Best Werner Herzog Film

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