happened. Agree about the others - Stroszek is great too. I could watch Bruno S in anything I think.
 
I find his films almost unwatchable - I've tried to get into three of his films since New Year.
 
eoin_k said:
I find his films almost unwatchable - I've tried to get into three of his films since New Year.
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which ones? Even Dwarves...is a little weird and Heart Of Glass is certainly hard to get on with, but the rest have positively rollicked along for me (not that I've see all of them - there's loads I've still to watch)
 
littlebabyjesus said:
I thought Kinski was badly miscast when I saw it and that left me not believing anything that happened.
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How do you make any sense of the Herzog/Kinski partnership? They made some of the strangest, most challenging stuff in film. Always watchable but always leaving you wondering wtf was that all about.
 
gnoriac said:
How do you make any sense of the Herzog/Kinski partnership? They made some of the strangest, most challenging stuff in film. Always watchable but always leaving you wondering wtf was that all about.
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A sort of love/mostly hate relationship,the Little Dieter Needs To Fly doc is soooo much better than the Hollywood flick, Dengler's story was so incredible ,it'd be hard for any Hollywood filum to do him justice
 
Fantastic director, but his films don't always succeed. I love Aguirre the Wrath of God and Fitzcarraldo - absolutely fantastic films.

Grizzlyman is pretty remarkable too.

Cobra Verde is watchable, but not outstanding.

Woyzeck and Nosferatu, on the other hand, are pretty lame. But I like his willingness to try different things.

I haven't seen Rescue Dawn.

He comes accross as a likable guy on TV / Radio.
 
Lakina said:
Fantastic director, but his films don't always succeed. I love Aguirre the Wrath of God and Fitzcarraldo - absolutely fantastic films.

Grizzlyman is pretty remarkable too.

Cobra Verde is watchable, but not outstanding.

Woyzeck and Nosferatu, on the other hand, are pretty lame. But I like his willingness to try different things.

I haven't seen Rescue Dawn.

He comes accross as a likable guy on TV / Radio.
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I think I agree with LBJ on this point - his films don't always succeed, but they are almost always interesting, even where they fail.
 
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