The Herzog Thread

Nosferatu's pretty great. I'm gutted that Burden of Dreams wasn't included in that set.

I really like the majority of the set (that I've seen), but Fitzcarraldo might be my favourite.

Also, for his later stuff, check out Grizzly Man, because its amazing and Rescue Dawn, because its a fascinating story told by great actors (especially Steve Zahn, surprisingly) and a dramatic retelling of his (also rather good) doc Little Dieter Needs to Fly.

Love the guy to death. A great director, and a great character as well.

I saw Nosferatu during my big childhood vampire phase, and there's just so much to love in there - the sad plague revelry, the gut-wrenching conclusion. And Herzog's big theme of man vs nature is in there somewhere, too - witness the awe of seeing Renfield simply wandering across these enormous distances (like many people used to do!)

Aguirre is amazing. Flawed (to put it mildly) as the characters are, and as much as the movie is a condemnation of colonialism, you also can't help but marvel at the guts those explorers must have had. Love the specks of water on the camera, love the scene where the natives get handled a bible and treat it like some wild animal (because hey, if you'd never seen a book what the hell would you think?)

Cobra Verde is cool too.

I receved the the Herzog/Kinzki collection for my birthday weeks ago, but have only recently gotten to dive into the set.

Aguirre is just batshit insane and great.

I've read in a few places how Nosferatu was terrible but it thought it was pretty classy.

Hoping to checking out Fitzarraldo this weekend, maybe as a double feature with Up?

That's a great idea. Watch Up first.

There's a handful I haven't seen but this would be close to mine.

Aguirre is my favorite. The movie feels dangerous and the camera seems to be an observer of all that danger. But it never feels completely like a documentary- it clings to a cinematic narrative while at the same time you feel very aware that they are making a movie.

I've got to say, Aguirre aside, I always come back to Grizzly Man. It's a harrowing film that never fails to move me in some way on each viewing.

I often refer to that shot when talking about Herzog's technical skill, but it still works in the narrative too. You learn so much from these people just from how they walk down the side of a mountain (for example, Aquirre is scowling but at the same time helping his daughter down).

I love Herzog and I've been meaning to see more of his documentaries. So far I'll I've seen from him in that genre is 'Grizzly Man' and 'My Best Fiend.'

I'm partial to Woyzeck. I like the opening scene where Kinski is put through the exercises. Then that scene with the captain where Kinski shaves him really fast.

My favorite scene is when Woyzeck is standing just in frame, but is looking around and not paying attention to the doctor talking, then when the doctor calls his name he stands at attention, and walks over to the balcony where the doctor drops a cat to him and he catches it.

Ultimately I think the documentaries will stand as Herzog's most profound and significant works. Particularly in the past decade, where the challenging, hypnotic WHITE DIAMOND, GRIZZLY MAN, and WHEEL OF TIME -- all masterpieces produced within a year of each other -- sit uneasily beside flat, unnecessary remakes (RESCUE DAWN, BAD LIEUTENANT).

I haven't seen many of his docs either...

His commentaries are great too- he is such a character. Listening to him talk about hypnosis in the Heart of Glass DVD is a great compliment to the movie itself.

I just wrote a paper on Herzog and nature in his films focusing mainly on Aguirre and Fitzcarraldo. The paper was ok (I'm being very kind to myself when I say that) but the research was the best part. I could listen to Herzog talk for hours. I think it's the accent.

Been on a Herzog kick since seeing Bad Lt. (which, though you might deem unnecessary, is anything but flat). Had only seen Grizzly Man and Aguirre, and was one of those guilty parties that was more into the idea of the man then the man's work. Well, that's rectified! Just watched Fitzcaraldo, My Best Fiend, and Nosferatu, and got Enigma of Kaspar Hauser (which, along with Aguirre and My Best Fiend are on Youttube movies) and Rescue Dawn lined up.

Fitzcaraldo is the masterpeice I'd always heard it touted as, and I can't imagine Jason Robards (much as I love him) and Mick Jagger running around in Kinski's place. Kinksi owns that role. I also found the film surprisingly moving and even inspiring. I had the idea that it was going to be similar to Aguirre, about a mad man's quest of manifest destiny leading him to fall by his own hubris. And while that is the case a little bit, Fitzcaraldo is a much more sympathetic character than Aguirre, and the fact that he achieves a small portion of his dreams is inspiring in a truly wonderful way. I also love that in this film, the indigenous population straight up uses the white man for their own ends. It's a nice little twist.

Nosferatu is bad fucking ass. I was digging it as just a straight remake with different production values at first, but then when it sort of becomes its own thing once the ship lands and the rats swarm the city, it really took me places I wasn't expecting, especially how they changed the ending. And Kinski, again, is just wonderful. SO creepy and pathetic, but you manage to actually feel really sorry for him, so palpatable his sadness in the role is. Isabella Adjani also does really interesting stuff in this film, and along with her awesome performance in Possession (which I started ta thread for a while ago) I'm really interested in checking out more of her work.

Anyway, hope this thread gets picked up on again. I can say I really do love this guys fucking work, as much now as the guy himself.

This thought enters my mind on almost every film I've seen of his. With this man's films, I'm always left wondering 'How the fuck did he accomplish that?" From the aforementioned mountain view in Aguirre to the shots of the natives sending a signal by white flags for what looks like miles in Cobra Verde(as well as filming the hundreds of nude women warriors preparing for battle) to pretty much the entirety of Fitzcarraldo, one of my favorite movies of all time. My Best Fiend and Burden of Dreams(not his film, but a great chronicle) really made me appreciate and respect what was accomplished producing that movie.

Speaking of docs, I highly recommend his Lessons of Darkness and Encounters at the End of the World. The cinematography he captures in both of those documentaries is gorgeous and entrancing. Although you probably wouldn't call them documentaries - he basically turns them into fictional narratives. With Werner, just give the guy a camera, and he can tell you story an interesting story.

Encounters is amazing. Herzog finds the people just as interesting, if not more so, than the landscape and the animals. I would agree, although the footage of Antartica - above and below - is amazing. I particularly liked the tunnel beneath the Volcano. And the score is wonderful too.

The Wild Blue Yonder is also worth a look. A bizarre sci-fi tale about Aliens and intersellar travel created out of undersea footage, old NASA videos from the Space Station, and a wacko performance by Brad Dourif. It could have been 30 minutes shorter though. Far too much footage of the astronauts.

Incident At Loch Ness is lesser Herzog, which has a lot to do with him only writing it, but it's still a good watch nevertheless. Hilarious, and with that weird sense of watcher dislocation that you get in a lot of his stuff. Recommended.

Did he actually write INCIDENT AT LOCH NESS? Because that whole thing smelled like a Zak Penn project to me.

According to IMDB, so...maybe? It had some funny meta moments and unexpected turns that reminded me of Herzog, anyway.

No-one else partial to Heart of Glass? You'll never see another film with performances quite like it.

Heart of Glass is just beautiful. Strozeck doesn't get mentioned outside of JOy Division fans too often but is truly and honestly one of the best films about the concept of America and the let down that comes with it that has ever been made. The Extascy of the Woodcrafter STeiner (I'm massacring the translation there) is incredible as well. In fact I'll go on record as thinking all of Herzog's films (at least those I've seen) are well worth the time. Just don't make the mistake of always agreeing with his take on the material. He can be a tad harsh.

YOU. Welcome back!

You've been missed, dude.

Yeah, where you been at?

I love Herzog, his themes (man's relationship with nature, the effects of social isolation on the mind etc.) and have seen pretty much all of his movies. In fact, I finished both discs of "Encounters" last weekend. Very satisfying. I was interested from the beginning as he talks for a bit about the early Antarctic explorers - Scott & Shackleton - two people who I'm fascinated with.

Can't say I have an absolute favourite Herzog film as they tend to shift positions on the ladder depending what mood I'm in. But if I have to pick three they'd be "Fitzcarraldo" (one of the great feel-good movies), "Aguirre" (eerily hypnotic) and between "Even Dwarfs Started Small" and "Grizzly Man" (in which Herzog seems almost to reach into the filaments of Treadwell's mind).

To be honest, I'm amazed Herzog has managed to live this long. His brushes with danger are the stuff of legend. Maybe he has Colonel Kilgore's "weird light" around him.

...and Werner Herzog as the plastic bag.

This is quite possibly the peak of cinema. Nobody else should bother making any more movies, as they will look sad and pointless in comparison.

Perhaps you didn't hear me:

THE VOICE OF WERNER HERZOG
AS A
PLASTIC
BAG.

This just made me very unironically gleeful.

This is the best thing I never knew I needed.

Really cool. Kind of makes that scene in American Beauty its bitch. When the bag said "but she also gave me my independence" I just lost it, laughing.

Bahrani has some films available to stream from Netflix. Goodbye Solo, Chop Shop, and Man Push Cart, I think. They're worth checking out. Souleymane Sy Savane gives one of the best performances of '09 as Solo.

Couldn't resist.

http://chud.com/articles/articles/23...ZOG/Page1.html

I've only seen Nosferatu (which I love) and Rescue Dawn. I've been meaning to spurlunk a little deeper into his catalogue. I don't know if he's one of my favorite directors, but he's definetly one of my favorite people.