RESCUE DAWN (2006) - HERZOG, WERNER. Photography. Britannica ImageQuest, Encyclopædia Britannica, 25 May 2016. quest.eb.com/search/144_1492018/1/144_1492018/cite. Accessed 7 Jan 2017. |
~Werner Herzog
The German filmmaker (producer, director, author, actor) Werner Herzog was born Werner Herzog Stipetić in Bavaria - took the last name of his father for his working name, though his father abandoned the family, because he thought Herzog sounded "better" for a filmmaker. He is considered one of the most important directors of the New German Cinema (other contenders include Wim Wenders and Rainer Werner Fassbinder), but he "didn’t know that cinema existed until [he] was 11." He has made both feature films and documentary films during his long career, but since 1995 he has mainly concentrated on documentaries. He narrates many of his documentaries, and his distinctive voice has also featured in episodes of The Simpsons and Adult Swim's Metalocalypse. He has been called "one of the most diverse, uncompromising and staggeringly prolific filmmakers on the planet," with IMDb listing 68 directing credits, 55 writing credits, and more in acting and producing to his name.
But who better to tell you about Werner Herzog than Herzog himself? Here are some of the internet's favorite Herzog quotes (called by some "wonderfully bonkers"):
Film...is not the art of scholars but of illiterates.
My ideas are like uninvited guests. They don’t knock on the door; they climb in through the windows like burglars who show up in the middle of the night and make a racket in the kitchen as they raid the fridge.
I work very fast and steadily, and I don’t hardly ever notice that I’m working. It feels like just breathing or walking when I do films.
I never have searched for a subject. They always just come along. They never come by way of decision-making. They just haunt me. I can’t get rid of them. I did not invite them.
About his friendship with Klaus Kinski: “People think we had a love-hate relationship. Well, I did not love him, nor did I hate him. We had mutual respect for each other, even as we both planned each other’s murder.”
When I saw the dancing chicken, I knew I would create a grand metaphor - for what, I don't know.
Perhaps I seek certain utopian things, space for human honour and respect, landscapes not yet offended, planets that do not exist yet, dreamed landscapes. Very few people seek these images today.
Do you not then hear this horrible scream all around you that people usually call silence?
In the face of the obscene, explicit malice of the jungle, which lacks only dinosaurs as punctuation, I feel like a half-finished, poorly expressed sentence in a cheap novel.
I’m quite convinced that cooking is the only alternative to film making. Maybe there’s also another alternative; that’s walking on foot.
If you want more Wernerisms, consider checking out the funny Tumblr Werner Herzog Inspirationals. Or, check out something by Werner Herzog from your friendly library catalog - here's a sampling of your options:
Books
Werner Herzog: A Guide For the Perplexed - Conversations With Paul Cronin
Of Walking In Ice : Munich-Paris, 23 November-14 December 1974
Film
Grizzly Man
Happy People: A Year in the Taiga
Cave of Forgotten Dreams
Into the Abyss
Encounters at the End of the World
My Best Fiend
1 comment:
I totally heard that whole post in his voice. Grizzly Man is an incredible documentary and Into the Abyss was heartbreaking.
Post a Comment