The 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]. O

The 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/