Director Werner Herzog doesn’t make cinéma vérité documentaries, nor does he conduct journalistic interviews. He likes to fiddle with the truth in films such as 1982’s ”Fitzcarraldo,” about an obsessed opera lover. In his 1999 manifesto, ”Minnesota Declaration,” Herzog wrote: ”There are deeper strata of truth in cinema, and there is such a thing as poetic, ecstatic truth. It is mysterious and elusive, and can be reached only through fabrication and imagination and stylization.”
Through the decades Herzog has toyed with his public persona as a fearless, death-defying, slightly crazed filmmaker who was rumored to have pulled a gun on leading man Klaus Kinski on the 1972 jungle set of ”Aguirre, the Wrath of God.” His own German-accented voiceover narration has become famous in its own right, and he was comfortable enough as an actor to make fun of himself in Zak Penn’s improvised 2004 mockumentary “Incident at Loch Ness,” among...
Through the decades Herzog has toyed with his public persona as a fearless, death-defying, slightly crazed filmmaker who was rumored to have pulled a gun on leading man Klaus Kinski on the 1972 jungle set of ”Aguirre, the Wrath of God.” His own German-accented voiceover narration has become famous in its own right, and he was comfortable enough as an actor to make fun of himself in Zak Penn’s improvised 2004 mockumentary “Incident at Loch Ness,” among...
- 11/11/2016
- by Anne Thompson
- Thompson on Hollywood
Director Werner Herzog doesn’t make cinéma vérité documentaries, nor does he conduct journalistic interviews. He likes to fiddle with the truth in films such as 1982’s ”Fitzcarraldo,” about an obsessed opera lover. In his 1999 manifesto, ”Minnesota Declaration,” Herzog wrote: ”There are deeper strata of truth in cinema, and there is such a thing as poetic, ecstatic truth. It is mysterious and elusive, and can be reached only through fabrication and imagination and stylization.”
Through the decades Herzog has toyed with his public persona as a fearless, death-defying, slightly crazed filmmaker who was rumored to have pulled a gun on leading man Klaus Kinski on the 1972 jungle set of ”Aguirre, the Wrath of God.” His own German-accented voiceover narration has become famous in its own right, and he was comfortable enough as an actor to make fun of himself in Zak Penn’s improvised 2004 mockumentary “Incident at Loch Ness,” among...
Through the decades Herzog has toyed with his public persona as a fearless, death-defying, slightly crazed filmmaker who was rumored to have pulled a gun on leading man Klaus Kinski on the 1972 jungle set of ”Aguirre, the Wrath of God.” His own German-accented voiceover narration has become famous in its own right, and he was comfortable enough as an actor to make fun of himself in Zak Penn’s improvised 2004 mockumentary “Incident at Loch Ness,” among...
- 11/11/2016
- by Anne Thompson
- Indiewire
Much like Whit Stillman adapting Jane Austen earlier this year, Into The Inferno—a documentary about volcanoes directed by Werner Herzog—seems like such a no-brainer that it’s hard to believe it didn’t already exist. Actually, this one did already exist, albeit in shorter forms: Herzog’s short doc “La Soufrière” (1977) saw him rush to the evacuated Caribbean island of Guadeloupe in order to record an impending volcanic eruption, and his 2007 feature Encounters At The End Of The World introduced him to volcanologist Clive Oppenheimer, who worked so extensively on Into The Inferno that he and Herzog share its opening “a film by” credit (though only Herzog is credited as its director). Footage from both of those films gets recycled here, which contributes to a general feeling of déjà vu that’s increasingly common in Herzog’s movies. He seems very much aware that he’s ...
- 10/27/2016
- by Mike D'Angelo
- avclub.com
Werner Herzog is jumping right back in the narrative-feature saddle for his next film, a romantic thriller called "Salt and Fire" set amid a global catastrophe. Screen Daily has the scoop: Veronica Ferres ("Hector and the Search for Happiness") plays a scientist up against the head of a major corporation responsible for an ecological disaster in South America. When warnings of a remote supervolcano bode global doom, they must team up to save the world—in spite of their ideological differences. Herzog penned the script and will produce alongside "Queen of the Desert" cohort Michael Benaroya, and Nina Maag of Construction Film and Pablo Cruz of Canana Films. The producers plan to shoot "Salt and Fire," currently heating up sales interest for International Film Trust, beginning April 2015 on the Bolivian salt flats, as Herzogian as any a vast landscape. Herzog visited a volcano in 1977 for his early documentary "La Soufrière,...
- 2/10/2015
- by Ryan Lattanzio
- Thompson on Hollywood
Werner Herzog's presence in his own films – including the new Cave of Forgotten Dreams – marks him out as a romantic, eager to experience what he's trying to understand
Few film directors seem as directly present in their work as Werner Herzog. Not only does he have an instantly recognisable aesthetic, but unlike most European auteurs of his generation, he has become a familiar face in front of the camera. We are so accustomed to seeing him – playing football with Peruvian indians, arguing with Klaus Kinski, eating his own shoe at Chez Panisse – that we might mistake him for just another "personality", one of the celebrities who parade past at various scales, from cellphone to Times Square, on our screens. Directors are required to be showmen, particularly directors of documentaries, who always have to hustle to finance and screen their work. But Herzog's presence, his insistence on being in the middle of things,...
Few film directors seem as directly present in their work as Werner Herzog. Not only does he have an instantly recognisable aesthetic, but unlike most European auteurs of his generation, he has become a familiar face in front of the camera. We are so accustomed to seeing him – playing football with Peruvian indians, arguing with Klaus Kinski, eating his own shoe at Chez Panisse – that we might mistake him for just another "personality", one of the celebrities who parade past at various scales, from cellphone to Times Square, on our screens. Directors are required to be showmen, particularly directors of documentaries, who always have to hustle to finance and screen their work. But Herzog's presence, his insistence on being in the middle of things,...
- 4/18/2011
- by Hari Kunzru
- The Guardian - Film News
The prices plummeted this year, so Blu-ray players are likely to be under plenty of Christmas trees. Phelim O'Neill advises what to play on them
Blockbusters
Jj Abrams's rebooted Star Trek (Paramount) was not only the sole moment of unbridled fun in this year's blockbuster season but the best, full bells and whistles Blu-ray issue, too. With its sparkling HD visuals (not a given for Blu-ray), vibrant soundtrack and exhaustive supplementary material, it's ideal for showing to anyone who dares ask, "Why all the fuss about Blu-ray?"
Documentary
Let's not forget the educational importance of Blu-ray. Actually, let's do, as the picture quality on series like David Attenborough's Planet Earth and Life (BBC) is so gobsmackingly pristine that the senses are too overloaded to take in any useful information. Better to go for slightly lower-fi stuff, documentaries where the pictures do all the talking...
Blockbusters
Jj Abrams's rebooted Star Trek (Paramount) was not only the sole moment of unbridled fun in this year's blockbuster season but the best, full bells and whistles Blu-ray issue, too. With its sparkling HD visuals (not a given for Blu-ray), vibrant soundtrack and exhaustive supplementary material, it's ideal for showing to anyone who dares ask, "Why all the fuss about Blu-ray?"
Documentary
Let's not forget the educational importance of Blu-ray. Actually, let's do, as the picture quality on series like David Attenborough's Planet Earth and Life (BBC) is so gobsmackingly pristine that the senses are too overloaded to take in any useful information. Better to go for slightly lower-fi stuff, documentaries where the pictures do all the talking...
- 12/12/2009
- by Phelim O'Neill
- The Guardian - Film News
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