The Mondo Esoterica Guide to:

Werner Herzog
  


  About Werner Herzog:


Born in Munich, 1942, Herzog's family quickly moved to a remote village in Austria to avoid the bombing. Spending the first few years of his life isolated from contemporary culture, after seeing some films at school, Herzog realised that he had a calling to film-making. After travelling first to England then driving in a truck convoy to Athens and continuing on via Crete into the Sudan, he returned to Germany to shoot his first production Herakles (1962). Running to only 12 minutes, it was an experiment in 35mm editing. Although shooting some more short films and receiving an award for a screenplay, that later became Signs of Life (1968), Herzog could not find any funding and so travelled on a scholarship to study in America - but when the University course turned out not to be what he had hoped for, he turned in the scholarship and was looked after by an American family for several months. While doing some film work for NASA, they discovered that his visa had expired and he ended up homeless in New York before fleeing to Mexico where he made some money smuggling goods across the border and working at a bull rodeo. Eventually returning to Germany he shot his first feature film Signs of Life (1968), which also marked his first work with composer and pianist Florian Fricke who would go on to score several of Herzog's best films. Although receiving critical acclaim and an award, the film proved unsucessful with audiences.

After shooting some more short films, Herzog travelled to Africa where he shot footage for three seperate and very different films. The Flying Doctors of East Africa (1969) is a simple documentary piece about doctors in African communities. Fata Morgana (1971) is a completely free-form collection of shots of mirages and 'embarrassed landscapes' filmed over the course of three months in the Saharan desert. Unfortunately, the filming was hampered by local politics; Herzog and his crew were repeatedly arrested by local milita in Cameroon and were lucky to survive. Even Dwarfs Started Small (1970) was filmed in Lanzarote on the Canary Islands and serves as a bizarre parody of the revolutionary atmosphere that seemed to be sweeping Europe, especially in light of the 1968 youth uprisings. His next production, Land of Silence and Darkness (1971) is a simple but powerful film about the death & blind community, focusing on a woman named Fini. Although considered too controversial at first, it was screened on television and proved highly popular. This sucess of this film was followed up by Herzog's first mainstream cinema work Aguirre: The Wrath of God (1972). Inspired by a paragraph in a kid's book, he wrote the screenplay in three days. With a low budget, mostly provided by a television station, the film has a strong documentary feel to it and is the first of several films Herzog shot about real historical figures on the brink of insanity, and like the later films it forgoes 'facts' in favour of a most stylised approach. Aguirre also marked the first time Herzog worked the notorious actor Klaus Kinski who played the role of almost insane men to perfection, he would go on to star in four more of Herzog's best films as well as being the subject of a posthumous biographical documentary. Although unsucessful in Germany, the film proved popular in France and eventually played around the world.

The next feature film was The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser (1974). Based on a mysterious real-life incident and with some surreal dream sequences, Herzog became controversial for his choice of lead actor. Bruno S. had spent most his life in institutions and was a social outcast - but he gives a emotive and unique performance here, that makes this film very powerful. Again, unpopular in Germany, it proved sucessful in the rest of the world and encouraged Herzog to shoot his most ambitious, experimental project to date. Heart of Glass (1976) is based on German folk tales of people with forsight and supernatural abilities. For the filming he had almost the entire cast of the film hypnotised, which along with a Florian Fricke soundtrack gives the entire film a wonderfully dream-like atmosphere. After the sucess of Kaspar Hauser (1974), Werner Herzog cast its star, Bruno S. in the lead role of Stroszeck (1977) - a comparatively simple story of a German man travelling to make a new life in America, although as usual, it is stylised. Later that year, news came of an active volcanic island in the Carribean that was being evacuated - one man refused to leave and chose to stay on the island, hearing of this, Herzog immediately flew down to interview him and film the Volcano for his documentary La Soufrière (1977). Although he was becoming accepted as one of the best German film makers of the era, Herzog believed that the contemporary German cinema had few links to the previous generation of film-makers, those of the 1920s and early 1930s. Nosferatu: Phantom der Nacht (1979) is a haunting tribute to the classic F.W. Murnau film and starred Klaus Kinksi as Count Dracula. In order to avoid having to re-apply for shooting permission in Czechoslovakia, within 2 days of completing the shoots for Nosferatu, Herzog began filming Woyzeck (1979). Based on a well known German play, the film includes probably Klaus Kinski's best performance, and although a minor chapter in their work together, is a very interesting film.

As the 1980s rolled around, Werner Herzog was in the USA shooting a couple of short film documentaries with very contrasting religious themes. Huie's Sermon (1980) concerned a New York Bishop, while God's Angry Man (1980) is a fascinating look at the controversial televangelist and preacher Gene Scott. The next year Herzog began his largest and most troublesome production to date. Fitzcarraldo (1982) is the story of a man who wanted to move a boat over a mountain in the Amazonian rain forests. Shooting was severely hampered by a massive military build-up in the area because of a border conflict with Ecuador, and some very negative press reporting. Eventually the crew were forced to move even further into the jungle to find the only other location in South America suitable for making the film. As well as the sheer complexity of actually moving a boat over a mountain, production was affected further when the lead actor Jason Robards (Once Upon a Time in the West (1968)) fell ill and had to leave the shoot, while Mick Jagger, who had been playing his assistant, had to return to perform on a Rolling Stones tour. Fortunately Klaus Kinski was free, and stepped in to play the lead role. The making of the film was documented by Les Blank in the documentary feature Burden of Dreams (1982).

After the stresses of Fitzcarraldo (1982), Herzog spent the next few years producing operas and filming some documentary style pieces. The Ballad of the Little Soldiers (1984) told about the plight of child soldiers in Central Africa, while The Dark Glow of the Mountains (1984) was about the climber Reinhold Messner, and Where the Green Ants Dream (1984) looked at the aboriginal people of Australia and the destruction of their ancient ways of life. He finally decided to bring Kinski back for another feature film - based on a novel, Cobra Verde (1987) tells of a Brazilian bandit who travels to Africa to re-start the slave trade. Klaus Kinski was all but burnt out by this point in his life, just three years before he died, and Herzog had real trouble shooting with him. Again plauged by production difficulties in the African locations, the film is the least of the Herzog/Kinski partnerships and the last time they would work together. More short films followed, shot in Africa, before Herzog began work on Scream of Stone (1991). Based around the mountain Cerro Torre in South America, generally considered to be the hardest climb in the world, the film was unusual in that the script was already written and so Herzog was unable to make the changes he wanted to it. However, it remains an interesting film with some impressive visuals.

Lessons of Darkness (1992) was shot in Kuwait in the aftermath of the First Gulf War and showed the work of the men trying to extinguish the oil fires - shot in a very stylised manner it proved highly controversial, with German critics hating the film, although it proved popular in America. He followed this with more stylised documentary pieces - Bells from the Deep (1993) showed an assortment of eccentric Russian characters and their religious beliefs, Death for Five Voices (1995) told of the curious 16th Century composer Carlo Gesualdo and Little Dieter Needs to Fly (1997) told the story of Dieter Dengler, a German airman who flew in the US Navy during the Vietnam war and was captured after his plane crashed. As part of the film, Herzog actually took Dieter back into the jungle to re-enact some of the sequences of his capture. A more personal documentary followed - My Best Fiend (1999) was a look back at the checkered history between Herzog and Kinski with some interesting behind the scenes stories and footage.

Herzog finally returned to feature films with Invincible (2001) - like many of his best feature films it is a fictionalised, stylised story of a real man - in this case a Jewish strongman who became famous in 1920s Berlin. Over the next few years, a trio of interesting documentary features emerged, as Herzog began to become again a globally recognised name. The White Diamond (2004) is, on the surface, a simple look at a fascinating project to fly minature blimps over the rainforest to provide a unique opportunity to see into the forest canopies - an area almost ignored by science, however, Herzog uses some strong visuals to give the film a typically dream-like essence. This effect is magnified in the psuedo-documentary The Wild Blue Yonder (2005) which uses footage from NASA missions and underwater photography, combined with powerful music, to create a completely unique visual experience. More attention grabbing was the documentary Grizzly Man (2005) which showed the eccentric nature-lover Timothy Treadwell, mostly through his own footage, who lived with brown bears in North America and was eventually killed by them. At the same time, Herzog was cast as a stylised version of himself in the highly impressive, but little known psuedo-documentary Incident at Loch Ness (2004) which shows his interactions with a sterotypical Hollywood producer (the film's writer and director, and real Hollywood producer Zak Penn) and attempts to film a documentary about the Loch Ness Monster. With the sucess of these films came a chance to shoot another feature film - Rescue Dawn (2007) which retells the story of Dieter Dengler and stars Christian Bale in the lead role. It is due for cinema release soon.



Often extremely controversial, persued by ugly rumours and derided by critics in his home country, yet considered by many film fans to be the best film-maker alive, Werner Herzog is certainly one of the most important film directors of the 20th and possibly 21st centuries. His output is incredibly varied, ranging from free-form films comprised entirely of images of nature coupled with dreamy music, to hard hitting documentaries and some very impressive feature films with real location shoots that add a layer of authenticity rarely seen in cinema. While many visionary European directors were at the whim of their producers, Herzog took the initiative early on to produce his own films, and thus the majority of his output are very personal films. In summary, anyone interested in cinema should take the time to sample some of Herzog's work - check out the reviews below to find a good place to start.


 DVD Reviews: Films directed by Werner Herzog


Aguirre: The Wrath of God (1972)            
Anchor Bay UK Region 0 DVD
The first Kinski/Herzog partnership, and one of the most beautiful, artistic films ever made.
Highly recommended to all.
Cobra Verde (1987)            
Anchor Bay UK Region 2 DVD
The last Kinski/Herzog partnership is a rather poor film with a shallow plot and uninspired direction.
Not recommended.
The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser (1974)            
Anchor Bay USA Region 0 DVD
A fascinating story based on real life, very well written and boasting a unique and incredible lead performance.
Highly recommended.
Even Dwarfs Started Small (1970)            
Anchor Bay USA Region 0 DVD
Simply bizarre - this story of dwarfs running amock in an asylum is one of the strangest films ever made.
Recommended to fans of bizarre cinema.
Fata Morgana (1971)            
Anchor Bay USA Region 0 DVD
A surreal mix of footage shot in North Africa, from empty deserts to 'embarrased landscapes' and eccentric people.
Partly recommended.
Fitzcarraldo (1982)            
Anchor Bay UK Region 0 DVD
Herzog really moves a boat over a hill in this exciting but rather impersonal film, with another outstanding Klaus Kinski lead role.
Recommended.
Grizzly Man (2005)            
Lion's Gate USA Region 1 DVD
A fascinating and very well made documentary about Timothy Treadwell who lived for 13 years with Grizzly bears.
Highly recommended.
Heart of Glass (1976)            
Anchor Bay USA Region 0 DVD
An entire cast under hypnosis creates a unique atmosphere in this purely dreamlike production.
Recommended.
Lessons of Darkness (1992)            
Anchor Bay USA Region 0 DVD
A powerful visual experience of the ravaging effects of war on a landscape shot in the aftermath of the First Gulf War.
Recommended.
Little Dieter Needs to Fly (1997)            
Anchor Bay USA Region 0 DVD
An interesting and well made documentary about a pilot shot down in the jungle during the Vietnam war.
Recommended to Herzog fans.
My Best Fiend (1999)            
Anchor Bay UK Region 0 DVD
Herzog's documentary tribute to his work with Kinski, although it offers little new information.
Not recommended.
Nosferatu: Phantom der Nacht (1979)            
Anchor Bay UK Region 0 DVD
Kinski plays Count Dracula in Herzog's eerie and dreamlike adaptation of the classic silent movie with a wonderful score.
Highly recommended.
Stroszeck (1977)            
Anchor Bay USA Region 0 DVD
An almost neo-realist tale of a man trapped in the American dream, well directed and acted.
Highly recommended.
Woyzeck (1979)            
Anchor Bay UK Region 0 DVD
Klaus Kinski takes the lead role in this interesting and faithful adaptation of the German play.
Partly recommended.

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All text in this site written by Timothy Young - August 2006.
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