He's certainly a talented film-maker with a distinctive voice. But his "rogue adventurer" persona is something he has willingly cultivated, which has resulted

He's certainly a talented film-maker with a distinctive voice. But his "rogue adventurer" persona is something he has willingly cultivated, which has resulted in a cult-of-personality fanbase and fanboy critics. Which is unfair, because he does actually make some really original films. So it's the Kinski stories (which, agree, were not invented - but certainly were myth-making exaggerations) and the overly delicate "being a solider of cinema" line (talked about in Herzog on Herzog) that's in flagrante delicto in terms of this savvy personal brand building. Same goes for his "unromantic" view of the world. Yes, lovely, you're unsentimental about human nature and the indifference of the universe. But why do you have to impose yourself on the audio track and personally remind us? Do you realise you're just coming off a rung above the "dark guy" in high school, sitting in the cafeteria scribbling pentagrams into a moleskin? For me, his best films are the ones he remains unseen and unheard. As an aside, I think Joshua Oppenheimer's 'The Act of Killing' must have put the wind up Morris and Herzog when they first saw it (to be fair, they later signed on as executive producers). But that, by far, is the most innovative and original documentary for many years. Definitely check it out if you're a fan of Herzog.