Werner Herzog films: c/d/s/d

Also search Werner's commentary tracks on all the dvds, the old man is a riot.

The Gospel according to Klaus Kinski

Herzog - great up until Fitzcarraldo - only the odd decent doc since then. Search: 'Heart of Glass' (the one where he hypnotised the cast), 'Aguirre Wrath of God' and esp. 'The Enigma of Kasper Hauser' one of my all-time faves. What was the Herzog film Ian Curtis was watching when he topped himself?

Destroy: Invincible. Dulldulldull Nazis v. Jews boilerplate. The Harmonists trod the same ground much better and didn't strive for a poetry the script and acting couldn't carry.

Who has read Herzog On Herzog?

Tell me about the book, please.

No maybe's about it (For "Kaspar" I mean)

I've read Herzog on Herzog, it's amazing.

I've also watched both Kaspar Hauser and Hearts of Glass with the director commentary on. He is amazingly entertaining.

Rather than say exactly what I think about the veracity of "Incident at Loch Ness," let me tell you a story. A few years ago at the Telluride Film Festival, Herzog invited me to his hotel room to see videos of two of his new documentaries. One was about the Jesus figures of Russia, men who dress, act and speak like Jesus and walk through the land being supported by their disciples. The other was about a town whose citizens believe that a city of angels exists on the bottom of a deep lake and can be seen through the ice at the beginning of winter. Wait too long, and the ice is too thick to see through. Crawl onto the ice too soon, and you fall in.

Herzog has made many great documentaries in his career, and I was enthralled by both of these. He's a master of the cinema, with an instinct for the bizarre and unexpected. After I saw the films, he said he only had one more thing to tell me: Both of the documentaries were complete fiction.

Search God's Angry Man, I finally tracked down a copy of it.

Going to see Incident at Loch Ness today.

I just bought "Land of Silence and Darkness!"

"FCC MONKEY BAND"

or

http://www.generalhaberdashery.com/links/fccband.wmv

I've never seen a bad Herzog film.

yes, I WILL

OK

Actually, the film was Gates of Heaven. W.H. Eats His Shoe is like the greatest film trailer of all time.

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B00005YKXQ/qid=1105315485/sr=8-1/ref=pd_csp_1/102-4554796-5040927?v=glance&s=dvd&n=507846

"Kinski says [the jungle] is full of erotic elements. It's not so much erotic, but full of obscenity. Nature here is vile and base. I wouldn't see anything erotic here. I see fornication and asphyxiation and choking, fighting for survival and growing and just rotting away. Of course there's a lot of misery, but it's the same misery that's all around us. The trees are in misery, and the birds are in misery. I don't think they sing; they just screech in pain. Taking a close look at what's around us, there is some sort of harmony. It's the harmony of overwhelming and collective murder. But when I say this, I say this all full of admiration for the jungle. It's not that I hate it. I love it. I love it very much. But I love it against my better judgment."

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.

Burden of Dreams: this May, on Criterion!

also - MONKEYS!

why did the new german cinema collapse circa 1982? fassbinder dead, wenders fucked by coppola, herzog jumping shark, schlondorff becoming an 'international' director.

heh, that's because he puts his actors through hell. if a scene calls for walking down a dangerously steep & narrow path on the side of a mountain, then he actually films them doing so, no camera tricks, stand-ins, etc..

herzog jumping shark

he did a Happy Days remake?

no, i don't think they are that dissimilar. i'm pissed tho'.

Land of Silence and Darkness = cold, brittle and brilliant

Has anyone read Herzog on Herzog?

Then he eats his shoe.

I think if you liked Stroszek you should check out Kaspar Hauser next.

weird sentence!

SEE: Little Dieter Needs to Fly.

Utterly essential.

I have Murnau's Nosferatu but not Herzog's. I do have Lessons of Darkness tho so i might watch that right now.

my favorite...by far...is fata morgana. i also liked la soufrière, and the short film last words.

'fitzcarraldo' is a bit shit.

Should've snapped it up, really, for the dancing chicken alone.

from IMDB:

Oscar-nominee Joaquin Phoenix was rescued from his car wreck last week by German cult director Werner Herzog. The 31-year-old Walk The Line star overturned his car on a canyon road above Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood after his brakes failed and he collided with another vehicle. Phoenix was saved because he was wearing his seat-belt, but has revealed he was helped from the wreckage by the 63-year-old, who has a home nearby. The actor says, "I remember this knocking on the passenger window. There was this German voice saying, 'Just relax.' There's the airbag, I can't see and I'm saying, 'I'm fine. I am relaxed. Finally, I rolled down the window and this head pops inside. And he said, 'No, you're not.' And suddenly I said to myself, 'That's Werner Herzog' There's something so calming and beautiful about Werner Herzog's voice. I felt completely fine and safe. I climbed out. I got out of the car and I said, 'Thank you,' and he was gone."

Two days later, Herzog was shot with an air rifle during a BBC interview promoting "Grizzly Man". Herzog calmly stated: "Someone is shooting at us. We must go." The interview continued, however, as Herzog's pants became stained with blood. Herzog commented, "It was not a significant bullet. I am not afraid."

video here

Somebody should make a road movie starring Werner Herzog and Alejandro Jodorowsky.
Drivin' around the countryside, robbin' banks and/or solvin' crimes

-- kingfish has gene rayburn's mic (jdsalmo...), February 3rd, 2006 10:59 PM. (link)

well, there's also lotte eisner reciting the popul vuh....

i have to say, i can't defend this film on the grounds of their being some overall thematic coherence that eludes one on first viewing. each image is a really potent example of the real and the inexplicable. and the music and the recitation just works. as a kind of trance-inducing mechanism. i dunno...recommended for those who like michael snow, i guess. i love it.

interesting, the sort of abitrary relation b/t sound and image in this film means that watching it with herzog's commentary track isn't really like, uh, watching a film with a commentary track...it's like watching a film with a different soundtrack. another film.

anyway, once i saw Aguirre i decided that Fitzcarraldo was just a less-cool Aguirre. AGUIRRE FOREVA.

i gave Stroszek to my little brother b/c he wants to be a director when he grows up and i figured that was the least "slow" of his films. he was like "man... that was really dark..."

so um yeah i luv herzog 4ever (but who couldn't??)

We have the Fitzcarraldo SPECIAL EDITION!!!!! Whatever that is. From netflix, just came in today. So tomorrow, I will belong.

Also, make note of the German title of Kaspar Hauser: Jeder für sich und Gott gegen alle.

i think that was Stroszek. which may be my favorite herzog. Aguirre was a favorite years ago, i need to see it again. my wind up klaus kinski dracula is never far from my synthesizer.

i have white diamond at home from netflix now

(And how was the flick? I'll leave the reviews to the snoots, except to say this: I rubbed my seat ragged, squirming and slumping before rising, along with the audience, in a standing O for a surprisingly uplifting war flick with a wildly unconventional performance by Bale. So yeah, the movie works, and Brand agrees: "Better than 'Scarface,' better than 'Citizen Kane.'")

In July, he married Shahara Simmons, a Duke alum, and now Mrs. Brand has her man's back as he makes the rounds and poses for photos (smoothly sliding his fun juice deep inside his palm) before yukking it up with Bale.

Fun juice "deep inside" his palm while his wife has his back? Is this not a description of a porn shot?

And now I see that Herzog has made a Vietnam film. Very intersting.

Rescue Dawn trailer.

Incident at Loch Ness was a lot of fun, but would've been far better if they had been able to maintain even a slight semblance of believability all the way through to the end.

A lot of music I play these days is basically extended Aguirre soundtrack rip-offs.

... he certainly is!

I don't really remember the music in Aguirre, except for the dude playing pipes?

You don't remember the opening sequences?!??!

I guess not! I mean I remember them walking through the jungle but I don't remember the music.

LA Times interview with talk about Rescue Dawn, living in LA, etc.

I must get round to watching the rest of the Herzog-Kinski films I bought a couple of years ago. Nosferatu and Aguirre are both larf riots.

Herzog's diary/memoir Of Walking in Ice, not available in English since 1978, is back in print. Yay.

I recently borrowed "Burden of Dreams" (that film about making Fitzcaraldo) from the library and it comes with a little book of production diaries that are a great read. The shit they had to go through for that film is just incredible. Eating a shoe was obviously a piece of cake in comparison.

I was rather disappointed with the ending of Rescue Dawn. It felt like he was trying to honor the life of Dieter but it ended up coming off as a cheesy attempt.

The documentary's no better for me. I said on the Rescue Dawn thread that Herzog doesn't do much with Dengler's weird all-American "pluck," which is to me the oddest thing about his story.

I thought there wasn't much going right for Rescue Dawn even before the Top Gun coda.

My friend insisted I'll get it when I get through Kaspar Hauser, but I can't seem to get into that one either.

Gulp!

It seems with Herzog I really really have to be in the mood ... at least to turn his commentary track off.

Just rewatched Heart of Glass - man, what an ending. I had forgotten how great the Master was as well. Wish I'd had time to watch the commentary, though.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1095217/

Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans
Director: Werner Herzog
Cast: Nic Cage & Val Kilmer

!

NYTimes story on Ferrara mentions that he is not real pleased about the remake.

http://defamer.com/395038/defiant-werner-herzog-to-defamer-who-is-abel-ferrara

lol

Have you talked to him?

No. I have no idea who Abel Ferrara is. But let him fight the windmills, like Don Quixote.

Have you heard his comments at all? He says he hopes "these people die in Hell."

That's beautiful!

Do you relate to that passion?

No, because it's like theater thunder. It's like being backstage in the 19th century, with the machines that make thunder. It has nothing do with with his film. But let him rave and rant; it's good music in the background.

You did a remake before with Nosferatu, but —

It was not so much a remake as an homage to Murnau. But I don't feel like doing an homage to Abel Ferrara because I don't know what he did — I've never seen a film by him. I have no idea who he is. Is he Italian? Is he French? Who is he?

Oh, come on.

Maybe I could invite him to act in a movie! Except I don't know what he looks like.

He hasn't made a good feature film in years but this is the pits

There is no way this film is going to be good, is there. Still, I guess he deserves to make some money.

The interview is v v entertaining, he's a funny guy.

lol i was just going to post saying that nothing is more annoying than the OMG HERZOG HE SO CRAZY thing, but this remake sounds like fun.

Fairuza Balk, Brad Dourif and Xzibit together at last.

Not exactly Bruno S and Herr Scheitz however

Jag Mandir is superdope

Just watched Lessons of Darkness, Aguirre and Stroszek last night. Brilliant!

I watched Aguirre for the first time last night.

anyone who even thinks about deserting this mission will be cut up into 198 pieces

His more recent hollywood drama stuff is pretty consistently bleh and seems only to be providing cash for his flood of pseudodocumentaries, which is fine by me.

Die Große Ekstase des Bildschnitzers Steiner - search this classic.

isn't Stroszek at MoMA this wknd?

hey long time no see

Stroszek still remains a favorite. I like that it's billed as a comedy.

might go see Encounters at the End of the World tomorrow in the cinema, got free tickets to a movie that screens not long after it tho, and ive never watched two films in the cinema in a row before, probably worth it tho.

this was awesome!

yeah, it ws pretty funny I thought

herzog shd remake march of the penguins!

"zese DELUDED animals, marching blindly zey not where, in a universe of chaos, pain and death..."

― mark s (mark s), Sunday, 26 February 2006 11:10 (3 years ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

zis penguin vill keep marching into the mountainz, even zo it meanz sertain deathh

the recordings of the seal's calls was some kind of something.

seals'

(paraphrasing but) I do not know why Discovery Channel paid to send me down here when there was no chance in hell I would be making a movie about penguins

seriously though, i was as surprised as anyone that it was actually a solid film, herzog is a good filmmaker

http://www.roguefilmschool.com

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=phVcMfhGv4g&feature=player_embedded

Filmed by Roger Ebert!

:)

If it hadn't been for ILX, I wouldn't have even known this, but RIP Bruno S. TBH I kind of assumed he'd died years ago. Now I'm sad (;_;) loved this dude, some of the best performances I've ever seen in cinema.

Wow! RIP indeed.

I thought this would be talking about new WH movies which is 3D

Stroszek is the best Herzog film and Bruno S was an amazing (amateur) actor.
or was it acting?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EvWh6PMi9Ek&feature=youtube_gdata_player

lol

Has anyone seen "My Son, My Son, What Have Ye Done" yet? It's just come out here on DVD in the UK. Michael Shannon is my favorite actor working right now, and the notion of Lynch having a hand in it is really intriguing, but I've picked up on a mostly negative/highly mixed reaction (I've deliberately not read any reviews).

NO but desperately want to

my son my son is good but not great; at this point I think i can only get excited when werner releases new documentaries

^^^^

encounters at the end of the world is hilarious

i love when someone starts telling a story and suddenly his narration cuts in and he's like 'zees story is very boring, so i will just sum it up for you'

discovery channel has been runnin tim treadwell's video as "grizzly man diaries", i've tivo'd a pile of them and am curious to watch

saw land of silence & darkness for the first time recently, its great

I still haven't seen, but have access to:

Where the Green Ants Dream
The Wild Blue Yonder
Wheel of Time

any of 'em essential viewing?

None of them are what I'd call essential...would maybe choose "Green Ants" but "The Wild Blue Yonder" is probably the worst of his that I've seen, though I haven't seen "Invincible".

i love wheel of time

http://www.slate.com/blogs/blogs/browbeat/archive/2011/04/28/great-moments-in-werner-herzog-voiceovers.aspx

Saw "Cave Of Forgotten Dreams" in 3D last night. Was pretty amazing. I went with someone who'd already seen it in 2D and she said it was a totally different experience. It really feels like you are in these caves. It's pretty incredible. He uses a mix of lo-fi and hi-fi video, which is great, because it sounds like they were only allowed in the caves a very limited time. You have a number of different ways of looking at them. The 3D reproductions of the ancient sculpture art was jaw-dropping. The spear-throwing demonstration was great, and kind of funny as a nod to 3D gimmickry. But completely appropriate for the movie!

Caveat: Some of the 3D was terrible (but these parts only lasted a few seconds usually), and at some parts I think he just toned down the 3D effect altogether. But I think the importance of the subject matter more than makes up for it, and I'd rather support innovative efforts in 3D documentary than something like Transformers 3D.

The ten uninterrupted minutes that he lets you spend just in the cave, slowly looking around, MUST be seen in 3D.

i saw it in 3d and 2d and the 3d vers is way better

though to be honest, by the end i was really worn out on the lingering slow pans of the cave paintings

Maybe you saw it one too many times.

well tbh i walked out of the 2d version like 25 mins in and asked for my money back

caves > paintings

yeah the stuff where they were showing like the calcified cave floor was great

Plus the calcified bear skulls.

this movie was mostly enthralling, as much despite as because of werner herzog.

by this movie i mean 'cave of forgotten dreams'

sick of herzog's flaky mouth-agape psuedo-philosophizing.

'tell me how you discovered the cave.'

'well, we were scaling this cliff when--'

'is this where the human soul was born?'

some of that stuff was hilarious though, so i think it worked out.

it was def lol in 'encounters at the end of the world' too

'can penguins become insane' *reclusive autist penguinologist grows visibly agitated by question*

some of that stuff was hilarious though, so i think it worked out.

― (.づ☀‿☀)づ ~da post-modernist struggle~ (.づ☀‿☀)づ (Princess TamTam), Wednesday, June 15, 2011 5:49 PM (3 minutes ago) Bookmark

that's true, but i was enjoying it in a way i don't think herzog intended.

can penguins become insane' *reclusive autist penguinologist grows visibly agitated by question*

― (.づ☀‿☀)づ ~da post-modernist struggle~ (.づ☀‿☀)づ (Princess TamTam), Wednesday, June 15, 2011 6:53 PM

was srsly dying in the theater when he was talking about the penguin wandering off-course to suicide

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x7kdDeGXUjI

that ridiculous music.

i dunno. i think a guy who puts an iguana in a nic cage movie for no good reason* can't be said to have lost his sense of humor about himself just yet.

*or makes a nic cage movie period.

re. enjoying it in a way herzog didnt intend.

true, but whether self-conscious or not, the 'wernor herzog persona' definitely rubs weirdly against the other aspects of his documentaries

i would be honestly shocked to discover that humor wasnt his main intention with most of this stuff

he was very funny at the q+a i saw him do this past weekend. favorite quote: "i'm not very teutonic, i'm much more bavarian"

yeah i'm going in the wrong direction by this. i'm entertained by his silly persona and questions, but half the time watching his recent movies i think, 'wouldn't a pbs-style doc on this topic be just as good and twice as informative?'

don't feel this way about most of dude's films, just a few recent ones.

yeah i do agree the "straight doc" style clashes oddly with the "oh that's just nutty ol' werner" persona. his older docs seemed less...professional? by which i mean closer to the vibe of his fiction films.

the newer ones are like someone hiring godard to do voiceovers for 60s network tv news docs or something

yeah i'm going in the wrong direction by this. i'm entertained by his silly persona and questions, but half the time watching his recent movies i think, 'wouldn't a pbs-style doc on this topic be just as good and twice as informative?'

don't feel this way about most of dude's films, just a few recent ones.

― by another name (amateurist), Wednesday, June 15, 2011 7:15 PM (2 minutes ago) Bookmark

yeah i mean, maybe twice as informative, and probably twice as boring (to me) - i need a little kookiness to keep me awake during some dry documentary about ancient dudes scribbling on walls

see that shit is fascinating! i would have liked to know more about what he know about the cultures of these prehistoric communities, what the land was like then, etc. you know, traditional explication. because if the tradeoff is just getting to hear herzog ask questions about the soul of man etc. i mean i feel like i'm not really getting my money's worth.

fwiw land of silence and darkness is one of the most powerful and unsettling films i've ever seen. it's also beautifully constructed, which you couldn't say about the recent films, which structurally speaking are all over the place. one other reason i don't find them very satisfying.

what WE know

Was mad when I found out the theater I went to (BAM Rose) did NOT have 3D.

Anyway, I mostly liked this. Cliched thing to say about him, I guess, but he seems to be almost as interested in the people who are interested in the subject matter as he is in the subject matter (or, occasionally, interested in being bored by them -- e.g. the hilarious hand-pan away from the perfumist when he started digressing about his own dull personal achievements).

Parallels to Grizzly Man in this way, although he's far less derisive of the scientist studying the cave than of Timothy Treadwell (probably because cave paintings don't eat people). He's sort of a fallen romantic -- he doesn't believe in things but he is still reluctantly excited by other people who believe in things.

I saw this in a room with Herzog - he's v. aware of his humor. he's a funny dude.

Might as well post this here...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N3xFZ0A15Bg

oh boy, ppl looking for "informative" filmmaking.

was srsly dying in the theater when he was talking about the penguin wandering off-course to suicide

yeah, when this happened at the Film Forum I comforted myself with "Complacent hipster dicks are doing it in other cities, I bet."

was srsly dying in the theater when he was talking about the penguin wandering off-course to suicide.

were you at my Tree of Life screening? hate you ppl.

was srsly dying in the theater when he was talking about the penguin wandering off-course to suicide

yeah, when this happened at the Film Forum I comforted myself with "Complacent hipster dicks are doing it in other cities, I bet."

― already president FYI (Dr Morbius), Wednesday, June 15, 2011 10:46 PM Bookmark

There was definitely a moment like this in the Cave of Forgotten Dreams showing I was at -- something he said that sounded extremely self-serious but just made everyone lose it. Wish i could remember the line.

was srsly dying in the theater when he was talking about the penguin wandering off-course to suicide

this bit was hilarious and i assumed it was supposed to be. love herzog, but dude cracks me up.

yeah I really don't get being mad at people who chuckle at Herzog - it's a totally understandable reaction. fight the real theater enemy - talkers and texters.

yeah i'm going in the wrong direction by this. i'm entertained by his silly persona and questions, but half the time watching his recent movies i think, 'wouldn't a pbs-style doc on this topic be just as good and twice as informative?'

― by another name (amateurist), Wednesday, June 15, 2011 4:15 PM (7 hours ago) Bookmark

i watch his docs half for the subject matter, half for the filmmaking, and half for the persona. films like little dieter needs to fly, grizzly man and encounters at the end of the world are at least as much about herzog as they are their ostensible subjects. and all the better for it!

for sure

love "lessons of darkness" too

yeah I really don't get being mad at people who chuckle at Herzog

I'm not talking about 'chuckling' but rolling waves of guffaws to rival a Laurel & Hardy audience.

lol

this bit was hilarious and i assumed it was supposed to be.

nothing funnier than cute animals dying a sad and lonely death.

I didn't laugh at that bit because I identified too much with the penguin. ;_;

I don't laugh much at Laurel & Hardy. Herzog is funnier!

You don't like Laurel & Hardy? Right...

I don't guffaw at L&H comedies, no. Prefer Leslie Nielsen.

"Complacent hipster dicks are doing it in other cities, I bet."

― already president FYI (Dr Morbius), Wednesday, June 15, 2011 10:46 PM

sorry bout ur complacent dick

*boot in ass*

xp -- no wait, both

guffaws @ stodgy bitter hipster

herzog ABSOLUTELY is doing some schtick here and he's very much aware of his own hilariousness
dude made a film about eating his shoe for fuck's sake

les blank made that film but yeah

There was a LOT of laughing in the cinema when I saw this. The fur-wearing dude badly playing the prehistoric flute, the rubbish attempts to throw a spear, the archaeologist how used to work in a circus etc. Werner's more interested in people than caves and that worked to the detriment of the subject matter, I think. COFD spent most of it's time telling you about people who studied these caves, or telling shaggy dog stories about albino alligators. Good film-making, but is it good documentary making? If a documentary is enjoyable, does it matter if it's not particularly insightful?

He makes essays, not documentaries. He's not going for laughs ALL the time, but some of the audiences seem to be.

Werner's more interested in people than caves and that worked to the detriment of the subject matter

The whole reason he's in the caves is presumably their role in human history.

Sure, but he could have explored that more. Fair point about him making essays rather than docs tho, I guess that frees him from any requirement for objectivity.

nothing funnier than cute animals dying a sad and lonely death.

― The New Dirty Vicar, Thursday, June 16, 2011 8:12 AM

it wasn't the death part so much as the unknowing penguin scampering off like its on a vision quest, and then the workers told to stand still and don't disturb the already confused penguin as it walks by, as if turning the fucking thing around is going to make the ecosystem collapse. add werner's questioning on top and its a funny moment. on the other hand if your audience treated the entire film like a knee-slapping yukfest then it sux 2 b u in nyc!

He's sort of a fallen romantic -- he doesn't believe in things but he is still reluctantly excited by other people who believe in things.
The whole reason he's in the caves is presumably their role in human history.

Encounters and Grizzly were certainly both more about looking at the crazy awesome people who choose to study this stuff than the stuff itself. Which is something i really enjoyed, and probably made it all much more interesting to watch than some narrator rattling off facts about geology.

If you pick up a book on cave paintings you are getting scientific conjectures -- highly educated guesses but guesses nonetheless -- about what it all means, why it all happened. You don't really learn much about the person behind the conjecture, which is why his films are so valuable. By putting a personal touch on the science of the study, it lends a personal touch to the caves themselves. I think it's fantastic.

i am SURE i've told this story (and probably on this thread) before but it's my Werner story and I like it and it supports the "he's got a sense of humor about this" point:

saw grizzly man's US premiere at the Museum of Natural History and Werner, Treadwell's ex girlfriend ("you must never listen to this") and a bear expert who happened to be a bear mauling victim (face was all messed up) were on a post show panel. During the Q&A after the show, some plucky kid asked werner "What's the point of this movie?" and Werner, with no pause and totally deadpan, replies "What's the point of children."

The whole reason he's in the caves is presumably their role in human history.

― already president FYI (Dr Morbius), Thursday, June 16, 2011 9:50 AM (1 hour ago) Bookmark

yeah, but asking questions like 'is this where the human soul is born?' isn't likely to shed much light on that subject. i don't mind him paying attention to the scientists--i like that part--but there's not much of a strong sense of method or structure. he loses the opportunity to say more about the scientists or about the paintings the more he indulges (his admittedly amusing) schtick.

xpost haha werner herzog win

the crowd cracked up btw and he did not elaborate further

bear mauling victim (face was all messed up)

his name is Barrie Gilbert
http://cache2.asset-cache.net/xc/53264168.jpg%3Fv%3D1%26c%3DIWSAsset%26k%3D2%26d%3D77BFBA49EF878921F7C3FC3F69D929FD2808D2857B1B4F596AED59CB9FAFE9D86B1E7F8C830B462BF06BF04B24B4128C

meh, here:
http://cache2.asset-cache.net/xc/53264168.jpg?v=1&c=IWSAsset&k=2&d=77BFBA49EF878921F7C3FC3F69D929FD2808D2857B1B4F596AED59CB9FAFE9D86B1E7F8C830B462BF06BF04B24B4128C

here's the story:
http://www.abc4.com/news/local/story/When-Bears-Attack-What-to-do-if-you-meet-bear-in/HSu19ZwN70WPfmIAEM-XkQ.cspx

"I'm quite convinced if i had collapsed and become neutral then I would have no longer been a threat to that bear. He might have grabbed me by the back and thrown me twenty feet or something, but it would give up pretty quickly because its fear would subside. It would say this is something that stumbled on to me and I'm gonna get outta here, which the bear eventually did. A surprised bear is an angry bear, and an angry bear is a dangerous bear. So don't surprise them. Don't start the chain you know?""

Good advice in just about any situation

I now believe the key to a successful WH impersonation is pronouncing "go-ink"

"Don't start the chain you know?"

i am hearing this in the voice of ice-t for some reason. ice-t being a well-known expert on bear safety.

fwiw land of silence and darkness is one of the most powerful and unsettling films i've ever seen.

Yes, totally underrated film of his. As far as the humour qualities of his films, I can't imagine that 'is it supposed to be funny?' would get a straight answer from him, nor should it.

there's actually a video of him out there where he says he's funnier than eddie murphy

I now believe the key to a successful WH impersonation is pronouncing "go-ink"

― already president FYI (Dr Morbius), Thursday, June 16, 2011 1:40 PM (38 minutes ago) Bookmark

he is terribly difficult to impersonate, for me anyway - which seems weird since he has such a distinct way of speaking that i can easily imagine in my head

whenever I try I usu get Arnold

nothing funnier than cute animals dying a sad and lonely death.

― The New Dirty Vicar, Thursday, June 16, 2011 5:12 AM (8 hours ago) Bookmark

comedy in herzog's poker-faced narrative analysis, not in penguin death (jeez)

i bet that penguin shit was staged.

It was totally heading south.

penguin was clearly a paid actor.

Herzog dressed up as a leopard seal and chased it towards the poll.

Someone should stop this man.

saw grizzly man's US premiere at the Museum of Natural History and Werner, Treadwell's ex girlfriend ("you must never listen to this") and a bear expert who happened to be a bear mauling victim (face was all messed up) were on a post show panel. During the Q&A after the show, some plucky kid asked werner "What's the point of this movie?" and Werner, with no pause and totally deadpan, replies "What's the point of children."

― weird bibby fetish (forksclovetofu), Thursday, June 16, 2011 12:48 PM Bookmark

Ha, a former roommate was there and related this story. It stuck with me.

Is there a thread for that kids' book, btw?

two of my friends on Facebook are now FB friends with Werner Herzog.

one thing I have noticed about Herzog is that nearly every film he does features a bear or bears.

http://www.colbertnation.com/the-colbert-report-videos/388586/june-06-2011/werner-herzog

"He's sort of a fallen romantic -- he doesn't believe in things but he is still reluctantly excited by other people who believe in things"

For what's worth, I think he's more like some kind of Middle Age man (his interest in tradition is never nostalgic), also it seems to me that considering his maniacal attention to notions like truth and human nature he's definitely a "believer", albeit a rather paradoxical one (see also his hatred for postmodernism).

i think of him as deeply humanist and ultimately optimistic in his pessimism; "little dieter needs to fly" is pivotal

Exactly - he's always somewhere between images of utter cruelty and desperation (the dancing chicken in Stroszek, the smoking chimpanzee of Echos aus einem düstern Reich) and the stark humaneness, totally devoid of any sentimentalism, of Land des Schweigens und der Dunkelheit.
Probably because of some personal reasons, his early TV documentary Behinderte Zukunft about a group of young disabled always struck me for its almost unbearable intensity.

he seems a little too ready to dominate the proceedings in his recent films. in his earlier ones you get a strong sense of his personality without him being all up in your grill.

i saw "cave.." in 2 dimensions and loved it. great soundtrack.

Saw this last night, for me his best since at least The White Diamond.

http://www.ifcfilms.com/films/into-the-abyss

(No bears, and he just interviews, doesn't narrate.)

excited

oh wow, that's high praise; weren't people sceptical about this one, idk why

New reality show starts march 9
http://www.mediaite.com/tv/on-death-row-what-werner-herzogs-prison-series-can-teach-us-about-journalism/

first ep of "On Death Row" is quality Herzog filmmaking but wrapped in odd cognitive Court TV/ID TV/Whatever the fuck they're calling it TV dissonance: each ten minute section is bookended by Paula Zahn intros and ads for Glade and fabric softener.
the show itself is Werner speaking one on one with people on death row in Grizzly Man tones and also interviewing family and painting a broader picture of the crime and the criminal. it's actively anti-death penalty rhetoric but as he puts it at the start of the first ep "that doesn't mean i like them"

this is on in the UK starting on thursday at 10 on ch4

Werner Herzog's Grizzly Man Tones

Cosmic Herzog Grizzly Man Tones For Mental Therapy

His next, Queen of the Desert (about Gertrude Bell, of whom I've never heard) will feature Robert Pattinson as T.E. Lawrence.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2012/aug/15/robert-pattinson-lawrence-arabia

A bunch of auteurs are clearly seeing something in pattinson that I don't, but okay.

i think they're mostly seeing that he can get their movies financed

even one w/ Naomi Watts? seems like that was taken care of, tho I don't doubt it makes the producers happier.

also the RP solo vehicles thus far haven't set the b.o. on fire.

canks otm

I'm still curious about how this will turn out: http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2011/oct/05/werner-herzog-one-shot-lee-child

Casting on One Shot, the first adaptation of a Lee Child novel, has already met with a mixed reaction. Many were up in arms at the announcement that Tom Cruise would star as saturnine bruiser Jack Reacher (6ft 5in, 250lb), a former Army man who travels the world with just a toothbrush and a formidable sense of justice.

But the project's credibility took a dramatic rise with the announcement that the director Werner Herzog is to appear in the film as chief baddie The Zec, a former prisoner of war who arranges a conspiracy which frames a sniper for the murders of five people – a conspiracy which Reacher investigates.

Many news organisations quote a source who describes The Zec as an "ageless and shadowy figure". In the book his age (80) is, in fact, fairly precise, likewise his mobility (he's wheelchair-bound) and the number of fingers he has left (not a lot). He's a silent puppetmaster who commands such power over his subordinates that when he tells one of them to shoot themselves, they do so without question.

bel ami was terrible not just because of robert pattinson but he is a very very bad and rubbish actor haven't seen anything else he's been in

Wd love to see Pattinson give Bel Ami another crack.

Which Bel Ami?

Jack Reacher

To adapt D.B.C. Pierre's novel Vernon God Little, "a coming-of-age story set in Texas about a teenager caught up in the aftermath of a high-school shooting committed by his best friend":

http://www.variety.com/article/VR1118061066

Hope he casts Tilda Swinton!

grrrrrrrrr

Let us now discuss "The Sopranos of the Mesozoic": DINOTASIA - the mega-violent, animated dinosaur film with narration by Werner Herzog

http://static.tvguide.com/MediaBin/Content/100830/News/Todays_News_Our_Take/5_fri/100903HappyDays1.jpg

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

waht!

That's an interesting way to pass the time, I guess?

i imagine myself watching ten, fifteen minutes of this, stopping, FFing to the same point in fitzcarraldo, and never revisiting criterion cardboard edition ever again.

amazing

Wow, Herzog's AT&T sponsored anti texting and driving movie:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_BqFkRwdFZ0#at=30

Yeah, that's heart-wrenching.

i had seen chopped up short psa versions on tv; had no idea that was herzog

http://www.rollingstone.com/movies/videos/werner-herzog-tackles-texting-and-driving-in-devastating-documentary-20130809

"What AT&T proposed immediately clicked and connected inside of me," Herzog told the AP. "There's a completely new culture out there. I'm not a participant of texting and driving — or texting at all — but I see there's something going on in civilization which is coming with great vehemence at us."

Gah, I'm never going to txt again just to be safe.

The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser, playing at an exended sesh at the BFI is really one of his v best (along with Fata Morgana). Saw this on TV at 18 or so...on this viewing you pick up so much more on the cruelty, alienation, the failure of knowledge to provide any 'consolation', how downright dangerous its gaining is, through its sharpening of thought and enhanced processing of sensibility.

As for thoughts that Bruno S. was exploited - well, perhaps he was - but here he is so much more of a presence than Kinski ever was.

Looked great, from the expansive looking shots of the country to the grainy shots of dreams (Kaspar's mind will always be obscured). I'm sure the crew from Berberian Sound Studio have more than a passing familiarity with it - not criticizing, its a well known film.

I forgot how straight AND funny Nosferatu is. This is possibly the first time the German-lang version has been screened in the US?

I simply don’t like the culture of drugs. I never liked the hippies for it. I think it was a mistake to be all the time stoned and on weed. It didn’t look right and it doesn’t look right today either and the damage drugs have done to civilizations are too enormous. And besides, I don’t need any drug to step out of myself. I don’t want them and I do not need them. And you may not believe this, big-eyed as you sit here now, but I’ve not even taken a puff of weed in my life.

...I do not refuse it. I just pass the joint on to the next and let them do it. It’s their business. I don’t want to do it. Actually, I was completely stoned once with the composer Florian Fricke in Popol Vuh. I was at his home and he had pancakes and marmalade. And I smeared the marmalade and he started chuckling and chuckling. And I ate it and it tasted very well and I wanted another one and took another good amount of the marmalade and the marmalade had weed in it. He didn’t even tell me. I was so stoned that it took me an hour to find my home in Munich. I circled the block for a full hour until finding my place. So I have had the experience....

There was nothing traumatic about growing up for kids in post-war Germany. Of course it was traumatic for those who were a little bit older who had to flee, who were refugees and fled from the Polish border and were on tracks, and the left and right rape of women, and burnt-out villages and bombs coming down and things like that. A friend of mine who is a painter was in a bunker when the bombs hit his town of Hamburg. Almost everyone perished. And he was there 48 hours in this basement, flooded, and his aunt held him above water level for 48 hours, until they were rescued. The water was almost up to the chin of his aunt, and she held him above water level. So yes, when it comes to that, that is traumatic. And no wonder he became an artist!

http://www.vulture.com/2014/07/werner-herzog-box-set-transcript.html

...I do not refuse it. I just pass the joint on to the next and let them do it.

Tips 4 lyfe..

Can't believe I've smoked more pot than Werner Herzog.

As if I needed another reason to love Popol Vuh! Nice one, Florian.

Florian seems to have been a bit of a prankster, around Herzog anyway

no wonder he became a artist!!!

and whats your excuse you never even did pot lol!!!

I'd like for WH to narrate a documentary of me digging up the root balls and bush stumps along the side of my house. Something mundane but sweaty like that.

I'd like to know more about the lighter side of Florian Fricke, pls!

aguirre wrath of god is amazing, love how it degenerates into a sort of ceci n'est pas un arrow in my leg existentialist insanity. some of the deaths are as blackly comic as any on film

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qxhac0bWENY

"into the abyss" is really underrated. a masterpiece imo. he deals with crushing poverty and the nature of violence and the american prison-industrial complex with the genuine curiosity and empathy for humans+love of strange details that marks all of his best work.

Gunning for an Oscar?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tJ0xy9euq24

That dialogue sounds awful.

Perhaps the people who put that trailer together were trying to tell us how bad this movie is and that we ought to stay away. After watching it, that would make the most sense to me.

i see white people

when was the last decent werner herzog fiction feature?

something in the 80s probably. I assume he just uses his fiction feature incomes to fund his documentaries, which are by far his strength.

I know there are fans of his Bad Lt around here but I was pretty bored by it

"This video is private"

something in the 80s probably. I assume he just uses his fiction feature incomes to fund his documentaries, which are by far his strength.

― Οὖτις, Monday, July 6, 2015 2:23 PM (3 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i doubt that; it's probably easier for him to find financing for the documentaries than the features, which haven't made very much money lately.

i mean "cave of forgotten dreams" made nearly as much money as "rescue dawn," and the latter must have cost much, much more

when was the last decent werner herzog fiction feature?

Probably Fitzcarraldo if truth be told. Have never seen that Green Ants thing but have it on good authority that it's not very good. The ending of Cobra Verde is great but you have to sit through the rest of the film to get there. Haven't seen anything since.

and Fitzcarraldo isn't that good either

he gets funding from discovery for his documentaries.
last good fiction piece was "my son my son what have ye done" last GREAT was probably "fitzcarraldo"

honestly his documentaries are often kind of formless and lazy these days -- they skate by on the innate fascination of the subject matter + herzog's still-charming persona

that said "into the abyss" was quite powerful

but i'm not a /huge/ herzog fan to begin with

he is a great interviewer and knows how to shoot/frame things = I will always watch his docs

My Son My Son, Rescue Dawn and Bad Lieutenant are all worthwhile in different ways imo, this new one seems like bad news, though.

speaking of herzog docs, watched how much wood could a woodchuck chuck for the first time yesterday & unless i'm very much mistaken the master of ceremonies announcing the winners right at the end is the same guy that played the smarmy banker dude in stroszek

http://www.newyorker.com/tech/elements/werner-herzog-talks-virtual-reality

Is there such a thing as a non-virtual-reality story?

I think you have to start right there. All human encounters are ambiguous. Even the perfect personal encounters are ambiguous in all societies, in all age groups, in all historical phases. And you see this ambiguity very clearly, for example, when you are on Facebook. This ambiguity, and this definition, is apparently the source of all your questions. Do we already live in a virtual reality? Did Rome, in antiquity, live in some sort of virtual reality?

Looking forward to Lo And Behold

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Pv8Qj0Vkbo

" I take them as my unpaid bodyguards and let them do battle out there for me. It’s funny because there are Werner Herzogs out there who answer questions about filmmaking and do all sorts of funny things like create films I’ve never heard of."

I am Werner Herzog, the filmmaker. AMA.

Nobby Stiles? You're having a laugh, Werner.

http://www.bfi.org.uk/news-opinion/news-bfi/video/werner-herzog-picks-his-favourite-england-players

He had a new one streaming for free on MUBI yesterday, 'Family Romance, LLC', about a company in Japan that rents stand-in family members. Anyone catch it?

Not spectacular, but I liked it, and it was a nice little play with the ideas of what's real and what's fake, and was funny in a rather sad & awkward kind of a way. The company is apparently real and the main guy plays himself in this film, but acting out fictional scenarios devised by Herzog. It's filmed in a very raw style, so could feel like a basic documentary much of the time, and has an odd, stilted, rather awkward vibe as well.

Loved the short scene of the guy in the train station getting a dressing down.

there was a piece in the new yorker about this phenomenon, no ?

Didn’t get around to watching it, but it’s on MUBI now for members.

Yeah, I think that piece was what inspired the film, budo jeru. According to The Observer today it was this one from 2018 written by Elif Batuman that set Herzog to making the film: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/04/30/japans-rent-a-family-industry

Yesterday the film had a wee intro from Herzog and a short 10-15 min. Q&A between him and someone from MUBI... wonder if that's included with the ongoing streaming?

Saw it yesterday and agreed on its relative strengths. It felt like a scenario in an early 70s film that was transposed to a current setting where it actually happens.

Still has the 5 minute intro. Is the Q&A at the end?

Yeah, the Q&A is still at the end.

the vulcanology film, The Fire Within, is on bbc4 tonight at 9pm

We're watching WHERE THE GREEN ANTS DREAM on VHS lol. I didn't know anything about it (in spite of seeing most? many? Herzog films) so I wasn't sure what it was about or anything and have been enjoying it so far.

We also recently watched THE FIRE WITHIN and I really liked it. We tried to watch the Miranda July movie about the Kraffts ("Fire of Love") and I found it unbearable but typically (for me) the Herzog approach was significantly more appealing.

Lol, i also hated Fire of Love but liked Fire Within! Miranda July's voice is like an ointment seeping down your leg.

xpost We tried to watch that one as well and found it equally unbearable. I bailed after maybe 20 minutes, I think my wife lasted a little longer but couldn't make it until the end.

Where the green ants dream is great but it is in the shadow of Fitzcarraldo (and no Klaus Kinski)

xpost to me (The July narrated one, tbc)

I feel like I have seen more than my fair share of volcano documentaries, they all kind of blend in to another.

Miranda July's voice is like an ointment seeping down your leg.

lol

My wife was gifted a year-long subscription to that Master Class series and I actually watched a few of the Werner Herzog episodes/talks. Pretty fun, pretty interesting.

It’s not her voice specifically for me — it’s the information/content she chooses to highlight and the twee nature of all of her output. I’ve avoided her work so far because I was pretty sure I wouldn’t like it — idk why I thought this volcano movie would be any different? Joke’s on me!

hadnt realized Fire of Love was a miranda july joint, glad i dodged that bullet

It's not, though. It was written and directed by Sara Dosa. July is the narrator.

July brings her patented bored treacle vibe to play in the enunciation tho, hard to get past it.
the greater sin imo is that we get all this ephemera and personal life presumption but minimal volcanology and meaningful science. after an hour i was still like "yes but WHY are they running around next to volcanos like suicidal idiots"

real q - did MJ write the narration or did she read a script written by a different person and/or the director?

honestly for me it was the nature of the movie and the googly-eyed "aw @ their volcanic love" angle/lack of substance about wtf they were doing (as forks describes) that didn't appeal to me. it felt insipid when we're talking life and death and lava.

herzog himself is certainly no stranger to imitation and parody; i happen to enjoy his narration but i can see how easy it would be to mock it. that two such opposing narrators could even exist is somewhat amusing to me.

people who dislike miranda july are rong imo :(

maybe -- i will admit that i am unable to enjoy a certain type of wholesome entertainment.

know what earthly substance dgaf about your enduring volcanic love for each other? churning lava

ha, yes.
also the pseudo-Wes Anderson direction did this no favors with its manneristic obviousness; killed most of my interest in the leads dead in its tracks

> herzog himself is certainly no stranger to imitation and parody

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

july ain't anymore twee than harry crews

that's a weird comparison and i'm a big fan so i'm gonna say no and post this video of crews explaining how to cook a possum as proof otherwise
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J5kjm9IuIMc

we watched some shorts last night. Last Word was easily my favorite because the music was amazzzzzing. Precautions Against Fanatics runner up bc it was so quietly funny.