Best Werner Herzog Film

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.