Hills Like White Elephants

By Ernest Hemingway

The hills across the valley of the Ebro were long and white. On this siode there was no shade and no trees and the station was between two lines of rails in the sun. Close against the side of the station there was the warm shadow of the building and a curtain, made of strings of bamboo beads, hung across the open door into the bar, to keep out flies. The American and the girl with him sat at a table in the shade, outside the building. It was very hot and the express from Barcelona would come in forty minutes. It stopped at this junction for two minutes and went to Madrid. 'What should we drink?' the girl asked. She had taken off her hat and put it on the table.

'It's pretty hot,' the man said.

'Let's drink beer.'

'Dos cervezas,' the man said into the curtain.

'Big ones?' a woman asked from the doorway.

'Yes. Two big ones.'

The woman brought two glasses of beer and two felt pads. She put the felt pads and the beer glass on the table and looked at the man and the girl. The girl was looking off at the line of hills. They were white in the sun and the country was brown and dry.

'They look like white elephants,' she said.

'I've never seen one,' the man drank his beer.

'No, you wouldn't have.'

'I might have,' the man said. 'Just because you say I wouldn't have doesn't prove anything.'

The girl looked at the bead curtain. 'They've painted something on it,' she said. 'What does it say?'

'Anis del Toro. It's a drink.'

'Could we try it?'

The man called 'Listen' through the curtain. The woman came out from the bar.

'Four reales.' 'We want two Anis del Toro.'

'With water?'

'Do you want it with water?'

'I don't know,' the girl said. 'Is it good with water?'

'It's all right.'

'You want them with water?' asked the woman.

'Yes, with water.'

'It tastes like liquorice,' the girl said and put the glass down.

'That's the way with everything.'

'Yes,' said the girl. 'Everything tastes of liquorice. Especially all the things you've waited so long for, like absinthe.'

'Oh, cut it out.'

'You started it,' the girl said. 'I was being amused. I was having a fine time.'

'Well, let's try and have a fine time.'

'All right. I was trying. I said the mountains looked like white elephants. Wasn't that bright?'

'That was bright.'

'I wanted to try this new drink. That's all we do, isn't it - look at things and try new drinks?'

'I guess so.'

The girl looked across at the hills.

'They're lovely hills,' she said. 'They don't really look like white elephants. I just meant the colouring of their skin through the trees.'

'Should we have another drink?'

'All right.'

The warm wind blew the bead curtain against the table.

'The beer's nice and cool,' the man said.

'It's lovely,' the girl said.

'It's really an awfully simple operation, Jig,' the man said. 'It's not really an operation at all.'

The girl looked at the ground the table legs rested on.

'I know you wouldn't mind it, Jig. It's really not anything. It's just to let the air in.'

The girl did not say anything.

'I'll go with you and I'll stay with you all the time. They just let the air in and then it's all perfectly natural.'

'Then what will we do afterwards?'

'We'll be fine afterwards. Just like we were before.'

'What makes you think so?'

'That's the only thing that bothers us. It's the only thing that's made us unhappy.'

The girl looked at the bead curtain, put her hand out and took hold of two of the strings of beads.

'And you think then we'll be all right and be happy.'

'I know we will. Yon don't have to be afraid. I've known lots of people that have done it.'

'So have I,' said the girl. 'And afterwards they were all so happy.'

'Well,' the man said, 'if you don't want to you don't have to. I wouldn't have you do it if you didn't want to. But I know it's perfectly simple.'

'And you really want to?'

'I think it's the best thing to do. But I don't want you to do it if you don't really want to.'

'And if I do it you'll be happy and things will be like they were and you'll love me?'

'I love you now. You know I love you.'

'I know. But if I do it, then it will be nice again if I say things are like white elephants, and you'll like it?'

'I'll love it. I love it now but I just can't think about it. You know how I get when I worry.'

'If I do it you won't ever worry?'

'I won't worry about that because it's perfectly simple.'

'Then I'll do it. Because I don't care about me.'

'What do you mean?'

'I don't care about me.'

'Well, I care about you.'

'Oh, yes. But I don't care about me. And I'll do it and then everything will be fine.'

'I don't want you to do it if you feel that way.'

The girl stood up and walked to the end of the station. Across, on the other side, were fields of grain and trees along the banks of the Ebro. Far away, beyond the river, were mountains. The shadow of a cloud moved across the field of grain and she saw the river through the trees.

'And we could have all this,' she said. 'And we could have everything and every day we make it more impossible.'

'What did you say?'

'I said we could have everything.'

'No, we can't.'

'We can have the whole world.'

'No, we can't.'

'We can go everywhere.'

'No, we can't. It isn't ours any more.'

'It's ours.'

'No, it isn't. And once they take it away, you never get it back.'

'But they haven't taken it away.'

'We'll wait and see.'

'Come on back in the shade,' he said. 'You mustn't feel that way.'

'I don't feel any way,' the girl said. 'I just know things.'

'I don't want you to do anything that you don't want to do -'

'Nor that isn't good for me,' she said. 'I know. Could we have another beer?'

'All right. But you've got to realize - '

'I realize,' the girl said. 'Can't we maybe stop talking?'

They sat down at the table and the girl looked across at the hills on the dry side of the valley and the man looked at her and at the table.

'You've got to realize,' he said, ' that I don't want you to do it if you don't want to. I'm perfectly willing to go through with it if it means anything to you.'

'Doesn't it mean anything to you? We could get along.'

'Of course it does. But I don't want anybody but you. I don't want anyone else. And I know it's perfectly simple.'

'Yes, you know it's perfectly simple.'

'It's all right for you to say that, but I do know it.'

'Would you do something for me now?'

'I'd do anything for you.'

'Would you please please please please please please please stop talking?'

He did not say anything but looked at the bags against the wall of the station. There were labels on them from all the hotels where they had spent nights.

'But I don't want you to,' he said, 'I don't care anything about it.'

'I'll scream,' the girl siad.

The woman came out through the curtains with two glasses of beer and put them down on the damp felt pads. 'The train comes in five minutes,' she said.

'What did she say?' asked the girl.

'That the train is coming in five minutes.'

The girl smiled brightly at the woman, to thank her.

'I'd better take the bags over to the other side of the station,' the man said. She smiled at him.

'All right. Then come back and we'll finish the beer.'

He picked up the two heavy bags and carried them around the station to the other tracks. He looked up the tracks but could not see the train. Coming back, he walked through the bar-room, where people waiting for the train were drinking. He drank an Anis at the bar and looked at the people. They were all waiting reasonably for the train. He went out through the bead curtain. She was sitting at the table and smiled at him.

'Do you feel better?' he asked.

'I feel fine,' she said. 'There's nothing wrong with me. I feel fine.' Plastic Bag (film) From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Plastic Bag

2009 Directed by Ramin Bahrani

Produced by Adam Spielberg Ramin Bahrani Written by Starring Ramin Bahrani Werner Herzog

Running time 18 min. Country Language United States English

Plastic Bag (film) is a short film by award winning director Ramin Bahrani. The film features the voice of legendary filmmaker Werner Herzog and an original score from Kjartan Sveinsson of Sigur Rs. Plastic Bag premiered as the opening night film of Corto Cortissimo in the Venice Film Festival where director Ramin Bahrani was also on the jury for Best First Films. It later screened at Telluride and The New York Film Festival. The film is part of the Independent Television Service (ITVS) online series Futurestates and was produced by Noruz Films [1] and Gigantic Pictures.[2]Contents [hide] 1 Plot 2 Screenings 3 References 4 External links

[edit] Plot

In a not too distant future, a Plastic Bag (voice of Werner Herzog) goes on an epic journey in search of its lost Maker, wondering if there is any point to life without her. The Bag encounters strange creatures, brief love in the sky, a colony of prophetic torn bags on a fence and the unknown. To be with its own kind, the Bag goes deep under the oceans into 500 nautical miles

of spinning garbage known as the North Pacific Trash Vortex. Will our Plastic Bag be able to forget its Maker there? [edit] Screenings Corto Cortissimo, Venice Film Festival, 2009 Official Selection, New York Film Festival, 2009 Official Selection, Telluride Film Festival, 2009 Official Selection, South by Southwest Film Festival, 2010 [edit] References ^ Plastic Bag at Noruz Films, Inc. ^ Plastic Bag at Gigantic Pictures [edit] External links Plastic Bag at IMDB Plastic Bag Official Website Bahrani finds a new use for the Plastic Bag 66th Venice Film Festival Corto Cortissimo Ramin Bahrani's Plastic Bag opens Venice shorts section Short Film News Network Gigantic Pictures Independent Television Service (ITVS)

Categories: American films New features Log in / create account Article

Discussion Read Edit View history

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Disclaimers "Nothing could destroy me. I went to worlds I had never seen. What kind of giant monsters had lived here, and where were they now?" Truly brilliant in conception and execution. 500 billion plastic bags/year is one of the saddest and stupidest statistics of humankind. 3 days ago

"And if I do, I will tell her just one thing. I wish you had created me so I could die." Synopsis

This short film by American director Ramin Bahrani (Goodbye Solo) traces the epic, existential journey of a plastic bag (voiced by Werner Herzog) searching for its lost maker, the woman who took it home from the store and eventually discarded it. Along the way, it encounters strange creatures, experiences love in the sky, grieves the loss of its beloved maker, and tries to grasp its purpose in the world.

In the end, the wayward plastic bag wafts its way to the ocean, into the tides, and out into the Pacific Ocean trash vortex a promised nirvana where it will settle among its own kind and gradually let the memories of its maker slip away. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YDBtCb61Sd4 The first time I heard about the 18-minute short film "Plastic Bag" directed by Ramin Bahrani (Goodbye Solo, Chop Shop and Man Push Cart) featuring director Werner Herzog as the voice of a plastic bag was at the tail end of March when it was featured at the South-by-Southwest Film Festival as part of the Futurestates series of 11 fictional mini-features exploring possible future scenarios. Unsurprising, based on the talent involved, it's an impressive feature that touches upon an issue I'm not sure many people realize is becoming a major problem in our world.

"Plastic Bag" reminded me a lot of Alan Weisman's "The World Without Us" and how plastics, of all things, will be around forever and are choking our the Earth's ecosystem. Bahrani's short film explores such a scenario as the immortal life of a plastic bag is followed as it is discarded by its "maker" and left to wander aimlessly without an end in sight, exploring the impact it will have simply because it can't "die".

20th Century Fox actually acquired the rights to Weisman's nonfiction book and tapped I Am Legend duo, Mark Protosevich and Francis Lawrence to write and direct respectively. While I'm sure they were thinking of a much more cataclysmic-Roland Emmerich style feature I can't imagine it being any better than what Bahrani and Herzog have done here. Give it a watch directly below followed by a short making-of video.

You can check out more from the Futurestates series right here. thank him, the man who got shot during an interview but carried on because it was "not a significant bullet". Consider that it's the man who forced the extras on Fitzcarraldo to drag a real steamship over a mountain to aid the film's verisimilitude. Herzog has always manufactured his own myth his greatest creation may well be himself.

The legend will only spread with his latest acting role as the star of Ramin Bahrani's 18-minute film Plastic Bag, in which Herzog voices a plastic grocery bag struggling with its own immortality in post-apocalyptic America. It's even better than it sounds. "Destruction dezolation," agonises the undying bag in Herzog's tortured Teutonic tones, as it travels in search of love and the legendary north Pacific trash vortex.

"Herzog's voice," says Bahrani, "is undeniable." Herzog, like James Earl Jones before him, could read the phone book and bring down the house, something he has proved time and time again in the past, when his intonation and the script combine to perfection. One line never fails to make me laugh: his deadpan statement in his 1999 documentary about Kinski, My Best Fiend, delivered in dappled sunlight while surrounded by tweeting birds, that, in nature, he senses a profound harmony: "It is the harmony of overwhelming and collective murder."

Plastic Bag burnishes Herzog's legacy in another way: it's the latest in his peculiar but effective mentorships of younger directors. This vote of confidence for Bahrani is similar to the one he gave Harmony Korine, in whose film Julien Donkey-Boy Herzog happily agreed to play an abusive father given to glorious perversities such as drinking cough syrup from a slipper while calling out "Give me some Everest!" and spraying freezing water on his son with a hose, urging him to "Qvit that moody groovin'" and "Be a menn!" But nothing compares to the lengths he went for a young Errol Morris. He declared that if Morris ever finished his documentary about pet cemeteries, Herzog would eat his shoe. In 1978, Morris released Gates of Heaven. In 1980, Herzog released Werner Herzog Eats His Shoe.

Herzog isn't the only one to see big things in Bahrani. The young director has been handed a pretty hefty promotional lance after being knighted by Roger Ebert as the "new great American

director". Ebert brought Bahrani and Herzog together. "That meant a lot to [Herzog]," Bahrani says. "I think it made him think it could be OK to do. I sent him the film, and he liked it. I remember very specifically, he said: 'I'm so glad this is not an agenda movie or I would run like mad and get away from here.' I mean, we can talk about sustainability issues, about plastic, about the Earth, but the movie's about something else, something more it's about a journey."

Plastic Bag is certainly the most affecting of the 11 films grouped together as Futurestates, a free online project by the Independent Television Service. Bahrani originally planned to cast Alejandro Polanco, the wiry star of his 2007 film Chop Shop. Then his cinematographer suggested Herzog. "The film has an ironic humour that obviously he's a master of," Bahrani says. "I liked his age, too. There's just something about a plastic bag's eternal life that is really emphasised by the weight of the voice of Werner Herzog."

THE BEST MOVIE ABOUT A PLASTIC BAG EVER (Video)

April 2, 2010 By: Tim Reeves

Director, actor and official living legend, Werner Herzog, has lent his soothing tones to a new short film, narrating the thoughts and feelings of a nomadic plastic bag. Directed by Ramin Bahrani, Plastic Bag is a wonderful 18-minute journey following the adventures of the bag, from being cruelly discarded by the woman it loves to having a brief, airborne affair with another bag, then moving on in search of its Maker. Along the way, the bag encounters many 'monsters' and ponders its own indestructibility and existence, eventually ending up in the very real (and very troubling) Pacific Trash Vortex - 500 nautical miles of rotating plastic debris. Shot by the hugelytalented Michael Simmonds (who worked on Bahrani's award winning features Man Push Cart and Chop Shop) with an original score by Sigur Ros's Kjartan Sveinsson, the film is an absolute delight; the ecological message is subtly handled and the bag's longing for its lost love is touching and believable. Add to all of this the fact you get to listen to Herzog's weird, velvety voice for eighteen minutes and you've got the perfect reason to stop what you're doing, sit back and watch this thought-provoking cinematic treat. While you're at it, check out another acting bag in the famous scene from American Beauty, and consider just what it is about our refuse that filmmakers find so poetic and mysterious. Plastic Bag written by Jason Sondhi on April 12, 2010

O stensibly, Plastic Bag is an environmental film. That might raise a red flag for some, for whom the preachiness of message documentaries screams BORING. But despite the socially conscious message lurking within the film it is resolutely narrative, and, within that category, dramatic and deft too, in its dramatization of the life cycle of a disposable commodity.

The film follows a wayward plastic grocery bag: sentient and voiced by Werner Herzog to amazing effect, as it searches for meaning to its existence. It is a heavy subjectexistential angstand in the form of a plastic bags personification, definitely absurd. However for the most part the film takes itself and its concept seriously, albeit with occasional breaks for wry humor. The result is a film that is a success as education and entertainment; one that musters a startling amount of pathos from its subject and a surprising amount of empathy from its audience.

Ramin Bahrani, has developed quite a reputation on the basis of his three feature films: Chop Shop, Goodbye Solo and Man Push Cart, which all turn a humanistic eye to the American immigrant experience. This attitude coupled with his frequent use of non-actors, has lead some to classify him as something of a neo-neorealist. Thus on first blush it is strange to see him tackle a high-concept work such as this. However the same skills that prove successful in his features buoy Plastic Bag: a broad and sympathetic understanding of interior worlds, and a photographers eye for natural beauty in the exterior world.

The script that Herzog works with, and his interaction with it are a triumph. The charming foreignness of his Germanic handling of English is endearing, and establishes the Plastic Bag as sympathetic in its naivete. It is the same trope of the good-natured but confused traveler which allows films like Coming to America or Borat to succeed. It also allows for subtle and wry humor to break up the oppressing sadness of the piece. The bags recurring use of monsters to address non-human creatures is reliably funny. It additionally mines powerful archetypes of quests and journeys. His long attempts to find home slowly morph into a goal of discovering the vortex. Language is key here and serves as a testament to the script. The plastic bag prophets, preaching of the vortex, are powerful myth-making elements.

This outsider approach, while investing us in an all-too-human story, subtly reinforces the ecological undercurrents of the film. Via a process of estrangement, Plastic Bag allows us to see, through the plastic bags experience, our own world via new eyes. A world, eventually, without humans at all.

This investment in an inanimate materials subjectivity can be accused of bordering on manipulative. However is it any different than Wall-E, another film with a similar environmentalist message? Perhaps the difference is the mediumthe animation of Wall-E necessarily puts us at an additional remove, pushing us closer into the more comfortable embrace of fantasy. Bahranis cinematography however revels in the real, via picturesque landscapes of skyscrapers and plains, and closeups of fishes and beaches. Either way the imagery is quite lovely, serving up a engaging mix of artfully composed long shots and closeups with dreamysoft shallow DOF.

The beauty of the images buttress the interior journey of the bag, reflecting its mental state in nature. Yet like the script itself, these images serve the dual purpose of engaging the ecological message through its simple and dramatic representation of our world. An elegy for what is ours, and, in the story, what it is we will eventually lose.

The best entry of Future States, a whole series of films commissioned by ITVS, Plastic Bag is a confident and polished piece of art that successfully navigates these two simultaneous threads: the interior and the exterior, humanity and nature, the particular and the environmental. It accomplishes both these angles with aplomb in a quite moving whole. I very much like this film and hope you take the time to enjoy it as well.

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Home | News | Commentary | Sports | Business | Entertainment | Classifieds | Columnists | Lifestyles | Ebert | Search | Archives | Blogs | RSS Roger Ebert's Journal The ecstasy of the filmmaker Herzog By Roger Ebert on April 5, 2010 11:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (121)

I saw "Aguirre, the Wrath of God" for the first time in a defrocked Lutheran Church in the Lincoln Park neighborhood, which Milos Stehlik had taken over for his newly-born Facets Multimedia. "It is a film you must see," he told me. "Bring a pillow. The pews can get hard."

I saw a great film, one of the greatest ever made. An essential film. In 1999, I made it one of the first titles in my Great Movies Collection. Now I wonder if I really saw it at all.

Werner Herzog is in Boulder this week, to join another great director, Ramin Bahrani, in viewing "Aguirre" a shot at a time. It is a lifetime experience for a film lover. We're at the 62nd annual Conference on World Affairs. Maybe 1,000 people crowded into Macky Auditorium, where Bahrani and Herzog sat side by side in the dark, Jim Emerson froze the DVD frames when required, people shouted out questions, and Herzog spoke about the making of the film.

This program was born in 2009. Last year, Bahrani joined us for a "Cinema Interruptus" of his "Chop Shop." He spoke of film with such respect and love. He is a meticulous director; not a frame is filmed with inattention. He mentioned how much he would love to meet Herzog. An idea was born. This year Ramin and I invited Herzog to join us. Herzog came, and was mesmerizing. I could listen to him all night. His imagination is not beaten dead by popular culture. He seeks new visions--literally, at the poles, in the deserts, in the sea, on mountaintops, and in the human

mind. Here he was discussing his experiences in filming the first 17 minutes of "Aguirre," for that's as far as we got on the first day of the week.

The film opens with a shot of perhaps 200 Spanish Conquistadores and Indian slaves, making their way down a narrow path with a 2,000 meter drop on either side. They drag cannon and supplies. It is muddy and slippery. Only half a dozen were professional actors. The others were native Indians or hippies and street people recruited in the nearest small city. He sent them up the path in the reverse order that he wanted them to descend. Were they happy to wait up there? The path was too narrow for two to pass. If he held up the line at the bottom, they had no choice.

They descend at first in a very long shot, indistinct in the mist, dwarfed by the Peruvian rain forest. Then, in the same unbroken shot, the camera adjusting, we see them appear in foreground, moving from left to right, Right, the positive direction, because they believe they are approaching El Dorado. Not professional faces. Weathered, tired, lived-in faces. The Indians wear the clothes they were wearing when they arrived at the shoot.

Herzog had only one take. He would never be able to persuade his actors to climb again for a second one. As we watched them descend, he froze the DVD frame to discuss several of the actors. A fat man who ate all the mangos. A close friend, semi-literate, who had bicycled 35,000 km around North America and later became a great photographer. Above all, his star Klaus Kinski, about whom some years later he made a film: "My Best Fiend."

Kinski, in constant rage. Describing himself as a "natural man" who could live in the forest like an animal. Then complaining that his tent leaked. Then complaining that the thatch shelter built over the tent leaked. Then moving at great inconvenience to the production into a shabby hotel where he beat his wife nightly, the crew discreetly removing the blood stains.

"A coward," Herzog says.

"Is it true," a voice from the dark asks, "that the Indians asked your permission to murder him?"

"No. That was on 'Fitzcarraldo'."

Bahrani freezes a frame showing a small covered carrier like a tent, borne through the jungle on poles by bearers. It contains one of the women in the party. This detail, and most of the film, has no real basis in fact. Everything comes from Herzog's imagination.

"Is that your hand?" Bahrani asks. We see a bare hand shoot out to steady the carrier, and then disappear.

"Yes, that is my appearance in the film, "Herzog says. "I was afraid they would lose their footing."

"When I show this film to my students at Columbia," Bahrani says, "I always tell them, I'll bet that's Herzog's hand."

The party arrives at the Urubamba River, with its famous rapids. It is January 2, 1971--flood season. They construct rafts so that an advance party, led by Aguirre, can go on ahead. They can only film the river scenes once, because the jungle makes it impossible to walk back along its banks. One of the rafts is deliberately steered into an eddy. This was very dangerous,

Herzog says; they had men above them on a cliff with ropes to lower if the raft capsized. Only the toughest of the actors were on this raft, "with a very substantial increase in pay."

A quarter-mile upstream from this shot, Herzog says, he returned only a year ago to the Urubamba to shoot a scene for his latest film, "My Son, My Son, What Have Ye Done." Nobody asked him why, and indeed it is hard to pinpoint a reason why footage from a Peruvian rapids was required for a crime drama set in San Diego. Somehow, with Herzog, you don't ask such a question.

There were other problems. Herzog grabbed a tree that was a highway for fire ants, then hit the tree with his machete and dislodged hundreds more that fell upon him. A thieving transportation company bribed customs officials to stamp its documents, and then dumped the cans of negative in a field, where Herzog's brother later discovered and rescued them. Herzog shot the second half of the film not knowing if he had the negative of the first half.

He said he doesn't give a great deal of thought to composition. "I focus entirely on the subject of the shot." One shot shows the fat man straddling a cannon and eating a mango. A voice asks, "Is that a phallic symbol?" Herzog replies" "It honestly never occurred to me until you pointed it out. I wanted to have a shot showing the man who consumed all our mangos."

There is audience discussion of the "painterly composition" of a shot of a camp the Spanish party makes in a clearing.

"I am a filmmaker, not a painter," Herzog says. "I have a gift for arranging men and horses. It comes easy for me."

It is 6 p.m., and we have been through only 17 minutes of the film. Herzog can spare only one more day away from his current film. Then Bahrani will take over, and after him, Jim Emerson and the actress Julia Sweeney. Many of those in the audience are old hands at this process. They are amazingly well-informed.

Herzog must return to work. He has been granted three hours to film inside the Cave of Chauvet-Pont-d'Arc in Southern France, where the wall paintings have been dated to 32,000 years ago. There is no documentarian better suited than Herzog to make this film of a sacred place unseen for centuries. He will bring to it awe and poetry.

I said earlier I wondered if I had ever truly seen "Aguirre, the Wrath of God." I've seen it many times, and analyzed it a shot at a time. But I realize that to some degree I saw it through eyes conditioned by commercial movies.

Herzog has spoken of the Voodoo of Location. By that I think he means the ways in which an actual location, where actual events take place, carries a psychic, or emotional, or sensory, charge to the screen. There are no special effects at all in "Aguirre." What you see is what was actually there. Many of the shots were done in one take. Some two. Only a few dialogue passages in three or four. In some cases, the events shown could only take place one time.

The film documents a daring and inspirational enterprise, and a reckless one. It shows Europeans invading a new land, tragically unsuited to survive in it, and ruinous to the existing culture. They searched for gold--which, in some way, explains all colonialism. But Herzog said, "I give no thought to symbols or messages." He also has only contempt for story arc, "the Hollywood hero going through a pleasing series of events." Nor does he care about time, and is willing to let a shot extend beyond its conventional length if the duration creates a feeling within us.

It is all the experience itself, the immediate experience. During some of the scenes on the river rafts, he said, "we were all joined together--actors and crew members--and we knew we could only do this one time." What they did put their lives at risk, although no one died. They did it for

many reasons. Then it was done. Now we see the film. The film, and also the record of the creation of a vision.

My blog entry about Ramin Bahrani, the new great American director.

My blog entry The Leisure of the Theory Class, on the Conference on World Affairs.

In the first two videos below, Herzog describes his current project involving the Cave of Chauvet-Pont-d'Arc. You can see what a spellbinding storyteller he is. I also include Bahrani's short film "Plastic Bag," with narration by Herzog.

Categories: Specific films 121 Comments By Jesse M on April 6, 2010 2:29 PM

Incredible film, and it must have been an incredible experience to hear Herzog talk about it.

Herzog is a constant reminder of what a self-sufficient, motivated individual can accomplish with a camera. In Hollywood today, everything seems so calculated, so scripted and collaborated and constructed, that it's hard for aspiring filmmakers (like so many of us are, I suspect) to keep from paralyzing themselves with planning, scripting, re-shooting, and second-guessing. Herzog needs to remain a respected cultural fixture, so we can find inspiration in his spontaneous, passionate approach to his art. By Lynne on April 6, 2010 2:35 PM

OMG! What an amazing thing this must have been. I would have been in heaven. Love the videos and was so struck by what a gentle man Herzog seems to be. Loved how he insisted that the camera be turned show you. Love that Bahrani calls himself a "water-boy." I had a lovely conversation with him at Ebertfest last year - another nice man. It's so great to get to meet these directors. This video footage was a sort of meeting.

Thanks so much Roger! Thanks so much for sharing these wondrous experiences with us. By Eric Isaacson on April 6, 2010 2:39 PM

Oh, the envy, and the nostalgia. Gone are the days when I had the resources to be able to hop in my car and drive out there for a week. What an unbelievable added bonus, to have the likes of Bahrani and Herzog there with you on the frame-by-frame analysis! I was hoping that the Macky Webcast would extend into the Interruptus, but, alas, as I suspected, it was too much to hope for. By Rob on April 6, 2010 2:40 PM

Saying that it was a great experience to see Herzog at Cinema Interruptus would be an understatement. What an amazing, once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Thanks for helping to put this together, Roger! By Edith Nelson on April 6, 2010 2:46 PM

When I go to explain the phenomenon that is Werner Herzog--because he is doubtless more than a mere man--I go with Aguirre and Fitzcarraldo, but to really sum it up, I must include that Werner Herzog, of all directors, found a suicidal penguin during his sojourn in Antarctica. I was not surprised when Man on Wire, another film about a crazy man, won the Oscar, but I felt that Herzog's film summed up the filmmaker as few other films could possibly do.

Indeed, few filmmakers have ever intrigued me as much personally as Herzog. I must thank you again for introducing me to him, though I would have gotten to some of his films eventually. I describe the final sequence of Aguirre to friends occasionally, because I think it one of the most potent images ever committed to film. It also delights me that, when explaining Grizzly Man, all it has ever taken to get people to know what I'm talking about is the title, followed by "It's that one . . . about that guy . . . ." Only Herzog could have done that right. By Brian F. on April 6, 2010 2:48 PM

Amazing man and amazing film.

I've actually begun to notice that Rescue Dawn is heading toward being considered overlooked. I'm surprised how many people have never seen it and it is an underrated classic from Herzog.

It's a story so amazing, he had to make two movies about it. By Nathanael Hood on April 6, 2010 3:02 PM

Herzog may be the closest thing to a saint that the cinema has. His films are not just great, they are sacred. They inspire the fear of God in the hearts of lesser men and viewers. They invoke a sense of awe matched only by the sight of the Sistine Chapel's ceiling or the sound of Handel's Messiah. They shake the viewers to the bone until their very core has been violated.

Herzog doesn't direct films, he creates miracles. By Dan Brown on April 6, 2010 3:10 PM

I really need to see this movie... I love Werner Herzog. He's such an inspiration. By Matthew V on April 6, 2010 3:15 PM

You're a lucky man, Roger. I once heard Herzog speak and answer questions during the Toronto Hot Docs festival. Like you, I could listen to him spin tales and philosophize all day long.

Will you return tomorrow with a "Day Two with Herzog" posting? Please? By Pavel Richardson on April 6, 2010 3:21 PM

Werner Herzog is one of those filmmakers like Quentin Tarantino, where whatever he says, whatever he says, you listen.

I was curious if you would recommend Cobra Verde or Woyzeck? You have not reviewed them I think. But I am interested in whether or not you find them important viewing. By NHBill on April 6, 2010 3:22 PM

Dear Roger;

How have I managed to miss this film? I will see it as soon a possible. Thanks to you I have enjoyed Herzog's recent films very much. I guess I have some catching up to do.

There was a time when PBS showed classic films with Charles Champlin hosting. I saw "Jules and Jim" that way. I wish they would bring that back.

ECM By Greg on April 6, 2010 4:21 PM

Roger, you are in Boulder?! I live in Longmont! Let me by you and Chaz lunch, or dinner, or something. Will you be running any events while you are here?

BTW this movie sounds amazing. I've always wanted to see it but suspect I need to do so when I'll have a few days to recover before I have to rejoin the real world ..... By Bryan Brentsmith on April 6, 2010 4:35 PM

http://www.cosmoetica.com/B393-DES331.htm

Such synchronicity, Roger. Just yesterday I watched the film after reading the review of it (above) on the website you recommended some months ago.

Great film and great review. Keep standing up for quality! Vive Ebert! By Stephen on April 6, 2010 5:04 PM

PLASTIC BAG seems to me an exceptional short film, and, in some ways, a surprising one for Bahrani. I was surprised and delighted by the multivalence of its communication: the fairy-tale navet that lives so close to the philosophical rumination; the gentle humor riding just above the piercing commentary. Although none of these particular elements (simple mythic structure, humane comedy, social critique) are foreign to Bahrani's previous work, to see them mixed together in the forms they are here reveals a different side of him as an artist. Certainly I would say that - superficially, at least - his three features (MAN PUSH CART, CHOP SHOP, and GOODBYE, SOLO) are all more similar to one another than any of them are to this short. That goes for the camerawork and editing, as well. PLASTIC BAG shows all the marks of Bahrani's personal style and taste, and yet the music of it is somehow freer, lighter, and more sentimental. I use these adjectives with no sense of judgment in comparison to his other work (which I love very much), but I do think it is nice to see him playing a little differently.

Of course, I'm not going to pitch this short to all my friends as a new Bahrani, but as "this crazy movie that's, like, an existential fairy-tale about a plastic bag whose inner-monologue is voiced by Werner Herzog." Sold! By Roman Rangel on April 6, 2010 5:32 PM

Hi Roger

I discovered Aguirre a few months ago while I was passing through a video store and noticed they had Herzog's movies for about 5 dollars each (btw, I live in a small city in Mexico); of course, I didn't hesitate to buy it on the spot. While I was watching it however I was disheartned to notice that the movie was dubbed into english and that the movie wasn't widescreen (Fitzcarraldo is the same way). Since this DVD is a lousy region 4 transfer, I wanted to ask if the region 1 DVD contains the original german audio track and if its in widescreen. I want to enjoy this fantastic gem as the director intended. Thank you.

Ebert: Oddly enough, Herzog says the movie was shot largely in English, then dubbed into German, but the German soundtrack is "more culturally authentic" (even though the characters are Spanish). He recommended German with English (or other) subtitles. And BTW, that isn't Kinski's real voice you hear. The movie was shot in the jungle with an 8-man crew and a small budget, and much had to be done in post. By Adam Breckenridge on April 6, 2010 5:59 PM

How timely too that this entry was posted on April 6th, otherwise known as Bad Lieutenant comes out on DVD day. I went to go see that one with a friend who had never seen a Herzog film before and became an instant convert. Said friend is also a hardcore James Elroy fan and is certain (and with good reason) that Herzog would be the perfect man to direct an adaptation of one of his books (and Mr. Herzog, if you're reading this, perhaps you'll consider it?). I know I'll be off to grab my copy of Bad Lieutenant today and I have a lot of other friends who have never seen a Herzog film before. By Karen on April 6, 2010 6:19 PM

Check it out: Tarantino vs Coen Brothers: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2_tg8fMcpTc

Ebert: That is one great video. By Saad El-Asha on April 6, 2010 6:20 PM

There's a tinge of offensive audacity in his movies ( Herzog ); a clamourous cry shouts much louder than that of Von Trier or Lynch, and there's an amazing line in your review on Bad Lieutenant where you write :

"Sometimes on the road to hell, you can't help but laugh". I think that tells a lot about his world, and that he's so difficult to analyze; I can't tell if he's pessimist or absurdist, a humanist or provocateur, or perhaps all of those. However, if you, Roger Ebert, were asked as a film critic to choose one word..... you like or rather love Herzog's films because they're .....?

Ebert: His. By Don Tingle on April 6, 2010 6:27 PM

What an opportunity. I finally saw Aguirre after seeing Stroszek at the 2007 "overlooked" and had an opportunity to speak briefly to Mr. Herzog during that festival. Amazing to think of it being released in the 70s and yet it seemed new, raw, as if made only recently. This article makes me want to see it again. By entrip on April 6, 2010 6:27 PM

Dear Roger, It is a revelation to watch the footage on Herzog talking about his new film! Can't wait to see it. Thank you for sharing the moment with the rest of us. And the short film by Bahrani with Herzog's narration! I was spellbound. I do not want to sound grandiose, but as I was watching it, this little film managed to stir profound questions about life and its meaning. I was particularly jolted by the last spoken words in this film, "I wish that you had created me so that I could die." I think, at that moment, I had a lucid vision of the terror of immortality. And all this, through an autobiography of a plastic bag! Didn't American Beauty have a closing shot of a drifting plastic bag? It seemed quite evocative in the context of that film. But this is only possible from the collective brilliance of Herzog and Bahrani. Who can dispute your hailing them as the greatest film makers of our time? Now, I have to go watch Aguirre, again - and thank you for that! By Matthew Walther on April 6, 2010 6:39 PM

Dear Mr. Ebert:

Above all, his star Klaus Kinski, who some years later he made a film about: "My Best Fiend."

I'm not a grammarian, but I think you mean:

Above all, his star Klaus Kinski, whom some years later he made a film about: "My Best Fiend."

Ebert: You can't get away with claiming you're not a grammarian. I've read your most excellent blog, with which I fell in sympathy. I am still waiting, however, for the second part of your selection of the best English prose stylists. By Jeff S on April 6, 2010 7:32 PM

Great entry Roger. Tomorrow (hopefuly) Netflix will have sent Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans to my mailbox!

But the reason I was moved to write a comment was to say that Bahranji's "Plastic Bag" (embedded above) is ****ing brilliant. Herzog's narration is priceless. By Mikki Saturn on April 6, 2010 8:13 PM

The first Werner Herzog film I ever saw was Nosferatu, which I rented when I was little because I liked vampire movies. I didn't know and didn't care who had directed it, but the movie made a lasting impression on me. But now I'm a big Werner Herzog fan and I certainly agree with the commentators on here saying he is an inspirational figure. In one of your interviews with him he says something very remarkable. You ask him why he used a real boat in Fitzcarraldo and he says (paraphrasing) that the audience will sense the reality of the scene and that this realization will give them courage for their dreams. At the time that I first read that quote I had only seen a couple of his films, but at that moment I knew I would need to see all the rest. He is an amazing artist. By Greg B. on April 6, 2010 8:41 PM

Given your recent scuffle with Andrew Breitbart, I wonder if you read Leo Grin's 4-part article on GRIZZLY MAN, which was recently posted on Breitbart's Big Hollywood site:

http://bighollywood.breitbart.com/?s=grizzly+man

Ebert: I wondered why he sent me a tweet asking if I agreed the film was "typical leftyprogressive," etc. By Daniel Jackson on April 6, 2010 8:48 PM

Thank you Roger for making this happen. It was awesome. (And anyone else who helped make this happen.) Herzog is my church. It was awe inspiring to see him in person. And Chop Shop is one of my favorite movies of the past ten years.

(And nice plug for my friend's band (Little Fyodor) hee hee.) By Neal Buckley on April 6, 2010 8:50 PM

Herzog and Bahrani seem like a couple of cool-ass dudes, in addition to being filmmaking geniuses.

It is difficult for me to choose between "The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser" and "Aguirre, the Wrath of God" when it boils down to my favorite Herzog creation.

How come "Even Dwarfs Started Small" does not get more recognition? That was probably the "most fun" watch I have had out of all his films.

Needless to say, Herzog is so vital in terms of new images and orginality; without him, today's cinema would be less alive and thought-provoking.

Thanks for sharing, Mr. Ebert. By Karl Leschinsky on April 6, 2010 8:54 PM

Here is great material for a course that film schools should be moved to teach. That is, if those programs were inspired by film itself more than ideologies...

One of the only truly useful and brilliant film theories ever invented: the "voodoo of location", daring to actually go to a jungle world that's alien to you, filming right there (the crew risking their life if necessary), instead of mapping it out with phony CGI. Here's a film 40 years old now and it's more revolutionary than the latest "landmarks" in theaters now.

Our understanding of spectacle has gone backwards, we go for fool's gold now, not the real thing. We have less in common with the audiences who watched cinema in its pioneering stage, jumping at the a train driving at the screen... Herzog is more interested in what's been captured in the frame. His filmmaking is not only a matter of wrestling the beast, as Coppola did on "Apocalypse Now", it also hypnotizing the beast, getting it to do tricks for you. His "gift for arranging men and horses" is a humble way of viewing a miracle.

3D for him is "like fireworks", you see them pop, your ADD is temporarily amused, then you forget all about it the next day. Whereas Herzog's work, no matter how death-defyingly unbelievable, is all the more haunting because it is the record of an amazingly journey, not only a cheap imitation. He actually did risk it all to bring back his reward, the image, which thus far still survives. By Guillermo Lande on April 6, 2010 8:56 PM

Hi, Roger.

For a very, very long time now Werner Herzog has been one of my favorite human beings. I've never met him, and yet every time something from him crosses my path, a little more magic enters my life.

Listening to the movie clips and comments above what you said about Herzog's belief in the voodoo of the location I understand now a little more why I like Herzog. He's sort of like an Aikido master. **explains**

There's an offshoot of an old Japanese martial art called Aikido (the way of harmony). The idea of it is that you always use your opponent's energy to help you rather than trying to fight against the energy or break them. The concept of Aikido is that your opponent picks your attack, and you go with it, not harming your opponent but controlling it with its own energy. When people first begin learning it, they often get paralyzed trying to think of what to do, how a move works or to remember what they were told.

"Don't think. Do." is what the teachers have to drum in repeatedly until people stop thinking about what they should do and just start flowing.

Herzog seems to say he doesn't think about what he's doing, but that's obviously not really true. What's happening is he's already in tune, and his "not thinking" is more harmonious than the most consciously intellectual director could possibly be.

It's not the site that has the voodoo. It's Herzog. He's got the magic, and his harmony works wherever he goes. By Jeffry G on April 6, 2010 9:28 PM

I was fortunate enough to be present for both evenings (so far!) at the Macky Auditorium. What a wonderful event. Hearing Herzog speak just emphasizes more emphatically the beautiful confidence of his work as a director.

When audience members would ask about the use of symbolism in his film, I would cringe slightly. His work has no need to symbolize anything else. It can stand on its own. I wish I could convey how gently he dealt with people. The last question tonight - the last question that will be asked of Werner Herzog at this great event, was a clunker. An audience member "calling Herzog out" about a perceived technical faus pas in the film. People groaned, disappointed that a valuable moment of time was lost. However, Herzog used the question to illuminate the art of story telling and, as an audience, our necessity to just go along with it. We must participate. Probably one of the most eloquent comments I've heard about film and the wonder of cinema. Beautiful!

Thank you, Mr. Ebert - it was a great event. By Andrea M on April 6, 2010 9:41 PM

It was really fun to see this years Interruptus, though I don't think I'm going to be able to make it in again this week. I've been attending the Conference for seven years straight now, occasionally catching assorted screenings and Interruptus sessions. Even though I'm not very much of a film nerd and don't know very much about all the nuts and bolts of movies, it was still fascinating to hear the little anecdotes about nightly wife beating and passing the camera from

raft to raft to get different shots. Besides I'm not sure there's a person on earth who can't at least be amazed by that opening shot of several dozen people going single-file down that steep, slippery mountain. I wish I could attend more this week, but I look forward to next spring and feeling extra extra extra majorly nerdy for making it eight years in a row. See ya! By Guy J Jackson on April 6, 2010 9:59 PM

A lovely entry; funny timing for me. 'Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans' just squeaked by 'A Single Man' for the number one slot on my ultra-nerdily hatched Top Ten Films of 2009 list I just scribbled, unprovoked, three months late, on the back of a used envelope. By James S. on April 6, 2010 10:45 PM

The only time I saw Aguirre, a few years back, I was baffled. At the end, I thought what the f*** was THAT all about? But the movie stuck in my brain, and I've often thought I should see it again; after this post, I will. By Paul J. Marasa on April 6, 2010 11:27 PM

Others have already commented on the magic of Herzog, his suicidal penguin, his urge to build that lever big enough to move the world. It's his voice that mesmerizes, both soothing and sly, warm and ironic. Imagine the prehistoric Herzog, no cameras for thousands of years--but he's comfortable by the fire, spinning tales, ecstatic truths rising like sparks. And we would've invented the wheel much earlier, if only because Herzog needed to trek somewhere.

My favorite image of him: the sole survivor of the "incident at Loch Ness," lumbering along in the water, the wetsuit encasing his stone-pillar frame, a mythical creature narrating his own accidental heroism.

Can one write about him without falling into prose poems? By Ehron on April 6, 2010 11:35 PM

Roger,

Thank you for putting this program together. I was present for the past two days and it has been truly outstanding. I had the opportunity to ask Werner the question today about how being a documentarian has either helped or hindered his fiction works and vice versa -- and his response was so very beautifully passionate and inspiring.

I had wanted to shake your hand, but I missed you on my way out. I am a filmmaker, film lover and outspoken film critic (just amongst friends, acquaintances and the occasional blog feature) who grew up watching and reading your insightful thoughts on film -- thumbs up or thumbs down, your love of cinema has always been evident. It was wonderful to see you the last few days. You are quite an extraordinary person.

Thank you sincerely. By Pablo Kjolseth on April 6, 2010 11:56 PM

Hi, Roger -

Thanks for everything you have done; and this blog post simply adds to it all. As the International Film Series programmer here in Boulder, I'm responsible for the uninterrupted AGUIRRE show on Sunday before the Cinema Interruptus going on this week. I wanted to add some notes of clarification for those who attended our 35mm screening.

I did my best to procure a 35mm German print with English subtitles from the newly reconstituted NYer films, and this seemed do-able when I first pursued this over a month ago. But a week before showtime it got sketchy, and NYer urged me to contact Herzog's European office directly. Which I did. Again, I asked for a German print with English subtitles and the answer was: in 35mm, they only had unsubtitled German and English prints.

Herzog's office suggested I choose either a digital format or a 16mm print. That was not an option for me; such a luscious film had to be seen on 35mm and on the big screen. So, opting to make lemonade from such lemons, I cheerfully announced to various crowds a week before our screening that we were getting the only 35mm English print (true, according to Herzog's office), and that this was a bonus because... 1) that's the original way it'd been shot (albeit with lots of dubbing still at play, but still...) And, 2) this allowed crowds to actually hear Kinski's voice - which had been otherwise lost to the many people (myself included) who had primarily seen it in a

German version. We also (and happily) shouldered the $700 screening so as to make it free to the public.

I've seen the film over a dozen times and continue to love it more with each screening, regardless of the English or German. What a treat to have Herzog back out here in Boulder! Thank you for making it happen.

All best wishes, pk

Ebert: You were heroic and should have been recognized. I am e-mailing this to Ramin, and I hope he thanks you. By Shane on April 7, 2010 12:21 AM

Dear Roger,

I keep saying this so often I feel like some of your more bonkers commenters crowing about creationism. But I'll say it again: any guy that has a site like yours, attracting the "best comments in the blogosphere" or something, ought to be able to start a page devoted to a worldwide shot by shot discussion. I've always thought "2001" would be a good place to begin. Here. I'll start the ball rolling:

2001, shot by shot

00:00:01 the MGM logo.

Comments?

Kubrick had a nice relationship with MGM. They pretty much sat around waiting for him to say he was ready and then they just greenlit his movie.

By Sean Kelley on April 7, 2010 12:28 AM

It's really great to see two people who make movies that are not only genuine artists, but apparently nice people as well (although I've heard Herzog could be a wee bit demanding back in the day). And not only that, they're both people who share their craft with others, Bahrani teaching at Columbia and Herzog at his rogue film school, presumedly on a remote mountain chain in New Guinea. It was really great to see the two of them together (it must've been awesome in person).

And "Plastic Bag" was beautiful. It seemed like a bit of a departure for Bahrani at first, but looking back I see that it shared many similar qualities to his feature films: the quiet humor, an almost otherworldly-like perspective, his eye for composition - which never calls attention to itself, but is almost always aesthetically pleasing. And Herzog was a great narrator; his slight accent and wry delivery captured the bag's journey perfectly. I really hope this ends up on DVD; I'd love to have it in my collection. By Carl S. on April 7, 2010 12:30 AM

"There are no special effects at all in "Aguirre." What you see is what was actually there."

It's been several years since I last saw this movie (a situation I must remedy forthwith) but I seem to remember an on-screen decapitation. Please put my mind at rest and tell me this was a special effect.

Ebert: Admittedly, no one was shot , drowned, or shot with an arrow, either. Maybe I meant CGI. By Brian McG on April 7, 2010 12:37 AM

Since learning of this blog, I have come here again and again for the writing. I have not seen "Aguirre", though I've meant to, and this post makes me want to watch it more than ever before.

But the takeaway? "Defrocked church". That's an image and an idea and a metaphor I will unabashedly steal. By Sean Elliott on April 7, 2010 12:40 AM

Roger, I couldn't thank you more for introducing me to "Aguire" when I read it in your Great Movies series a few years back. In my nerdy Top 100 essential movie list, I rank it at #12 of all time, behind "Raging Bull" and right above "Chinatown." It's endlessly fascinating, as you correctly suggested, a Herzog movie that you could see once a year for the rest of your life. By Michael H on April 7, 2010 1:29 AM

Aguirre was the first foreign language film I saw. I saw it in a small art cinema (formerly a church) during my first semester of college in 1980. I feel extremely fortunate in my "luck of the draw" and have been a fan of Herzog's films and Kinski's performances ever since. They set a high standard for the films that followed.

Unrelated to that (other than that they are both passionately individualistic filmmakers), I just returned home from Powell's Books in Portland, OR where Paul Verhoeven answered questions from a pastor and then the audience (of about 100-150) about his brand new book, Jesus of Nazareth. He seems, at least in this context, a fine gentleman who gave very thoughtful and lengthy answers to most questions. He talked at length afterward to anyone who further questions while having their books (and DVDs and comics) signed. I've only just started the book but based on the first 10-20 pages it is both engaging and thought provoking. By S M Rana on April 7, 2010 2:59 AM

@Pavel Richardson:I was curious if you would recommend Cobra Verde or Woyzeck? Some of the scenes from "Cobra Verde" are favorites--they really capture the body rhythms and music of Africa and the grandeur and variety of human races--it's the music and dances depicted in this film which have remained etched in the mind. "Woyzeck" was another compelling film about dignity and humiliation. By Sebastian on April 7, 2010 5:07 AM

In his commentary track for the German DVD of his "Fata Morgana", Herzog mentions that you admire it very much. Yet I am not able to find your review for this film. Did you write one back when it was released? I would love to read your thoughts on it.

Ebert: I saw it at the NY filmfest and met Herzog the same day. Yes, I admired it. It never played Chicago, Gotta see it again.

By Aaron Reese on April 7, 2010 7:41 AM

He's painterly, even if he doesn't know it. Artists take their canvas and fill it with an image to create an emotional response. Herzog fills his screen with images that do the same. He broke his style down in simple terms, but its the similar for us painters/sketchers. Based off the films of his I've seen, I suspect composition registers with him on a subconscious level, because he rarely fumbles it up.

Film has the additional benefit of stretching emotional instances to minutes. As you said, he will stretch those moments out past their convenient stopping point for emotional effect. That's an artist's tactic if I've ever heard of one. It's not the exact same kind of art as painting, but there are similarities and Herzog is very good at composing through the lens.

Here's my favorite interview with Herzog. Shortly after Grizzly Man was released to DVD.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B4i5WkkXdmc By Russell on April 7, 2010 9:07 AM

I read this right after finding Bad Lieutenant in my mailbox, and I feel as ready for Herzog as I've ever been after reading this. Admittedly, there's no way to be totally ready for Herzog. By Serdar on April 7, 2010 9:19 AM

Funny that I should read this after seeing William Friedkin's "Sorcerer", which although a bigbudget and meticulously-controlled Hollywood production, had the same tinge of headlong madness about it in its making.

I admire Herzog for making a movie like this happen almost by sheer dint of his force of personality, although I have doubts as to whether I would have wanted to be part of such a production. In a way, I'm torn: I know that without movies like "Aguirre", we're all a little poorer -but the making of them is such a hellish experience, and not just for the director either. The problem with risk-taking in filmmaking, as opposed to many other art forms, is that you are almost inevitably going to need other people to take those risks with you.

There's a funny story from Hajime Sorayama, the artist and painter most known for his "sexy robots" illustrations. He's a visionary in his own right, albeit of a totally different kind. In one of his books, he talks about having seen "Aguirre". He liked the idea behind it, but hated the movie itself. Proof, I guess, that sometimes one visionary can't see what another visionary is up to. By Chris D. on April 7, 2010 10:10 AM

The first time I heard about Herzog was in your recommendation of this film. I was really young and my film knowledge was incredibly limited, but the synopsis peaked my interest. Suffice it to say that the film radically changed my entire perspective on film.

I don't have a definitive list of favorite films. Nor do I have one for the what I think are the greatest. But in the back of my head I do have two film related lists which rarely do change. These lists are 1) the films which influenced my tastes the most. And 2) the films that changed the way I saw and approached every other film.

Aguire alongside the likes movies like Kane, 2001, and Werckmeister Harmonies is forever going to be on that list. So I am in some small or big way (I'm not sure about that either) forever indebted to you for that. By Garrett Cruce on April 7, 2010 10:27 AM

I've seen this once with your Great Movies essay in hand. I look forward to seeing it again with this blog entry by my side. Thank you for continuing to broaden the movie knowledge of us readers who can't be in Boulder. Now, I'd buy a DVD set of your frame-by-frame classes. By Ramin Bahrani on April 7, 2010 10:56 AM

Dear Roger,

Thank you again for bringing me to the Conference on World Affairs and for introducing me to one of my cinematic heroes, Werner Herzog. Without your introduction, the Plastic Bag would not have a Bavarian conscience!

Hearing Herzog speak so graciously for the last two days about Aguirre, the Wrath of God- one of my favorite films of all time- will remain etched in my mind forever.

I also thank the intelligent, curious and passionate audiences of Boulder, as well as Jim, Chaz, the tech crew. And in this case, Pablo Kjolseth, obviously a real lover of cinema. I never even knew the German version did not feature Kinski's voice! Without people like this, cinema as we love it will die. It is with your help that these audiences are keeping cinema alive and kicking I thank them all.

Best regards, Ramin Bahrani Boulder, CO

Ebert: Ramin, it has been wonderful so far. Now you take over today! WHY wasn't I videotaping when Werner gave his fiery, inspirational final comment? I hope someone was. By seth on April 7, 2010 11:56 AM

how the heck did bahrani get some of those shots in "plastic bag" wow By Jane E on April 7, 2010 2:45 PM

On Monday, soon after taking my seat near the front, I discovered that I was surrounded by an excited crowd of young adults. Since students are usually under-represented in the CWA audiences, I thought their attendance was requested by an instructor. When I asked the young man on my left if that was the case, he told me that he was there on his own volition. We continued to talk and he told me that he and his friend had driven from Northern Colorado just for the Interruptus. He then told me of his love of film and his aspiration to be a film critic. He and his friend had attended South by Southwest, seeing 26 films in 8 days (loved Dog Tooth). He said that you had changed film criticism forever making it accessible for everyone. He is now writing for an online blog of young writers who review films.

So there I was,thrilled to be in the company of the accomplished and inspiring as well as the next generation of film lovers and perhaps makers.

What a rapturous two hours. Thank you for everything.

Ebert: I find out every day on the web that a new generation of adventurous film watchers is coming along, despite the crisis in distribution. By Sue on April 7, 2010 3:09 PM

Kinski, in constant rage. Describing himself as a "natural man" who could live in the forest like an animal. Then complaining that his tent leaked. Then complaining that the thatch shelter built over the tent leaked. Then moving at great inconvenience to the production into a shabby hotel where he beat his wife nightly, the crew discreetly removing the blood stains.

Out of that entire article, the little bit about the crew removing the blood stains brings out the writer in me. I want to know about Kinski's wife, why she stayed, whether anyone stood up for her, what her story was. It's a side story for sure, but I'm fascinated.

Ebert: I've never been able to understand why anybody wanted to be in the same room with him. In his bio, he says vile things about Werner. By David S. on April 7, 2010 4:47 PM

What was that CD Werner was holding in the first video?

Ebert: Somebody gave it to him. I'm not sure he had looked at it yet. By Randy on April 7, 2010 4:59 PM

Thank you Roger. Herzog is simply amazing. It's hard to think of any one else in the history of film that has anything close to his vision and courage (both as an artist and as an adventurer). There aren't many films that contain images as haunting as those filmed by Herzog (like the opening scenes of Aguirre). Thanks for sharing this with us. I only wish that I could have been there. By Chris Perry on April 7, 2010 5:51 PM

Herzog is among my five favorite directors. One thing that troubles me about so many of his films, though, is that they include interactions with animals that sometimes devolve into cruelty (e.g. the faux crucifixion of the monkey in Even Dwarfs Started Small). If it's not outright cruelty, it's often on the borderline. Aguirre shows Kinski roughly handling a monkey, a still of which accompanies your blog entry here. Herzog's latest film--My Son, My Son, What Have Ye Done-includes someone pestering a pair of flamingoes. In The Bad Lieutenant, an iguana gets fingerflicked. The list goes on and on. I've not listened widely to Herzog DVD commentaries, though I do recall that in the Dwarfs commentary track Herzog explains while showing a deformed chicken that he wanted to show how often "something is wrong with creation"; but, this seems applicable to the themes of that particular movie rather than a reason for the general treatment of animals in his oeuvre. I'm wondering, Mr. Ebert, if you have any thoughts on Herzog's fascination with, and treatment of, animals in his films. By JRoberts on April 7, 2010 6:52 PM

Wow! I'm so pleased to enjoy this experience vicariously. Thank you! I first watched Aguirre years ago because I found it in your Great Movies list. Since then I've tried to watch as many Herzog films as I can.

I've always found Herzog's films a lot more natural. They're easier to watch, more pleasing to my mind. I find 'story arcs' uncomfortable. Though narrative is generally considered the natural mode of filmmaking, this is an artefact of historical processes. Surprisingly, every person to whom I've shown Aguirre agrees. They're not bored by the lack of story arc at all. I just wonder, "Why wait?" Why wait until you have a film that deprives you of story arc to watch the film in an alternative way? One is always free to ignore the story arc in, for instance, Out of Africa. Even you do this. You praise Herzog's contempt of story arc in Aguirre, but judge other films harshly for story arc failures (Polanski's The Tenant, e.g.).

Anyhow, on a totally unrelated point, I insist that the young girl in Aguirre really is Nastassja Kinski. Herzog denies this on the audio commentary and elsewhere. But what are the odds that Herzog would have found a young South American girl who looks exactly like Kinski's own daughter in the role of Aguirre's daughter? I guess with Herzog anything's possible. By Somniferous on April 7, 2010 7:17 PM

I'm not a fan of his narration. By Don Tingle on April 7, 2010 7:31 PM

Hi Roger, Some news you may wish to share with Ramin Bahrani (Please invite him back to Ebertfest soon - he's such a great guest and always willing to chat)

PBS Independent Lens to show Goodbye Solo Listed on: http://www.pbs.org/independentlens/guide.html

June 1 at 10 PM

GOODBYE SOLO by Ramin Bahrani An old man gets into a cab and asks for a one-way ride to his death. The driver agrees unless he can talk him out of it. American director Ramin Bahrani (Chop Shop, Man Push Cart) mixes up a fable with flavors of Africa, Mexico, and the new American South in this awardwinning drama that looks at the depth of the human spirit and the power of free will. By D.N. on April 7, 2010 8:35 PM

"I've never been able to understand why anybody wanted to be in the same room with [Kinski]. In his bio, he says vile things about Werner."

Yes, but in "My Best Fiend," Herzog claims that he helped Kinski come up with insults to use against him in his book. Kinski felt that the book would sell better if it had inflammatory material regarding Herzog (and Herzog was apparently keen to help out). Kinski's tirades against Herzog are so over-the-top, it's impossible to take them seriously:

* "Herzog is a miserable, hateful, malevolent, avaricious, money-hungry, nasty, sadistic, treacherous, cowardly creep."

* "[Herzog's] speech is clumsy, with toadlike indolence, long-winded, pedantic, choppy. The words tumble from his mouth in sentence fragments, which he holds back as much as possible, as if they were earning interest. It takes forever and a day for him to push out a clump of hardened brain snot. Then he writhes in painful ecstasy, as if he had sugar on his rotten teeth. A very slow blab machine. An obsolete model with a nonworking switch - it can't be turned off unless you cut off the electric power altogether."

* "I hate [Herzog]'s guts. I shriek into his face that I want to see him croak...He should be thrown alive to the crocodiles! An anaconda should strangle him slowly! A poisonous spider should sting him and paralyze his lungs! The most venomous serpent should bite him and make his brain explode! No panther claws should rip open his throat - that would be much too good for him! No! The huge red ants should piss into his lying eyes and gobble up his balls and his guts! he should catch the plague! Syphilis! Malaria! Yellow Fever! Leprosy! It's no use; the more I wish him the most gruesome deaths, the more he haunts me..."

The above quotations are from Joachim Neugroschel's translation (published in 1996 as "Kinski Uncut"; I haven't read Kinski's own translation, published in 1988 as "Kinski: All I Need is Love"). For those who haven't read them, Kinski's memoirs are a fascinating read; most of them hilariously abrasive, much of them chronicling Kinski's various and voracious sexcapades. I have no doubt that much of the books content is exaggerated, if not fabricated outright, with Kinski playing up to his demented public image, but even if only 1/3 of the book is true, Kinski still qualifies as an insane, megalomaniacal sex-fiend. By Literary Dreamer on April 7, 2010 10:08 PM

I should've checked out Aguirre, the Wrath of God months ago, soon after Grace featured it on her blog (then again, I had just moved to Seattle, and didn't, at that time, have a library card). Now with this post, I've just put a hold on it at the library. With any luck, I'll be able to see it in a week or two. And it looks like that DVD has the option of seeing the film in English or German, with or without subtitles, plus an interview with Herzog. Since I have never seen a Herzog film before, I can't wait.

Oh, and after seeing "Plastic Bag," Chop Shop is next on my list, to be followed by Bahrani's other movies--and Herzog's, for that matter. By JJ Jameson on April 7, 2010 11:50 PM

Sitting in Macky Auditorium as the final scenes of Aguirre played out, I came to understand the attraction of charismatic madness. I found myself wanting to follow Aguirre/Kinski in the insane search for riches, fame, and power. Seeing that mad light in Kinski's eyes, I was ready to give up my mundane hum-drum life, jump on that raft, and scream: "Show me the way, Klaus! Show me the way to El Dorado!"

But then the credits rolled, the lights came up in the theater, and I shook off my own brief bout of madness. Oh well.

Thank you, Mr. Herzog, for a sublime film. By Armand Leonetti on April 8, 2010 12:12 AM

God I miss the shot by shot sessions in Boulder! I have since moved away. That experience 10 years ago as we all walked through Vertigo and Dark City changed the way I looked at films forever. I realized each frame is a work of art in itself. Now with HD we can see all the great films like Vertigo close to the way they were intended to be seen. By Chris Landaverde on April 8, 2010 1:27 AM

Hi dear Roger. Dont want to comment something that might seem vain or pointless but I am genuinely interested in knowing if Herzog is on twitter do you by any chance know if thats the case? By Marie Haws on April 8, 2010 1:57 AM

Ebert: I've never been able to understand why anybody wanted to be in the same room with him. In his bio, he says vile things about Werner.

Maybe it's a German thing? :) By S M Rana on April 8, 2010 4:28 AM

"He seeks new visions--literally, at the poles, in the deserts, in the sea, on mountaintops, and in the human mind."

The last perhaps the least. More Lean (add a pinch of brain fever) than Bergman. By Garry on April 8, 2010 5:21 AM

The link given for the Leo Grin articles on Grizzly Man & Herzog are incorrect. Herzog is obviously insane, fascinating, but insane! These shortened ones are correct: http://tinyurl.com/yhl28go [Part 1] http://tinyurl.com/ycofocv [Part 2] http://tinyurl.com/y8b87d7 [Part 3] http://tinyurl.com/yeav99d [Part 4] By T.L. Lewis on April 8, 2010 11:30 AM

Thank you for sharing brilliance. By Paul J. Marasa on April 8, 2010 12:40 PM

Ebert on Kinski: "I've never been able to understand why anybody wanted to be in the same room with him. In his bio, he says vile things about Werner."

Back in the '70s, Norman Spinrad wrote The Iron Dream, which posits an alternate history in which Hitler emigrated to the US after WWI and became a science fiction writer. The novel itself, Lord of the Swastika, is hilarious in an appalling way, like Paul Verhoeven's Starship Troopers. Point being, we should be thankful we live in our universe, not the one in which Kinski rose to power in Germany. All we got was an incredible jerk with a riveting screen presence. By Will on April 8, 2010 3:55 PM

On the topic of Herzog and Kinski, your review of "My Best Fiend" contains this passage...

"Reviewing "Woyzeck," I wrote: "It is almost impossible to imagine Kinski without Herzog; reflect that this `unforgettable' actor made more than 170 films for other directors--and we can hardly

remember a one." Consider, too, that their strange bond began long before Herzog stood behind a camera."

Can't find the Woyzeck review on your site. Any chance this might be dug up? By MaryAnne on April 8, 2010 5:50 PM

The first time I saw Aguirre I walked around in a daze for days after. When I recovered, I went and saw it again. Thanks for this, Roger. I'm consumed by jealousy, but very grateful to have your wonderful account of what must have been an amazing experience. I can hardly wait to read about day 2. By Carol Beeby on April 8, 2010 7:39 PM

Dear Mr. Ebert Marvelous heartening cinema experience with you, Ramin Bahrani, and Werner Herzog.

I first attended interruptus when you did Raging Bull in the planetarium space, in the early eighties. Thanks for everything you've done to invigorate film culture in Boulder.

Kudos too to Pablo Kjolseth for scoring the 35mm print we saw on Sunday. My best experience of Aguirre yet. Best Regards Carol Beeby By Matt Sands on April 8, 2010 8:15 PM

Oh, to have been there! Herzog and Bahrini in the same room together! Two of the greatest and most unique filmmakers alive! I'm so glad I've been able to see their films. Without you, they might have been lost in obscurity. By NHBill on April 8, 2010 9:18 PM

Dear Roger;

Just finished watching "Aguirre, the Wrath of God" for the very first time. I am still in shock. Such an amazing achievement.

Thank you so much for directing me to this experience. I am fortunate to have seen many great films. It is such a thrill to discover one that was new to me.

Cheers. By sruth on April 8, 2010 9:25 PM

Dear Roger,

Did you know that ads are covering up the bottom of your reviews? I'm sure that others have already alerted you to this problem, but just in case they haven't...

Ebert: I can't find that happening. Do you have an affected page? By S M Rana on April 9, 2010 12:08 AM

Kinski as Aguirre is comic more than anything else. The one thing in the movie is the rain-forest and the turbulent river. Kinski's crooked physiognomy (sideways and backward) makes him a caricature more than a character. Herzog seems to revel in nature at its excessive extremes counterpoised against warped human nature. Hardly a model of balance, symmetry or serenity. One may speculate what drew the two close. By Brandon Nowalk on April 9, 2010 1:11 AM

Did anyone ask what Herzog did to instill such fear in Chuck Norris? By Literary Dreamer on April 9, 2010 2:06 AM

After seeing these videos of Herzog speaking about the cave, I feel like I'd rather watch a movie about him talking about his film projects over most movies that are shown in theaters. By Vivek on April 9, 2010 3:22 AM

Having watched a lot of his films, I am surprised he hasn't made many in India, a treasure trove of Herzogian characters and stories.

And even I found an ad blocking one of your reviews. I think it was for "Lickerish Quartet". But I don't find it now. By Andrew on April 9, 2010 7:19 AM

Speaking of Great Movies, I was wondering why it's been so long since you added one to your list. Been busy?

Ebert: Yeah, I missed a week. Brutally busy. By Robert Kelly on April 9, 2010 9:07 AM

Roger:

That was a well-made essay regarding Werner Herzog. A Herzog movie deserves being seen mutiple times in order to appreciate and fully be aware of the metaphors and storylines present in the film being shown. Regrettably, not many filmgoers in this day and age seem to fully appreciate what a Herzog movie can be like. For myself, I have seen a great deal of his fictional and non-fictional works: only one of those movies, Rescue Dawn, was on the big screen. From what I could tell, only a handful of other filmgoers were there to share the momentous occasion.

A movie that for me emphasizes the need to rewatch when it is available is another one of the Great Movies, the Hal Ashby film Being There. I have seen it quite a few times, yet each time I notice different interpretations and subtleties in the process.

In a related matter, is there going to be a new Great Movies column in the near future? Even if it is just a listing of what films will be discussed in the upcoming Great Movies III? I was particulary suprised and impressed with the most recent two entries.

Thank you again for taking the time to read and parse through this comment. We all hope you continue to live in the utmost of fine health.

Best Regards,

Robert Kelly By Alex on April 9, 2010 9:21 AM

Fans of Mr. Herzog might enjoy this genius parody:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7T8y5EPv6Y8

Ebert: I believe that's actually Herzog! By Ryan S on April 9, 2010 9:46 AM

Dear Roger,

Did you know that ads are covering up the bottom of your reviews? I'm sure that others have already alerted you to this problem, but just in case they haven't...

Ebert: I can't find that happening. Do you have an affected page?

FYI - I've seen the ads covering reviews too Roger. Your review for After.Life has a yahoo add covering the bottom two paragraphs. I'm using IE 8.0 on Windows 7 if that helps.

Ebert: The web gods are working on it. By Ryan on April 9, 2010 11:15 AM

I've been at the Conference all week, and although I loved Herzog as much as anybody, Roger should also get major credit for bringing Bahrani to the conference. He was already one of my two or three favorite filmmakers, and getting a chance to ask him questions and see him speak on several panels (as well as see a screening of Plastic Bag) was an absolute thrill. For me, at least, seeing Bahrani was like seeing Herzog must have been for some older attendees.

Also, since I know you vet every comment, Roger, what a wife! I saw Chaz on the racism, tech/communication and Hollywood Eats Its Young panels, and she's incredible. I get the feeling you might be the only two that could keep up with each other. By John Alvarez on April 9, 2010 12:28 PM

Once again, thank you Roger. I saw "Aguirre" a few months ago online. I don't recall where (youtube or hulu), but it was in German, with subtitles. I remember how often you say that, for any film, it isn't so much what it's about, but how it is about it.

It is this how that stays with me long after it was over. Funny, just the other day I was wondering when you were ever going to deliver a review on "My Son, My Son, What Have Ye Done". I remember seeing the trailer for it weeks ago, and immediately I thought it somehow connected to the world of Aguirre: I guess the mountains of madness lie in Peru.

But then again, aren't all mountains mad? These overshadowing sentinels wait to affect, mutate, embrace, and set loose the DNA of the lost with its poison of insanity. Stare at them too long in dark loneliness, or wander about them with sad human reason as a compass, and greed as its needle, and the padded cell waits with an open door.

Funny- the mystery of the life in the mind.

Herzog, apparently, seems to hold one of its keys.

You think?

Thanks again, Roger. And God bless.

P.S. - I was truly fascinated by what Herzog had to say about why 3D will fail sooner or later, due to the nature of how we use our eyes, with one being more dominant than the other. After a while, you get tired from having to use both eyes with intent. Q: Roger, do your eyes often get tired after viewing a film in 3D? (Honestly, I've yet to relent and see any 3D movie at all. I haven't even seen Avatar yet, and with no need to rush to. Heavily marketed/Hollywood hype rarely gets me motivated to the theater these days.) -J By Leo on April 9, 2010 2:56 PM

Ebert: I've never been able to understand why anybody wanted to be in the same room with him. In his bio, he says vile things about Werner.

To be fair Herzog freely admits to deliberately enraging Kinski to wear him out to the point that they filmed Woyzek immediately after Nosferatu. I also seem to recall something from My Best Fiend where Herzog talks about Kinski telling him what he was going to publish because it would make a better book. By Daniel Jackson on April 9, 2010 5:17 PM

I loved that he told everyone that they must READ READ READ READ.

He has said, "Those who read own the world, and those who watch television lose it."

For the record, I have been keeping tabs of everything that Herzog recommends. (I am a selfstyled amateur Herzogologist.)

His booklist includes: The Oxford English Dictionary. (In the past he has said it is the most amazing "book" ever.) Virgil's Georgics. Hemingway's The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber The Poetic Edda Some of these were required readings for his "Rogue Film School."

and the NEW one I learned about this week at the Interruptus was THE WARREN COMMISSION. Yipes!

He is a huge admirer of Ryszard Kapuciski, and I think they knew each other. Bruce Chatwin, of course. (If you haven't read Kapuciski, you need to.)

I (to my own personal delight) also know that he is a fan of Thomas Bernhard.

He has also said that all aspiring novelists should read Tristram Shandy.

I just saw Bad Lieutenant for the first time last night. It was better than I was expecting. But Herzog-curious cinema nerds should stick to the films he made between Signs of Life and Where Green Ant Dreams. Even Dwarves scared me the first time I saw it; but I've watched it many times since and I find it as spiritual a experience as anything else I can think of. As far as the newer documentaries, you should go for the White Diamond--a superior film to Grizzly Man. His "poetic" documentaries are something that more adventurous movie fans should try out. I thought "The Wild Blue Yonder" was spectacular. It is just a bizarre kind of film, as was its predecessors, Lessons of Darkness and Fata Morgana. When I was standing there, spellbound, watching Herzog talk about his new 3-D cave movie, I REALLY REALLY REALLY REALLY wanted to ask him if this was going to be another in his series of poetic-license docs like Wild Blue Yonder. But I was ecstatically mortified a mere ten feet away from my idol.

I loved how Herzog flipped the last question on Tuesday from pure banal literalism to a distilled profundity about the power of storytelling and art. The man continually awes me. By Terry on April 9, 2010 5:52 PM

So, is Tina Fey like Cary Grant and Steve Carell today's Jack Lemmon (Your comparison in "Date Night" review, April 7, 2010) ?

(I know it's another topic, but I thought it was an apt comment.) By Somniferous on April 9, 2010 6:35 PM

I've only seen Encounters, and I didn't care for the narration; I can't determine exactly why I disliked his narration so much: enunciation, maybe? Unfortunately, it detracted from an otherwise wonderful film experience. By anonymous on April 9, 2010 6:48 PM

Re sruth April 8 9:25 PM: The final portion of your review of Herzog's film is to my reading also obscured by an ad. By Wes Lawson on April 9, 2010 8:55 PM

Has Werner Herzog ever made a bad film? My friends and I were discussing this the other day after probably the fifth rewatch of Herzog's "Bad Lieutenant." We couldn't think of a film of his we hated, and we can only think of a few directors in that category (Scorsese, Kurosawa, Paul Thomas Anderson). Not only does he make miraculous films, but his quality control is excellent. By Somniferous on April 9, 2010 10:52 PM

By the way, you were included in the recent Cracked.com article, "7 Celebrities Who Had Badass Careers You Didn't Know About":

http://www.cracked.com/article_18441_7-celebrities-who-had-badass-careers-you-didnt-knowabout.html

Ebert: Yet another honor! By everybody laughs on April 9, 2010 11:43 PM

The ads are always covering up the bottom of your reviews on my PC as well. Seemingly, it happens randomly. However, refreshing the pages will get rid of them. By Rosie on April 10, 2010 5:43 AM

You lucky dog. Werner Herzog is my all-time and hands down favorite director. Aguirre, the Wrath of God was the first of his films I ever had the pleasure of viewing and I shall never forget the experience. It sent me on a trek through Herzogs filmography and I cant begin to tell you how much I have relished each of his films and every moment of his commentaries. I have not been able to pinpoint just what it is that resonates so strongly but I can recognize it in all of his films. Those collaborations with Kinski, especially, are among my favorites of all movies and, while I know these were quite the trial for the folks involved, I am so grateful for every single frame of each. The performances Herzog was able to wrestle from the highly flammable Kinski are nothing short of miraculous. It is a difficult thing to say, out of all the movies ever, which would be my favorite since, essentially, things change and I change and there are so many wonderful works from which to choose. However, when asked this question, I more often than not answer Fitzcarraldo. There is something about just watching the Molly Aida begin her trek that soothes me inexplicably. It is a very weird thing.

Anyway, thank you for sharing your frame by frame Aguirre experience and for the additional Herzog clips in this entry. I just love that mans voice. He changed the way I am approached by movies forever. By Eric Isaacson on April 10, 2010 7:57 AM

>Wes Lawson> Has Werner Herzog > ever made a bad film?

Well, yes. I thought "The Wild Blue Yonder" was thoroughly lame. That's the one with a narration by Brad Dourif as an alien, clumsily patched over NASA footage of real astronauts, plus underwater scenes below the Antarctic ice.

Watching it, I was reminded of the Gene Siskel test of "Is this movie more interesting than a film would be of the actors sitting at their lunch break, just shooting the breeze?" Only this time, the question was, "Is this underwater footage more interesting with the lame Sci-fi narrative, than it would be with Herzog just telling us what we're really looking at?" For me, the answer was a resounding "No!".

Then, as it happened, the very next movie I saw gave me precisely what I wanted: Herzog's "Encounters at the End of the World", a documentary about Antarctica and the people who like to go there. It had precisely the same underwater footage. I was interested to note that it was released two years later, and it made me think that maybe Werner agreed with me that the SciFi approach didn't succeed, and a straight documentary was better.

Werner Herzog is a brilliant, profoundly eccentric guy. His movies don't resonate with me quite as deeply as they do with Roger and many others here, but they are almost always interesting: I give most of them 3 stars, as opposed to the 4 that Roger usually gives him. But I am equally enthusiastic as Roger about hearing Werner in person: the guy is completely fascinating just talking about his life, his vision, and his movies. In that sense, Werner almost always fails the Siskel test: his movies are good, but his talking about them at the lunch break would be even better. By Joe H. on April 10, 2010 9:09 AM

Dear Roger,

I too love Herzog, for me he represents those daring film makers of old i.e. 1925's documentary Grass by THE real King Kong the great Merian C. Cooper & Ernest schoedsack plus a white female secret agent, these guys had no communication at all it was not even invented back then for the trek in old Persia across paths so old they go back to the beginning of time handed down by father to son for generations. But I digress back to the man himself Herzog.

I'm surprised you don't have the clip where Herzog is in L.A. somewhere (now his home he LOVES L.A.), giving an interview and then on camera some nut shoots him in the side of his

lower stomach. Herzog keeps talking because: " I wanted to finish the interview but my camera man dropped the camera and ran for cover). Herzog then shrugs off his wound and finishes his interview calmly as if nothing had happened. He actually showed his bullet would pulling up his shirt to show the camera and said: "Ah it's a small caliber nothing to worry about right now let's finish". Herzog IS THE MAN. ONE of a kind a treasure. By Eoin Forbes on April 10, 2010 11:10 AM

Herzog has a voice -- in German or in English -- unique to humanity.

He soothes; he inspires.

It's the sweetest sound I've ever heard. By Sebastian on April 10, 2010 5:12 PM

Tell me, are you going along with your plans to write a book about Herzog, similar to the one you wrote about Scorsese? By RKW on April 11, 2010 12:29 AM

Thanks for the link to that "Herzog Reads Curious George" parody above.

There are more parodies there which equally delve into the themes and passions of Herzog -such as this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Z1R5vDG2Tg

My vote is for "Encounters At The End Of The World" simply because it's so informal and meandering. The human residents in Antarctica are so memorable. Such an undercurrent of estrangement and humanity. I wonder if there is a wilderness setting farther beyond Antarctica, more harsh, that Herzog could take us to? By Aphrica on April 11, 2010 6:05 AM

I gained so much respect for Herzog after seeing Wheel of Time. What a great documentary. Eye-opening to say the least. By Eric on April 11, 2010 9:29 AM

"It is all the experience itself, the immediate experience."

So does that mean Mr. Herzog thinks of the artistic medium of film as an extra-dimensional version of photography? If photography is about capturing a moment (it can tell a story or portray a composition, but that's not what the "essence" of photography is), then film is about capturing a string of moments? By Noel Pruden on April 11, 2010 9:35 PM

Good evening Roger, relatively long time reader and first time poster. I've been watching Werner Herzog's films for the past few weeks. I recently watched Mein Liebster Feind. At one point in the film, Herzog describes Klaus Kinski's technique of swaying past the camera, by stepping directly from the side of the cameraman and leaning around the lens, creating a long fluid movement. I noticed in Where The Green Ants Dream, Herzog performs a similar movement in front of the camera clad in judges robes just after the conclusion of the court scene.

I thought that was an interesting detail, a little bit of Kinski that rubbed off on him. By Alejandro on April 11, 2010 10:08 PM

Great post. Herzog is truly unique.

Has anyone read Herzog's recent interview in DGA Quarterly Magazine?

http://www.dgaquarterly.org/BACKISSUES/Winter2010/DGAInterviewWernerHerzog.aspx By S M Rana on April 12, 2010 3:26 AM

@Vivek: "Having watched a lot of his films, I am surprised he hasn't made many in India, a treasure trove of Herzogian characters and stories."

He did, one about Buddhism and Bodh Gaya, a thoroughly stereotyped mystificating western tourist POW(just falling short by a rope trick)called Wheel of Time. I abandoned it within ten minutes. By Chris Perry on April 12, 2010 3:13 PM

Wes Lawson: See how you like Fata Morgana. By Tom Dark on April 12, 2010 10:29 PM

Owing to conflicting schedules I missed too much of the Aguirre interruptus, but what I did see was very much worth it. How come nobody dumb got to ask questions?

It was good to see the film again after years away; it was the thing to watch with hushed-tone whispers of praise back in college days.

One thing I appreciate now that I didn't even recognize back then was the timing. I didn't hear any questions about the timing during the interruptus sessions I attended, but I'm not sure how I'd have asked about them. How did you know when to end this scene, or let that one linger, and so on.

I did appreciate Werner's reply to the commenter about the symbolism of the chubby nobleman straddling a cannon, eating. "Some of you see penises where I do not," he replied, "I thought it was just funny." The audience laughed.

After one of the sessions, the adorable and vivacious Dr. Elizabeth Lozano and I were sitting at the dinner table next to Werner and his friends. Elizabeth had told me that Aguirre had always been her father's favorite film. Her dad had died the previous year. Well? Go tell him, I said. But she was already moving toward his table.

I didn't overhear what was said, but I could see tears in Werner's eyes. He stood up and gave Elizabeth the warmest of long hugs and kisses.

And that wasn't enough. After Elizabeth returned to our table, Werner came over and gave her more hugs and kisses. Shortly, he brought over a ticket for that night's concert which he was too tired to use, because of France, Spain, jet lag, and more to come. I shook his hand, took the ticket, and Werner once again cradled precious Elizabeth in his arms before he left. She was now to him like a little girl I once loved so, also named Elizabeth. I'm not sure when I've ever seen a man so touched.

Not a good time to tell him I still wanted to hear the tape of Tim and girlfriend being eaten by that bear in "Grizzly Man."

By Blake Couch on April 12, 2010 11:52 PM

I am just now in the process of ordering the audio recording of the 9am CWA session "My Obsession" on Tuesday, April 6, with Werner Herzog, Julia Sweeney, and Lillian Boutte. It contains what I remember as Herzog's steadfast refusal to be labeled in any sort of way - not as an artist, not as a film director, and most certainly not as an obsessive. He is asked about his declaration that Aguirre is a "Bavarian story," and he launches into a lengthy explanation involving the last king of Bavaria, the floridly insane Ludwig II. He must have carried on about Ludwig for a good two or three minutes, and in the end it all made perfect sense, somehow.

Tonight it was Herzog's Bad Lieutenant on the DVD player. Frankly, I didn't expect to love it, but I did.

Around 4pm last Tuesday afternoon, I rejoined Mr Herzog's company for the second day of Aguirre Interruptus. It was great seeing you there again, Roger. I attended a few of your previous CWA screenings - La Dolce Vita, The Long Goodbye - but it will be hard ever to top this one, or that long, long day in Boulder. By jeff on April 13, 2010 3:40 PM

Wonderful thing to pull together...I only wish I could have been there...Herzog is a film god, up there with Bergman...his calling Kinski a coward tho I feel is a bit unjust...Kinski's book "All I need is Love" pretty much says the same thing about Herzog...two giants fighting...both were/are real artists in my opinion...Aquirre would have been an entirely differ film without the great Klaus as well...the sad scene with the monkey at the end sums it up via life, then and today...it is right up there with King Lear... By Catherine Nelson on April 15, 2010 1:15 AM

I've been reading about the uses of fiction (e.g. Denis Dutton's The Art Instinct), and one of holds it has on us is that it allows us a window into the mind of the maker. I find that with Herzog's films I'm "meeting" someone unafraid of his complexities, someone who likes Carlo Gesualdo!, who is attracted to extremes for what it might show us about the safe middle territory. I saw Aguirre and Fitzcarraldo in college, and did a more systematic survey of his films starting in 2000... and it's through your reviews of his films, in fact, that I get a sense that I understand you and your tastes and opinions better. I think Herzog has inspired some of your most interesting thinking, and when that happens, that's art at its finest. By Wholigan on April 15, 2010 1:19 PM

Im just as perplexed as everyone else seems to be about the wifebeating incidents. Herzog is a beautiful human being. Im baffled that he allowed it. I know he had a movie to make with Kinski and all, but Im just wondering why he didnt take Klaus aside and say, Listen, Jackass, whatever relationship you have with your wife is your business, but it just isnt gong to happen on my set. Got it!

Theres a scene in Barfly that somes up my own feelings. ORourkes character hears this woman being beaten up and he goes to her rescue, and the guy informs him that she likes it, at which point, the guy slams her head against the beds brass headboard. The woman says, Yeah, I like it. ORourke doesnt care. Its just not going to happen when hes around.

That said, everything seems to sum up the fact that Kinski is an incredibly talented actor, for if not, he would be completely unemployable. (Actually, I wish I didnt know that about him. I knew he was a mad man, but I wont be able to get entirely past his vileness the next time I watch this great film. Some things you just don't want to know.) By Wholigan on April 15, 2010 6:37 PM

Ironically, this thread makes me reconsider whether I want to listen to film commentaries by directors, something I have not done yet. Reflecting on what Werner said also makes me wonder if the movie I saw was the movie I thought I saw. The one I watched was better. Im reminded of Rogers quoting of EE Cummings line: Id rather learn how to sing from a single bird than to teach a thousand stars how not to dance.

Pete Townshend is generally known for giving long-winded responses to questions, augmented with many asides, but I think he may have given the artists perfect answer to a question. Someone asked Pete a very long, very elaborate, very detailed question complete with the many incites that the interviewer found in Tommy. Basically the interviewer was saying Tommy was an absolutely brilliant masterpiece in every conceivable way. Petes answer: Yeah. By M. Foye on April 16, 2010 3:08 AM

There is no good time for some things. Leaving this reading room is not one of them. By thor on April 17, 2010 2:14 AM

Cool that he liked Avatar. I wonder what other pop culture favorite films he has. If he ever write a book about his favorites I'll buy it. Also interesting that he's doing so many documentaries now. Maybe he prefers fact to fiction now to give insight to the human condition. By MJB on April 17, 2010 4:44 PM

Hi Roger Have you seen all of Herzog's five favorite films? (in the link below) I'm sure you've seen them all except the Iranian one, I hope you'll get the chance to see it. I know that you don't like Abbas Kiarostami's films but you have to see his early works like "Close-Up" or his Koker Trilogy, those are his greatest works. FYI Criterion Collection is releasing "Close-Up" on Blu-Ray in june. The link for Herzog's five favorite films: http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/bad_lieutenant_port_of_call_new_orleans/news/1855835/five _favorite_films_with_werner_herzog

By Tim Rockwell on April 20, 2010 7:56 PM

I love Hezog and his films. I just wanted to say that anyone remotely interested in his work should see Incident at Loch Ness to see a very clever film and to watch a great artist poke fun at himself. By Rosie on April 21, 2010 5:21 AM

This is a little off track but I do like to give credit where it is due. Besides, I have already gushed my enthusiasm where Herzog is concerned quite enough on this site.

@Tom Dark:

If I am not mistaken, I believe it might have been you who mentioned The Story of the Weeping Camel in the comment section of one of Roger's journal entries. I want to thank you for that recommendation. It is a wonderful film and one I probably would have missed otherwise. By Terek Hunaty on April 24, 2010 7:46 PM

Thank you man, thank you very much for this journal. It's good to see somebody who's catching up with what's going on or should I say (what's going wrong) with this generation. They're in need for somebody who's not light in the head. Yes I do remember when it was amongst your favorite or greatest ten film's; I believe it was a decade ago, then you switched some of. This one; is the epitome of character driven films; their are few great ones in the "history" of cinema, others that come in mind: The Hustler, La Dolce Vita, Ikiru, Lawrence of Arabia, Raging Bull, La Vie En Rose, There Will Be Blood, Scarface, Citizen Kane, Amadeus, The Gambler, The Last Emperor, My Left Foot, Born on the forth of July, The Conversation, Five Easy Pieces, On the Waterfront,

The Verdict, Shine, The Apostle, Pollock, Nights of Cabiria, The Apu Trilogy, The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp, The Last Temptation of Jesus Christ. that stand out from the rest. Oh; if one could just grasp (the notion alone) how complex film is; I think it's the most expensive topic/issue to film; only the great ones could comprehend it's power over another; which could be shattering and/or controversial. That's why I have an affection towards Tom Tykwer's "Perfume: The Story of a Murderer", I think it was the one for the decade. Like the saying goes: One doesn't know the value of something until it's gone, and I add to that: the one who managed to slip away with it; has a thing over another. Film is still a baby in comparison to theater; we've got a long way to go, there've been more than a dozen great playwright's in the past centuries "every century", we can barley put ten "filmmakers" in this one plus century so far; by saying so where does one think an actor (character) stand?; it being the oldest (centuries B.C.).

*************************************************

Thanks for pointing out that overlooked movie the other day; "Black Narcissus", what a treasure ( I guess those with enough wisdom; forget their greed and share the treasure, to some if they knew how much others are in love with something; they would've hid it away from them; that's not the case with you), you've made my day and in the same time allowed me to look at later film's in another perspective.

The first time I saw this film was in black&white (once), didn't care much about it.

Was to young and naive that I tried my utmost to stray away from it; avoiding films that would desecrate the name of the lord. Watching it for the first time since in color (don't know yet why I saw it three times in one week) with at least a bunch of the most gorgeous shots put on film; painters of the sixteenth and seventeenth century would have been proud of; not to include the sequences, not only is the movie beautiful to look at; (their is a shot in the movie that I just adore and might have a place in the future on the wall of my house; it takes place right before the young boy brings to "Sister Ruth" a glass of milk) accomplished in the highest form but the editing too and the directing (I still have a spot or two to fill amongst my favorite filmmakers; I might include Michael Powell to that list; next to Akira Kurosawa, Ingmar Bergman, Luis Bunuel, Stanley Kubrick, Orson Welles, Martin Scorsese, Werner Herzog, Billy Wilder, Federico Fellini and Peter Greenaway) and the music (score), including poignant lines like: "Don't you think it's rather common to smell of ourselves?" And the acting by the entire cast; "everyone" shun brightly; boy, girl, man, and woman where distinguished and unique in their own way, including "Sister Ruth" played by the luminous Kathleen Byron; rest her soul; I just found out from Sight&Sound of her passing last year, in what I would call the four faces of "Sister Ruth"; the most amazing transformation put on film.

"They say you accumulate a life in time, I say you can accumulate a life before your time"

In return I would like to recommend one for you, one you might not be that familiar with, I never read anything from you about it, it's called "IL Conformista" aka The Conformist. It had that same power over me when I saw it the first time, back when I was a freshman in film school, I had a class in the afternoon; I woke up and the weather was damp with

a slight touch of mist; had a couple hours free before class and pop it in. Its not a perfect movie but a special one; I discovered a lot of myself and in the same time shaped me in some sort of way, its greatness lies in the protagonist; that is where one should start; in a performance of raw power and staggering complexion, including lush photography by the D.P., I might love this movie in the future just like I love Black Narcissus today, (Vittorio Storaro is a god amongst cinematographers; sorry "God" no blaspheme; just a form of expression, the guy earned it decades ago), he is definitely one out of five of my favorite cinematographer I've seen; just like his predecessor the great Jack Cardiff but from a different school.

It's amazing how much Mr. Scorcese loves film; anyone who's into movies should never miss this man out.

By Kelly L. on May 1, 2010 8:26 PM

I'm glad to hear that you still attend the Conference on World Affairs, and have continued Cinema Interruptus. I went to CU and happily skipped a week of class to come to CI. I will never forget watching "Silence of the Lambs" and "Citizen Kane" with you in Mackey. I've always wanted to thank you for sharing a week of your time, wit and passion for film with those of us in Boulder. It was infectious, in a lasting way. By Ricardo Cantoral on May 2, 2010 4:01 PM

Aguirre is one of my all time favorite film characters. What he does is slowly consume everyone in the picture until he is the only one left. I never know if I should consider him a protagonist or antagonist really; Or maybe the film is beyond that scope. By Tom Dark on May 4, 2010 10:16 PM

Rosie @Tom Dark:

If I am not mistaken, I believe it might have been you who mentioned The Story of the Weeping Camel in the comment section of one of Roger's journal entries. I want to thank you for that recommendation. It is a wonderful film and one I probably would have missed otherwise.

---Good Lord, I did! You're welcome, Rosie. Look out, Roger, just look out, that's all. By Jean-Jacques de Mesterton on June 21, 2010 2:29 PM

I once took a beating in New Orleans. The police got involved when my client complained that his representative had been "besieged by hordes of scumbags, without the slightest official regard paid to his safety and well-being." My client was a gentleman of considerable means, an honest broker in a city where thuggery was institutionalised, and a man who still believed in God. I was obliged to resign from this excellent fellow's employ, and to find my way back from the brink with the admixture of force in my name alone. Werner Herzog's Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans is one of the best logically perverse movies made in recent years; the film captured the obscenity of doing well by seriously misbehaving in a place where life is often upside-down.

I read all of your reviews, Roger (sometimes by proxy, since I haven't constant access to the web). My pleasingly pulchritudinous wife M-J and I particularly enjoyed your analysis of the latest Robin Hood film, starring Russell Crowe and directed by Ridley Scott. In this entertaining essay, you lament the loss of innocence that Mr Scott's well-crafted but darkly violent reinvention of an invention represents--thank you, Roger!

I like the Esquire picture of your face, which looks the same to me, because your intelligent, lively eyes are undimmed. You are a wonderful person, Roger, an inspiration to this repentant sinner.

Toujours fidle,

Jean-Jacques

Ebert: Always a pleasure to hear from you, mon frere. By anna on September 29, 2010 1:56 PM

i have heard to my horror that many animals including illamas were delibertly drowned in thids film for effect, much as I admire Herzog this if true can never be acceptable, does anyone know this for sure Leave a comment Name (I understand that the information I provide here will be published with my comment)

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