Best Werner Herzog Film

Copied straight from his site and added Rescue Dawn.

Incident at Loch Ness

b-rad to thread

ya forgot Grizzly Man, man

that's okey, bcz sexyD doesn't rank.

I cluster

Mod add Grizzly Man.

gotta be fiddycaraldo -- insane movie about an insane dude, directed by an insane dude w/ an insane behind-the-scenes story.

though that description could just as equally describe aguirre, come to think of it.

I have only seen five of these movies, but of those I liked Aguirre best.

Why is Incident at Loch Ness not on here? Make that SIX Herzogs I've seen.

he only acted in it.

I've seen 9 or 10 but looking at the list that seems woefully inadequate. aguirre's in my top 10 evah so no vote agonizing here.

best herzog performance = julien donkey boy

it's def NOT wild blue yonder.

Kaspar Hauser though I'll probably get stoned later and vote for Heart of Glass w/ a new login.

It's a crime I've seen only half of these.
I refuse to vote.

Based on the 8-9 I've seen besides Aguirre... it wd still be Aguirre if I saw all of them. (Kaspar Hauser and White Diamond best of rest.)

also, the Film Forum sold out his Dieter appearance about 4 hours in advance, despite the lies they told about ticket sales beforehand.

White Diamond felt like it was trying too hard to shoehorn a slight but touching story into his grander pet themes.

The Great Ecstasy of the Woodcarver Steiner gets my vote, just because I don't think anyone else will vote for it.
Slow-motion ski-flying + Popul Vuh = oh wow!

The Wild Blue Yonder was very wtf and fairly unrewatchable, however it has one of probably my 10 favorite soundtracks of all movies ever.

Woodcarver Steiner is still in my Blockbuster queue.

Has anybody actually seen Rescue Dawn yet?

So is the hottie Russian chick in Incident at Loch Ness really his wife? Cause I always thought that was one of the jokes.

I'm going to vote for the bottle of LiquidSilk I bought the day Jeff loaned me Aguirre.

also, the Film Forum sold out his Dieter appearance about 4 hours in advance, despite the lies they told about ticket sales beforehand.

Yeah, that fucked me over too. I'm also pretty sure they projected Les maitres fous from a VHS.

I voted Dieter anyway.

So is the hottie Russian chick in Incident at Loch Ness really his wife? Cause I always thought that was one of the jokes.

I don't think they ever claimed she was his wife. She was just some vague hot young woman he lived with. I didn't figure out this movie was a work of fiction until it was nearly over (I am naive I guess), I can't believe that whole opening dinner party scene didn't tip me off.

I think his wife is young & hot, though?

And Russian...
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1365577/

yeah the description of her in the new yorker profile from a year or two ago seemed to fit.

"people say i've gone hollywood..."

Fata Morgana so good I can't bring myself to finish it.

Kaspar Hauser for me. I'd say it's one of my top 5 movies ever. Nosferatu may be my second fave of his.

Invincible is underrated.

I'd go fitzcarraldo, but it's close.

fata morgana is underrated, but then again it's only suited for persons of a certain bent. I can't imagine watching it piecemeal, that's like listening to marquee moon in 3 minute increments.

AGUIRRE

Stroszek is my vote. Because of the totally bizarre (but not in the context of the movie) chicken/music/ski-lift thing at the end, which I think sums up Herzog maybe better than his big epic movies. There's only one director who would would dare or even bother to make a movie with this clearly unstable person. Herzog is a little nuts, and attracted to like, and his sweet and tender relationship with Bruno S. is more revealing than his violent relationship with Kinski. At least, I prefer it. And it's a great movie.

best herzog performance = julien donkey boy

so true! also i have no idea how to vote. i might go for one i havent seen.

which is most of them

i voted bells from the deep - that had a nice ring to it.

what have you seen?

Aguirre, The Wrath Of God
Cobra Verde
Even Dwarfs Started Small
Fitzcarraldo
God's Angry Man
Little Dieter Needs To Fly
My Best Fiend
Nosferatu
The Great Ecstasy Of Woodcarver Steiner
The White Diamond
The Wild Blue Yonder
Wheel Of Time
Where The Green Ants Dream

and grzly man

no surprises here.

Well someone voted for "The Unprecedented Defence Of The Fortress Deutschkreuz" - I call that a surprise!

http://www.roguefilmschool.com/

#

The Rogue Film School will be in the form of weekend seminars held by Werner Herzog in person at varying locations and at infrequent intervals.
#

The number of participants will be limited.
#

Locations and dates will be announced on this website and Werner Herzog's website: www.wernerherzog.com approximately 12 weeks in advance.
#

The Rogue Film School will not teach anything technical related to film-making. For this purpose, please enroll at your local film school.
#

The Rogue Film School is about a way of life. It is about a climate, the excitement that makes film possible. It will be about poetry, films, music, images, literature.
#

The focus of the seminars will be a dialogue with Werner Herzog, in which the participants will have their voice with their projects, their questions, their aspirations.
#

Excerpts of films will be discussed, which could include your submitted films; they may be shown and discussed as well. Depending on the materials, the attention will revolve around essential questions: how does music function in film? How do you narrate a story? (This will certainly depart from the brainless teachings of three-act-screenplays). How do you sensitize an audience? How is space created and understood by an audience? How do you produce and edit a film? How do you create illumination and an ecstasy of truth?
#

Related, but more practical subjects, will be the art of lockpicking. Traveling on foot. The exhilaration of being shot at unsuccessfully. The athletic side of filmmaking. The creation of your own shooting permits. The neutralization of bureaucracy. Guerrilla tactics. Self reliance.
#

Censorship will be enforced. There will be no talk of shamans, of yoga classes, nutritional values, herbal teas, discovering your Boundaries, and Inner Growth.
#

Related, but more reflective, will be a reading list: if possible, read Virgil's "Georgics", read "Hemingway's "The short happy life of Francis Macomber", The Poetic Edda, translated by Lee M. Hollander (in particular the Prophecy of the Seeress), Bernal Diaz del Castillo "True History of the Conquest of New Spain".
#

Follow your vision. Form secretive Rogue Cells everywhere. At the same time, be not afraid of solitude.

"The Rogue Film School is not for the faint-hearted," said the film-maker. "It is for those who have travelled on foot, who have worked as bouncers in sex clubs or as wardens in a lunatic asylum, for those who are willing to learn about lock-picking or forging shooting permits in countries not favouring their projects."

There will be no talk of shamans, of yoga classes, nutritional values, herbal teas, discovering your Boundaries, and Inner Growth.

Lol - isn't he making a film with Lynch at the moment? I guess they got on each others nerves.

nah i think he just wants the seminars to get the point. ya know,like lockpicking.

great dbl bill at the Ritzy tomorrow, btw - wanted to see Fata Morgana for a while

http://www.v22collection.com/herzog/26.html

i watches stroszek last night. really good. the heist scene followed by the grocery shopping is hysterical.

watched

STROZEK

it's his best (and most lynch-y) film,imo

strozek just combines such wierd elements together, and somehow it works, but i also love fitzcarraldo and aguirre

I love this scene in Fitz:

http://www.konradprojects.net/blog/uploaded_images/Fitzcarraldo2-711143.jpg

what i liked about srozek the most, is that it deals with social problems of the present - one might call it the Herzog version of social realism.it's a very special film in his filmography.it is also funny and presents Bruno S at it's best. as oppose to Aguirre/fitzcaraldo/kasper which are historical,colder,less emotional movies (though still great).

this should have a run-off poll!

strozek is def. a very special film. I've never seen anything like it. the sad/funny ratio is really well done.

my dad told me that he watched strozek and just started it over w/herzog commentary on right after it finished. awesome!

(commentary is hilarious, of course)

Rewatched The White Diamond last weekend, just lovely; maybe my favorite thimg he's done since Aguirre.

Overrated

Summer Hours is better

;)

The next Rogue Film School will take place on the East Coast in spring 2010. Stay tuned!!

explain why I should not apply

I love the scene in TWD where Herzog is telling Dorrington why not having him w/ camera on the first airship flight is "a stupid stupidity."

whenev I try to imitate him it comes out like Arnold, but how great would WH be as CA governor?

<3 x 1000000000000000

watched Stroszek yesterday (Superbowl? what's that?) - what a goofy little movie. scene w/premature baby = disturbing.

it's his best movie imo.
works like a twisted combination between humanistic social realism and david lynch surrealism

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

i don't remember any premature baby and i just rewatched it a couple months ago

oh wait yeah i do

Stroszek himeslf kinnda premature baby ..

it was overshadowed in my memory by the fart-lighting scene

what the hell 'even dwarfs started small' is on youtube in its entirety

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZXrV36ffFWw

lmao @ camel

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

yeah def some precursors to Lynch (and Jarmusch?) - strikes a great tone between pathos and comedy. Bruno S is alternately pitiable and hilarious... the final sequence with the robbery (of a barbershop?) and then grocery shopping and ski-lift. And the car spinning around on auto was like a quote from Even Dwarfs Started Small, no?

btw that youtube channel also has My Best Fiend, Aguirre, Woyzeck,and The Enigma Of Kaspar Hauser

Stroszek is amazing. Need to see The White Diamond, Nosferatu and Hauser ASAP.

another WTF scene - nephew pulling out one of his teeth in autoshop

Stroszek is prob my favourite WH movie too. That or Aguirre. I love the auction scene and the all scenes with the man from the bank. And of course the ski-lift/car/chicken scene.

Storszek is definetely my favourite Herzog movie. Obv. final scenes are incredible but i really like the scene near the start where Bruno is playing the accordion to a bunch of kids in the street, funny and touching and v. human.

My library just got Cobra Verde and the Kinski-Herzog documentary. Which should I watch first?

#2

Thanks!

don't miss cobra verde, though

White Diamond wasn't his best but it was definitely very enjoyable.

Anyone seen Cave of Forgotten Dreams? I thought it was kinda cool in a "if I saw this in geography/biology/whatever class this would be awesome" way, but it's not up to snuff compared to some of his other docs, I thought. Maybe it was better in 3D, but I found the staring at the paintings, as awesome as they are, to get a little wearing after a while. I guess there's only so much painting to be shown and you gotta fill up the 2 hrs somehow.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h4f9HNknKTU

Ah yes, but what do YOU think?

Haven't seen it yet, I don't think it's out here.

it's incredible I saw it in 3D

Wish I could find a copy of the theme from Woodcutter Steiner

hoping this shows up in Denver -- the nature & science museum has a 3d imax theater thing.

AMAZING in 3D

Used to dramatic effect in the caves, and also in the scenic shots, with like little bugs flying at you and stuff. Amazing. Does anyone know anything about the music? Ernst Reijseger?

Here's Herzog talking about him and his feet (It's string heavy, but I really liked the vocal stuff a lot). Now I want to read Clan of the Cave Bear.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3-RwfLyJsPY

(please note that I am talking about Cave of Forgotten Dreams -- not Herzog himself in 3D)

Saw CoDF on Friday night (introduced by Herzog himself). Compelling and rather profound. Oddball group of archeologists/anthropologists being led by their own Stendahl Syndrome.

3D viewing is mandatory.

>Ernst Reijseger

has done the music for a few of his films -- cellist with expanded technique, partial to crazy drones, but the vocals you're responding to are in collaboration with the Sardinian Choir (Tenore & Concordu de Orosei). They sing traditional Sardinian choral works while he improvises on top.

http://www.amazon.com/Requiem-Dying-Planet-Ernst-Reijseger/dp/B000GB7DTE

^^ fantastic CD of two Herzog soundtracks with them + Senegalese vocal soloist. 'Libera me, Domine' in particular.

http://www.discogs.com/Tenore-E-Cuncordu-De-Orosei-Voches-De-Sardinna/release/1865816

& this is a CD with the Choir singing the traditionals just by themselves, if you like ancient overtone-rich choral music

Oooh! Thank you so much -- I'll look into both.

I found the Reijseger too much in COFD but loved loved loved it in My Son, My Son, What Have Ye Done?

I listened to Reijseger all day yesterday on grooveshark, loved it. Played the trailer for my students today, they found it 60% enjoyable, 40% boring (I could tell)

Still, they seemed interested. I've done my duty.

I saw Cave of Forgotten Dreams last night with the wife. It had some of the usual Herzog off-kilter narrative, which featured some albino crocodiles that had no connection to the cave, and it did seem a bit padded out to fill the requisite 2 hrs for a theatrical film, but damn those cave paintings and the cave itself were of brilliant superstar-quality! The 3-D helped me to understand the art, because cave walls are so undulating they greatly affect how they were painted and how you view the paintings.

The music was pretty cool most of the time, but I thought it was kind of lol when Herzog solemnly announces we shall all stop and listen to the awesome silence of the cave, and then within 20 seconds or so the music soundtrack cuts in over the silence, because audiences just don't really want to listen to awesome silence for more than 20 seconds.

Heart of Glass should have gotten at least one vote. that movie is sublime.

I thought it was wise to only make people listen to the awesome silence for 20 seconds! Leave the party while you're still having fun, etc.

Heart of Glass should get a vote for the soundtrack alone!

The heartbeat sound annoyed me.

loved the crocodile coda

this was great, even in 2D (missed the 3D showing arrrghhh)

cave sniffer!

mutant albinos.

loved this, of course. no 3d showing here. is it more expensive to show or something? idgi

seeing those cave paintings left me speechless for most of the rest of the day and when I started talking, all I could talk about was the film. so much closer to modern art / impressionism / surrealism than most of anything that's happened since. the scale of time, not just how old they are but the fact they were painted over a span of 5000 years, nearly twice as long as of what we're used to calling history etc

I also found the music a bit too intrusively busy in parts. I loved the expository and the interviews, but still hope the DVD comes with a feature that basically lifts everything out and gives you a good 20-40 minutes of just the paintings. you need more than 10 consecutive minutes of staring at them to even come to grips.

& loved the ending of course but was didn't even need to doubt this article would be online to google before I even got home

http://www.slate.com/blogs/blogs/browbeat/archive/tags/mutant+albino+crocodiles/default.aspx

was didn't even like needta y'know

hes playing the villain in the next tom cruise movie

http://nymag.com/daily/entertainment/2011/10/werner_herzog_will_play_the_vi.html

'Into the Abyss' is fantastic. (And, in what might be a first for me with his films, I nearly cried in a couple of spots.)

I totally bawled in a couple of spots, but I'm pretty easy that way.

On his move to acting villainy:

http://www.movieline.com/2011/11/werner-herzog-talks-one-shot-tom-cruise-he-means-business.php

lol@this exchange:
Cruise is an interesting actor to me — someone who’s never directed, but who’s instead worked with some of the foremost filmmakers of the last half-century: Kubrick, Scorsese, Coppola, Spielberg, and many others. Have you met him?
Yes.

Also WH the secret Paulette: "Brian de Palma is certainly the better director than me."

And, in what might be a first for me with his films, I nearly cried in a couple of spots

What, you've never cried at 'Kaspar Hauser' or 'Land of Silence and Darkness'??!?!?!?

I wouldn't agree with WH there, but I've seen one great film from him and it's Aguirre.

Saw Into the Abyss yesterday, it was fantastic. I loved the choice of final interview about "living the dash", I loved how congested that guy was, I loved WH's questions during all of the interviews. Everything about this movie chilled my blood, I loved it. I can't wait to see what the other 3 capital punishment movies are like -- I guess there are others coming?

the other 3?

anyway, on this one:

http://www.slantmagazine.com/film/review/into-the-abyss/5892

i don't remember where i read it, but i read something about how he intended to make one doc about cap punishment, and then decided to spread it out over several movies? maybe i dreamt that.

Well, "Into the Abyss" is a whole tapestry, and only part of it is about death row. It's very much about life. I have also filmed some death row inmates for a series of one-hour films for television, which will be called "Death Row." That's very much focused on one person on death row, and no big tapestry of people around it, members of the families of victims, and whatever.

god this film is amazing?, is a masterpiece, i think. it's punctuated by absolute testimonial gold but it transcends being a film about the death penalty, or the extent to which that's a debate, by just being so human. i really thought it was gonna be a polemic before seeing, pitching WH's case, but it's just about life, how people can manage it, through the lens of people who really had to go through it & put their effort into understanding.

the humour of a twenty minute run halfway through was such a relief, too, after the yknow cold open kinda crimescene section. but oh man this film.

Is there any love for Gesualdo? I just watched it tonight, and next to Land of Silence and Darkness, which also received 0 votes in this poll, it's my favorite human subject Herzog documentary.
The bagpipe scene where the guy was playing into the cracks to satisfy the evil spirit of Gesualdo was just totally O_O amazing, as were all of the professional ensemble vocal performances. Top notch even if that one lady with the red hair was TOTALLY ott.

It's the next day and I am still thinking about this. The OTT red haired woman is "Milva", apparently? She is truly UNBELIEVABLE.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1rgBt5EkIKE

i need to see that one! looks amazing, and weird. didn't even know it existed til alex ross did his gesualdo article in the Ny-er a couple months back.

Gesualdo is the portrait of a perfect Herzog subject, and it's handled well and concisely. Also, only an hour long.

I really want to post lurid details about Gesualdo, but I will refrain out of politeness.

yeah he seems like a wild n crazy guy, with emphasis on the "crazy"

haven't seen it, sounds interesting

feel like there is always more Herzog for me to watch

Listen to how beautiful crazy sounds! This seems to be Gesualdo's greatest hit, if youtube results are any indicator. (This is one of the ensembles from the movie)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s_q3EJNUKis

hey here's the whole thing
www.youtube.com/watch?v=CBanw2yUPdk

my son, my son what have ye done isn't very good

ha, that one is sitting in my watch instantly queue, i keep suggesting it to my wife and she says hell no. she's probably right.

its watchable, just didn't do a whole lot for me. produced by david lynch!

been very curious about that one, as I love everyone involved.

Gesualdo: Death For Five Voices is probably my sentimental favorite Herzog film. Partially because I love Gesualdo's music so much, but also because it is the perfect subject material for a Herzog 'documentary'. It's been layered and over-mythologized to such an extent that no one will ever know exactly what happened, and then Herzog gets in there with his freewheeling camera and taking a wrecking ball to reality

I watch that youtube of 'Moro, lasso, al mio duolo' a lot. Many recordings of Gesualdo lay on the ambience & cavernous room tone, but it really is meant to be sitting room music performed in small spaces so you can follow every last quirk of each individual voice, so the two performances in Herzog's film are basically two of my favorite Gesualdo recordings of all time

remarkably poor grammar in that post, even for me, but go ahead and dig for reality

Bells From The Deep 1

at first, i thought this was balls from the deep.

fata morgana is the answer to your question. or maybe land of silence and darkness.

I loved both of those, but I found the Leonard Cohen songs in Fata Morgana extremely distracting. The Third Ear Band song was good, though. I've probably said that before.

Also I didn't realize it, but I guess Milva is famous -- http://www.youtube.com/artist/Milva

watching 'fata morgana' was the 1st time i ever really "got" the appeal of leonard cohen

The Third Ear Band song was good, though.

... and Blind Faith too

my son, my son what have ye done isn't very good

I liked it a lot, more than Rescue Dawn or Bad Lt. The first half-hour had me discouraged but it built something powerful.

was listening to the 'heart of glass' audio commentary, love this

under hypnosis imagination functions very well. i tested it by having people under hypnosis and i would ask them to write a poem because there is something like poetic language in all of us and of course it wouldn't function if i asked you 'you are shakespeare write me a sonnet' it wouldn't function, it depends on the quality of suggestion so i told the people under hypnosis this 'you are on a foreign island, the first one who sets his foot now on this island for centuries and it's overgrown with uh jungleous butterflies strange birds singing and you are walking through the jungle and you come across a gigantic cliff and upon closer inspection this entire cliff this entire escarpment is made of pure emerald and a holy monk hundreds of years ago spent his entire life with a chisel and a hammer to scratch a poem into the wall of that because it's like diamond and it took him all his life to engrave only three lines of a poem' and i said please open your eyes and you will see it you will be the first one to see it and you will read it to me

ha ha ha

a finer human could not have been produced by science
i never listen to the commentary but i appreciate that someone does and then transcribes it for my enjoyment

how's the film, btw? i've never seen, & have that ass-backwards impulse to read this regardless: http://www.ipgbook.com/every-night-the-trees-disappear-products-9781569766071.php

amazing landscapes, popol vuh, entertaining, hyno-induced nonsequiturs, i couldnt ask for much more tbh

uh that should read *hypno*-induced

ha. thanks. i've seen herzog's films in a really skewed order, i still have a bunch of the big guns to see.

the book looks good, fwiw

Not his best movie but sdtk is top 3 PV albums imo.

later in the commentary he also said 'i like to use actors who know how to milk cows'

'into the abyss' is on netflix streaming now

into the abyss was some really sad stuff, great film. it made me think about having nightmares where you've committed a crime or something, just the root ugliness at the heart of the state and the serious criminal.

It was really sad. I don't know if I could watch that one again.
I just watched Invincible for the first time last night, and it was pretty good but the Zimmer soundtrack was a bit syrupy for me.

Invincible was one of the first movies I watched with Je55e.

http://futurestates.tv/episodes/plastic-bag

xpost Zimmer with Herzog is such a weird idea. And mini-Zimmer Klaus Badelt did most of the scoring on Rescue Dawn too.

are u guys watching that? herzog is narrating from a plastic bag's pov

yeah it's pretty great

music score is sorta bad

yeah Into the Abyss completely ruined my night. just deeply depressing on multiple levels. don't think it's one i'll ever return to.

Yoo hoo
Has anyone read the book about Heart of Glass yet? Every Night the Trees Disappear by Alan Greenberg?

If so,
(1) recommend?
(2) is the music discussed at all, or just the movie/circumstances surrounding the making of the movie?

http://movies.yahoo.com/movie/jack-reacher/trailers/jack-reacher-theatrical-trailer-30887645.html

I got the Heart of Glass book (Every Night the Trees Disappear) for Christmas and I'm already halfway done. It's got short chapters/vignettes about the production of the movie (which involved villagers and hypnotism, typically) intercut with excerpts of some kind of treatment of the movie itself. Enjoyable easy reading, nothing about the music yet but at least it's not stuffy/academic (yet).

added to wishlist

I just finished it -- it's enjoyable, and has lots of poignant/puzzling classic Herzog moments. Nothing about the soundtrack, but there's a small bit at the end about the Ancient Music Ensemble that plays on Skellig rock, but I don't even remember that part at all. Guess it's time to watch the movie again!

Oh and there's this hilarious part where Herzog is like (I'm paraphrasing here) "I'm the best person at handling music in movies, I am #1" and then some other guy comes along and says no, he is the worst.

other guy is wrong

Agree. I just checked and it was Thomas Binkley of the Ancient Music Ensemble, who only approved of the way Hollywood handles movie music. Apparently he spent a large portion of the evening talking about Mickey Mouse, so clearly he cannot be trusted.

I wish more hollywood movies had used ppl like Binkley/Ancient Music Ensemble!

(wish someone would put out David Munrow's Zardoz score on CD)

The Devils too!! Have you ever heard A Walk with Love and Death by Georges Delerue?
I trust Thomas Binkley with ancient music, but not so much with talking cartoon mice.

Yeah Walk w Love n Death is a nice example! Delerue did a couple others with that period flavor too... The Borgias (old miniseries) was one...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cijkIXXiSW4

happy ppl is a weird title

agree, but it has to be a quote from someone in the movie
...right?

i mean i'm gonna go see it regardless, don't really care what it's called

cobra verde is very underrated

floor of skulls iirc

i watched the happy people, it was p great, touching seeing this trapper dude out there just being the most competent philosophical guy at one w nature, i guess herzog didnt film it just edited it down from a longer russian mini series and gave it the trademark narration, only complaint the russian translation seemed quite artless and flat

Cobra Verde isn't perfect BUT it does have the ultimate Herzog ending (well, that one or Stroszek's)

Is Cobra Verde the one with the big dance number at the end? (never thought I'd say that, but there it is)

really want to see Happy People, although the Herzog narration in one of the clips I watched was surprisingly annoying and riddled with cliches -- "No rules, no bureaucracy, total self-reliance" blah blah

taiga-related, v interesting story:

http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history-archaeology/For-40-Years-This-Russian-Family-Was-Cut-Off-From-Human-Contact-Unaware-of-World-War-II-188843001.html#ixzz2JLsEc9A3

awesome story

http://media.smithsonianmag.com/images/karpagafia1.jpg

seriously, that article is amazing, must read

Sent to myself for train reading on phone.

piece is mindbending

KK is actually *relatively* restrained as Aguirre. Love him matter-of-factly heaving the flaming gunpowder barrel off the raft.

As I recall Herzog's explanation was that he liked to film Kinski right after a blow-up, so he would have exhausted his rage but would still be seething.

Making New Year's Resolutions with Werner Herzog

The doc panel anecdote alone sounds worth the price of the book.

Want

“I’m no fly on the wall. I am the hornet that stings.”

Free streaming Herzog, but they seemed to be dubbed and have ads: http://www.shoutfactorytv.com/videos?utf8=%E2%9C%93&commit=submit&q=werner+herzog

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BFK3DJ7Kn6s

https://www.masterclass.com/classes/werner-herzog-teaches-filmmaking

http://i.imgur.com/ygTcmeG.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/7PKL6JU.jpg

Leave Herzog alone qua memes

his new one on the Internet looks pretty interesting

christopher walken also a genius amid a great late period not a joke #fwiw

Herzog is speaking here at the end of the month. Tickets are $55, but I can't tell if it's going to be 'about' filmmaking or if it will be more Herzog-as-personality.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m9P_sxaaMJE

I've only seen two Herzog documentaries before Lo and Behold, the new one about the internet--Grizzly Man and Into the Abyss. I was wary after seeing the trailer because, in all honesty, his voice grates on me as much as Michael Moore's, and it seemed like there was going to be a lot of him. But he hangs back enough that that wasn't a problem.

Very loose and impressionistic; the story that Herzog chooses to illustrate the "dark side" of the internet seems rather arbitrary and insufficient. But lots of good stuff to mull over. Highlight for me was the Leonard Kleinrock interview; I'd happily watch a whole documentary of him pontificating.

http://rarefilm.net/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/Lebenszeichen-Werner-Herzog-1968-1.jpg

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0063218/

highly recommended early Herzog film(didn't get any votes in the poll)

into the inferno has some nice throwback herzogian segments & shots imo; the old footage of the french couple looks like faked rear projection, so crazy

also are they showing old eps of duckman deep in the jungles of indonesia? the chicken church looks like king chicken !

http://cdn.deccanchronicle.com/sites/default/files/chicken-church-1.jpg

"Inside, we found nobody in an empty chair pretending to watch TV" is my fave line from this.

John Frum cargo cult at the end = A+

It is has always troubled me when they show footage of that French lava-walking couple. The John Frum leader's son talking about his unshakeable faith when spending a night in the volcano was sure something.

just watched “Aguirre, The Wrath of God”. I hadn’t seen it in years, loved the descent into the surreal! I was again initially put off by conquistadors in Peru speaking German, but acclimated, in the end it was a minor quibble

the effects of hardships endured by cast/crew in this film really added to its sense of closing walls

https://i.imgur.com/FPgjxzl.jpg

Love this alternate poster.

Lessons of Darkness and Fata Morgana really seem like companion pieces, although with the documentary narration vs. spoken creation myth Lessons of Darkness is not quite as surreal

Very excited to screen Aguirre and Stroszek for some friends of mine this weekend

I love both of those films! hope your friends enjoy them

Both classics

both all-time faves, tbh always thought Fitzcarraldo was a drag (hardee har har) compared to Aguirre

yea Fitzcarraldo put me to sleep. Burden of Dreams is awesome though

Aguirre is magic on so many levels; Fitzcarraldo on fewer levels
what a pleasing double bill!! i love stroszek so much and think of it often.

I wouldn't have voted for it, but his 35-minute PSA on texting and driving, "From One Second to the Next," deserves mention as it's outstanding.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_BqFkRwdFZ0

I've seen that and recall it being pretty intense. I think, for recent output, he should have stuck to brutally straightforward docs a la Into the Abyss and the On Death Row series. His weird form of humanism is a good fit for those.

that aguirre poster is lovely

happy new year, losers!

into the inferno has some nice throwback herzogian segments & shots imo; the old footage of the french couple looks like faked rear projection, so crazy

― johnny crunch, Saturday, November 19, 2016 9:48 AM (two years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yea i thought so too.

this was cool

seen most of them again

favorite Herzog films:

Aguirre: Wrath of God
Fitzcarraldo
Grizzly Man
Fata Morgana
Stroszek
Kaspar Hauser
Cobra Verde

also really liked

Nosferatu the Vampyre
Even Dwarfs Started Small

others that were interesting:

Heart of Glass
Stroszek
Lessons of Darkness
Cave of Forgotten Dreams
Rescue Dawn

(in the last post I meant Woyzeck)

The BFI blu-ray set is such a steal (most of the 68-87 work) for £35 ish.

The big omission for me is Lessons of Darkness, only available on Blu as part of the $105ish US Shout! Factory set. I probably would have voted for it (just to be ornery) had I been here in 2007.

(xp) Have you seen "Land of Silence and Darkness"?

have not seen it, but it looks interesting

More than interesting - devastating, heartwrenching et al.

I’ll have to look into buying it, I don’t see it available for rental or streaming

MUTTER... ICH BIN VON ALLEM...ABGETAN

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

The Wild Blue Yonder was a strange film, but the score/soundtrack by Ernst Reijseger was great

My Best Friend was an amazing film, it gave a lot of insight into the filming of Aguirre

My Best Fiend, you mean?

lol, it showed the trials of the ship on the river and how Herzog tried to reign in the impulses and outbursts of Klaus Kinski and modulate the responses from the crew

and how Klaus Kinski stepped up in the end

Watched the top two poll winners this weekend, I'd never seen Aguirre and only previously watched the last 45 minutes or so of Stroszek. I remember being awed by the climax of Stroszek, but definitely helps to have it all in full context.

Aguirre was a favorite back in the day when the only way to see it was at a repertory theater (usually high as a kite.) I haven't rewatched it since the VCR/DVD/streaming era, I really should.

It was often on a double bill with Nosferatu, which doesn't all work but certainly has its moments.

When you're sick, clearly the thing is to watch Aguirre. I'd seen it so long ago (and stoned) that it might as well have been the first time. From memory, I would have called it an ornate film, the descent much more visceral and melodramatic, so I'm kind of stunned by how minimal it is, and how that minimalism is what echoes into grandiosity in the mind. If it were made now, the violence would have to be shocking and jarring; decapitation aside, most of the violence is either implied or weirdly underplayed. What a film.

1) I blame the panpipes.
2) I saw Zama recently, which is exploring similar themes of madness and folly, and I swear directly references some of Herzog's non-diegetic sound. Could just be the relevant species of bird, of course.

The spectacular scenes (both conflicts and the visionary interludes) don't even take up a lot of the running time. A whole lot of this movie is two or three people in dialogue, which you forget when you bring the film to mind afterwards.

Two or three monkeys in dialogue.

Yeah, I don't really understand how he's done it, tbh.

It made me think of Zama a lot, obviously, but also Bone Tomahawk. The former, like Aguirre, works with pace and tone; the latter might well do this, but everything is pulled toward the vortex of the final scenes, so it becomes moot.

Also, I think having Florian Fricke on your side helps.

Saw the documentary (about him) tonight--pretty good. His ubiquity as a pop-culture figure was news to me. I still haven't seen Aguirre. It's on Tubi or FilmRise right now--may finally just give in and watch it on TV.

He was always a name director, and Roger Ebert championed him throughout his career, but I want to say he became a true pop culture figure after Grizzly Man became a pretty big success. Before that movie came out, I don't think people would know him unless they had an active interest in film culture. It probably helped that he's in the film and his distinctive voice provides the narration - it became something people latched on to, and then of course they'd find out about his crazy history as a filmmaker and suddenly he's up there with David Lynch as this unusual auteur everyone found so fascinating.

I was thinking of the two or three animated clips in the film, including The simpsons. And appearing on what looked to be some online Henry Rollins interview show (which I wouldn't wish on anybody).

The docmentary presents Grizzly Man as a turning point, yes. Only ever saw it once, remember it as disturbing and exasperating.

I think it was particularly this part that did it. His delivery is classic, so flat and definitive.

I believe the common denominator of the universe is not harmony, but chaos, hostility and murder.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iWYaC5YBaJk

He basically says the same thing in Burden of Dreams, which reappeared in My Best Fiend. For me at least the later documentary def was a step at making him a character.

Encounters At The End Of The World was his next doc after Grizzly Man and it gave us this classic.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zWH_9VRWn8Y

That gets some attention in the documentary. What they really toss off is everything between Aguirre and Fitzcarraldo. All you get from Stroszek is two stills without commentary.

That’s his best stretch! No one gives Heart of Glass any love, even less for Woyzeck. Herzog’s humanism gets overlooked for all the “LOL wacky they’re midgets” and “Kinski go off king” and the “Herzog Plays Herzog” of the last couple decades.

And the 70s documentaries might as well not exist. Land of Silence and Darkness is so great.

Land of Silence and Darkness and Fata Morgana in the same damned year!

an acquaintance of mine part of a herzog film once and he said he is actually just the best guy, and a very inspiring person to work for.

I quite liked The Twilight World when I read it the other week.

I recently watched Herzog's film about Gertrude Bell, starring Nicole Kidman and James Franco. If there is ever an updated poll that includes Herzog's films since 2007 I will definitely not vote for Queen of the Desert. It's bad.

His movies with Bruno are absolutely some of my favorites. I adore that guy and could watch him forever.

Haven’t seen the queen of the Desert one yet, I have an unopened blu-ray

The Queen of the Desert has nice location shots, lighting, costumes - all the things that an experienced professional crew can bring to a film. It treats arabs as worthy human beings rather than cartoons, which is good. But the script leans hard into schmaltzy romance and the dialogue isn't much better than your basic Hallmark Channel soap opera. iow, it's bad, but sort of tolerable for the travelogue elements.

I am going to anticipate the HELL out of Werner Herzog's "Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans"

otm