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Herzog is easily one of the greatest filmmakers alive today. He was at the forefront of the German New Wave of the 1970s, and has continued to produce great fil
by atombender 3y ago
Herzog is easily one of the greatest filmmakers alive today. He was at the forefront of the German New Wave of the 1970s, and has continued to produce great films throughout the following decades.
Many of his best films are documentaries, but he frequently blurs the lines between fiction and nonfiction, such as by giving his documentary subjects scripted lines or by using non-actors in his movies; he calls his approach to art the pursuit of "ecstatic truths". Among the general public, his most well-known film is undoubtedly Grizzly Man, which is a very good film, but he has made many that are just as good. My favorite of his is Lessons of Darkness, which is a kind of audiovisual poem showing the destructiveness of humankind through images. The film opens with a quote from Blaise Pascal, which was in fact invented by Herzog himself [1].
Herzog is also a very, very good writer (and he somewhat paradoxically prefers, according to this interview, to be remembered as a writer rather than as a filmmaker). His non-fiction books Conquest of the Useless is great, and Of Walking on Ice is supposed to be wonderful. He just came out with his first novel, The Twilight World, as well as the autobiography mentioned in the article. For a taste, one chapter of the autobiography was published in The New Yorker [2] recently.
[1] https://www.bu.edu/arion/files/2010/03/Herzog.pdf https://www.bu.edu/arion/files/2010/03/Herzog.pdf
[2] https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2023/08/28/the-mysteries-of-pittsburgh https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2023/08/28/the-mysteries-...
- jesterson 3y agoIf I may ask, for someone who heard but never actually had pleasure to touch his masterpieces except Grizzly Man, what would be 3 films (or 5) you would recommend to start, or rather continue, with?
- atombender 3y agoThe aforementioned Lessons of Darkness is obligatory, but as I said, it is less a documentary than a kind of audiovisual poem. The footage is incredible [1]. Of his "straight" documentaries, Encounters at the End of the World is great. It's a film about the people who live at McMurdo Station in Antarctica. Like his other biographical documentaries, it mixes quirky people and humour with brutally realist view of the world, all to great photography and music. The Fire Within [3], his 2022 documentary on the popular volcanologists Katia and Maurice Krafft, is wonderful. It's a superior companion piece to his earlier films about volcanos (Herzog really likes volcanoes), Into the Inferno and La Soufriere. Of his fiction films, you can't avoid Aguirre, Wrath of God or Fitzcarraldo. But a personal favourite of mine among his 1970s films is Heart of Glass [4], a quirky and beautiful retelling of a Bavarian folk tale, set in the 1700s. [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pHfVnM_duRg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pHfVnM_duRg [2] https://letterboxd.com/film/encounters-at-the-end-of-the-world/ https://letterboxd.com/film/encounters-at-the-end-of-the-wor... [3] https://letterboxd.com/film/the-fire-within-requiem-for-katia-and-maurice-krafft/ https://letterboxd.com/film/the-fire-within-requiem-for-kati... [4] https://letterboxd.com/film/heart-of-glass/ https://letterboxd.com/film/heart-of-glass/
- jesterson 3y agothank you
- Geezus_42 3y agoAnd he was in The Mandalorian.
- civilitty 3y agoThat's all anyone really remembers. He also voiced characters on The Boondocks, Rick and Morty, Simpsons, American Dad, and Metalocalypse.
- anshumankmr 3y agoAnd also in the Jack Reacher movie, where I would say he was the best part
- copperx 3y agoHe's an incredible wordsmith.