Werner Herzog

Started by adolfwolfli, August 06, 2003, 01:05:56 PM

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Pubrick

under the paving stones.

modage

Christopher Nolan's directive was clear to everyone in the cast and crew: Use CGI only as a last resort.

Gold Trumpet

I appreciate Herzog like the next guy. Hell, when I started a blog with a friend it was named after one of his films, but am I the only finding this sudden rush of Herzog euphoria odd?

pete

I think it's because he hasn't made a film like he used to since My Best Fiend (COUGH Invinclbe out of my lung they swallow it back like a phlegm with a tumor that I don't want little children to witness) so we're all happy that he's still the same and he's still got it. 
"Tragedy is a close-up; comedy, a long shot."
- Buster Keaton

modage

i noticed it too and i was going to say something about it.  all these closet herzog fans are coming out recently.  my only impression so far was nosferatu and it was not a good one.  perhaps early next year i'll try to see a few more.
Christopher Nolan's directive was clear to everyone in the cast and crew: Use CGI only as a last resort.

Alethia

yeah you should do that, nosferatu is definitly at the bottom of my list, tho its still worth seeing

mutinyco

"I believe in this, and it's been tested by research: he who fucks nuns will later join the church."

-St. Joe

planet_jake

I still quite like Invincible and Nosferatu. But still, The White Diamond will ranks as one of his greatest films... Mark my words.

Has anyone here seen The Wild Blue Yonder? NoTrailer. Just stills. They all look incredible.

pete

I just thought invincible was ruined by probably the worst dubbing/ voice acting I'd ever heard.
"Tragedy is a close-up; comedy, a long shot."
- Buster Keaton

cron

yeah, that movie definetely suffers from terrible production values. i remember a scene where tim roth slaps the lady and you can hear the slap before he even raises his hand.
context, context, context.

pete

I just came back from Herzog's latest, "Wild Blue Yonder", his "sci-fi fantasy" that weaved the narration of an alien with fascinating images inside a NASA shuttle and some underwater seascapes.  The images were as exotic as anything in a Herzog film, but this one wasn't so mesmerizing--it was only hypnotic, maybe it was due to the fact that Herzog really wasn't there for any of the shooting, so it didn't feel as intimate as his other films?
"Tragedy is a close-up; comedy, a long shot."
- Buster Keaton

Alethia

is it basically a lessons of darkness type thing?  doesn't fucking matter really, i'll see it no matter what, but is it?

pete

yeah, pretty much lessons of the darkness, but a little bit dryer.
"Tragedy is a close-up; comedy, a long shot."
- Buster Keaton

Just Withnail

Now it's been a couple of months since I was it, so I may be slightly fuzzy on the details. Using underwater footage as an alien planet was an interesting choice, and Brad Dourif was good as the alien, doing Herzog's usual routine (though the philosopical discussions on nature are this time told trough a sci-fi narrative of a NASA mission trying to find mankind's next home). It suffers slightly from a lack of an appearance of Herzog to personally show us nature as he sees it, but Dourif is an able substitute. It used the sci-fi aspect to tell a us in that in the future, we've fucked our planet over, and we need a new place to stay, as well as a satirical plot on aliens landing on Earth. All as told by Dourif the alien. The biggest reward I felt this gave, was the opportunity to show us a beautiful alien planet - our last hope - and guess what, it's ours.

MacGuffin

Werner Herzog to Joaquin's Rescue!

We have a pretty good idea who Joaquin Phoenix's favorite director is these days.

In an only-in-La-La Land bit of serendipity, Phoenix tells the Los Angeles Times that none other than famed German director Werner Herzog came to his rescue after Phoenix accidentally flipped his car last week on a winding canyon road.

The 31-year-old actor, who scored an Oscar nomination earlier this week for his performance as Johnny Cash in the biopic Walk the Line, walked away from the mishap escaping serious injury.

According to the police report, the actor was driving along Lookout Mountain Avenue near Laurel Canyon Boulevard in the Hollywood Hills at about 3 p.m., when his brakes suddenly gave out. Trying to avoid a collision with another vehicle, Phoenix veered his car into an embankment, where it overturned, causing the driver's side airbag to deploy. The other driver was uninjured.

After the vehicle rolled over on its roof, Phoenix, who was wearing his seatbelt was flung into the passenger side. He told the Times he felt "a bit confused."

Enter Herzog.

"I remember this knocking on the passenger window," Phoenix said. "There was this German voice saying, 'Just relax.' There's the air bag. 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."

An icon of German cinema, Herzog has been known for his sometimes reckless, hot-tempered and even dangerous approach to filmmaking--particularly in his ability to coax masterful performances from his onscreen foil, eccentric German acting legend Klaus Kinski. The two collaborated on such '70s classics as Aguirre, the Wrath of God, Woyzeck and Nosferatu.

In the Criterion documentary Burden of Dreams, chronicling the making of the epic Fitzcarraldo, Herzog is shown deftly handling the seemingly half-crazed Kinski and commanding his crew to haul a steamboat over a mountain at a 40-degree angle.

In 1980, the volatile director famously ate his shoe--no, we're not kidding--after losing a bet with a filmmaker Errol Morris. Herzog scarfed down the boiled footwear with a bit of garlic and Tabasco sauce as he held forth on art, literature and life, all captured in the documentary Werner Herzog Eats His Shoe.

The 63-year-old's latest production is his most acclaimed in years. The documentary Grizzly Man details the heartwrenching story of naturalist Timothy Treadwell who became famous--and controversial--for his up-close-and-personal encounters with bears in the wilds of Alaska before meeting an untimely end. The film earned Herzog the award for Best Documentary Director from the Directors Guild of America last weekend. (The film was deemed not eligible for the Oscars.)

Herzog could not be reached for comment, but a rep for Lions Gate, the studio that released Grizzly Man, confirmed the director had indeed helped Phoenix out of the wreckage. And the actor is grateful.

"I got out of the car and I said, 'Thank you,' " Phoenix recounted. "And he was gone."
"Don't think about making art, just get it done. Let everyone else decide if it's good or bad, whether they love it or hate it. While they are deciding, make even more art." - Andy Warhol


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