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Werner Herzog – A Guide for the Perplexed: Conversations with Paul Cronin
This edition of Herzog on Herzog presents a completely new set of interviews in which Werner Herzog discusses his career from its very beginnings to his most recent productions.
Herzog was once hailed by Francois Truffaut as the most important director alive. Famous for his frequent collaborations with mercurial actor Klaus Kinski - including the epics, Aguirre, the Wrath of God and Fitzcarraldo, and the terrifying Nosferatu - and more recently with documentaries such as Grizzly Man, Cave of Forgotten Dreams and Into the Abyss, Herzog has built a body of work that is one of the most vital in post-war German cinema.
Herzog was once hailed by Francois Truffaut as the most important director alive. Famous for his frequent collaborations with mercurial actor Klaus Kinski - including the epics, Aguirre, the Wrath of God and Fitzcarraldo, and the terrifying Nosferatu - and more recently with documentaries such as Grizzly Man, Cave of Forgotten Dreams and Into the Abyss, Herzog has built a body of work that is one of the most vital in post-war German cinema.
592 pages, Kindle Edition
First published July 1, 2003
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 213 reviews
August 26, 2008
There are just too many fantastic stories here, from the time Herzog intentionally jumped onto a bed of cacti in order to appease a bunch of dwarves, to the time he was life-flighted out of a country in a cage being hoisted by a helicopter ("I was frozen to the cage, so the film crew had to urinate on my hand!") But maybe my favorite was the exchange about Herzog eating his shoe, which went something like this:
Herzog: There should be more shoe-eating in this country! Do you remember that man who ate his bicycle? I think the last I heard he was attempting to eat an airplane. I love that man!
Interviewer: That man is dead.
Herzog: Ah, well. Another like him will come along.
Herzog: There should be more shoe-eating in this country! Do you remember that man who ate his bicycle? I think the last I heard he was attempting to eat an airplane. I love that man!
Interviewer: That man is dead.
Herzog: Ah, well. Another like him will come along.
August 8, 2007
if you asked me as a child what i wanted to be when i grew up, i would say herzog. you might want to avoid me when i have this in my hands because i'll start reading you my favorite passages, you'll have a beard a mile long by the time i'm finished. even if you're a woman.
September 1, 2014
If you are hoping to gain some deep insight into the process by which famous directors plan their storyboards and ensure that they have adequate coverage of their angles from this book, save your money and buy a different one.
If you want to discover more about Herzog's private live, you should look elsewhere.
If though, like me, you are captivated by the power of Herzog's films, the poetry of his landscapes, the direct and fearless assault he makes on subjects as diverse as the aftermath of the Gulf War, Sky-Fliers, Death Row, the McMurdo research station, and want to know a more about his ideas and his work, then this book is invaluable.
This book is an expanded and revised version of Cronin's earlier "Herzog on Herzog" (Faber & Faber, 2003). It consists of a series of interviews between Cronin and Herzog, edited by them both, that took place over the 10 years to 2012. Cronin prompts; Herzog explains, elucidates, reformulates, expounds, recaps and explains again.
Herzog's philosophy is clearly stated throughout. Simply put, he believes that real life is everything, and it is through intimate and committed contact with real life that we discover true understanding and meaning.
The quote from its pages that brought me to this book was: "The best advice I can offer to those heading into the world of film is not to wait for the system to finance your projects and for others to decide your fate. If you can’t afford to make a million-dollar film, raise $10,000 and produce it yourself. That’s all you need to make a feature film these days. Beware of useless, bottom-rung secretarial jobs in film-production companies. Instead, so long as you are able-bodied, head out to where the real world is. Roll up your sleeves and work as a bouncer in a sex club or a warden in a lunatic asylum or a machine operator in a slaughterhouse. Drive a taxi for six months and you’ll have enough money to make a film. Walk on foot, learn languages and a craft or trade that has nothing to do with cinema."
There is a vast amount of fascinating material in this book about the adventures he endured making his films, but what left the most indelible impression on me was rather the strength of his passion for all the incredible situations and people that he has noticed over the years. Situations and people from the real world that a thousand others could have noticed, but didn't. Situations and people for which he had the vision and perseverance to capture on film and to transform with his unique insight and provide us with understanding and meaning through his films.
An essential book for anyone who lives, or wishes to live, in the real world.
If you want to discover more about Herzog's private live, you should look elsewhere.
If though, like me, you are captivated by the power of Herzog's films, the poetry of his landscapes, the direct and fearless assault he makes on subjects as diverse as the aftermath of the Gulf War, Sky-Fliers, Death Row, the McMurdo research station, and want to know a more about his ideas and his work, then this book is invaluable.
This book is an expanded and revised version of Cronin's earlier "Herzog on Herzog" (Faber & Faber, 2003). It consists of a series of interviews between Cronin and Herzog, edited by them both, that took place over the 10 years to 2012. Cronin prompts; Herzog explains, elucidates, reformulates, expounds, recaps and explains again.
Herzog's philosophy is clearly stated throughout. Simply put, he believes that real life is everything, and it is through intimate and committed contact with real life that we discover true understanding and meaning.
The quote from its pages that brought me to this book was: "The best advice I can offer to those heading into the world of film is not to wait for the system to finance your projects and for others to decide your fate. If you can’t afford to make a million-dollar film, raise $10,000 and produce it yourself. That’s all you need to make a feature film these days. Beware of useless, bottom-rung secretarial jobs in film-production companies. Instead, so long as you are able-bodied, head out to where the real world is. Roll up your sleeves and work as a bouncer in a sex club or a warden in a lunatic asylum or a machine operator in a slaughterhouse. Drive a taxi for six months and you’ll have enough money to make a film. Walk on foot, learn languages and a craft or trade that has nothing to do with cinema."
There is a vast amount of fascinating material in this book about the adventures he endured making his films, but what left the most indelible impression on me was rather the strength of his passion for all the incredible situations and people that he has noticed over the years. Situations and people from the real world that a thousand others could have noticed, but didn't. Situations and people for which he had the vision and perseverance to capture on film and to transform with his unique insight and provide us with understanding and meaning through his films.
An essential book for anyone who lives, or wishes to live, in the real world.
February 19, 2009
Herzog is, simply, incomparable. Who else thinks or speaks like this man? His rare combination of humility, disarming thoughtfulness and blunt honesty provide an antidote to the typical glibness of those involved in the movie business. Of course, Herzog would probably dislike someone associating him with the movie business; he'd argue that he was in the business of dreams. And he would be right. He is a craftsman of dreams. (He would undoubtedly reject being called an artist of dreams, although it's more appropriate.)
These interviews (or, rather, this extended interview) provide the best autobiography we are likely to get from Herzog. He is anecdotal, digressive, gossipy (without being shallow), often hilarious, and always astonishingly coherent. Upon completion of the book, I was left with the impression that Herzog is, more even than a filmmaker and writer, a man who thinks.
Above everything else I can take from this man (including his injunction to NEVER listen to the Song of Life) is his insistence that a "grown-up man should eat his shoes once in a while or do things that make equal sense".
Indeed.
These interviews (or, rather, this extended interview) provide the best autobiography we are likely to get from Herzog. He is anecdotal, digressive, gossipy (without being shallow), often hilarious, and always astonishingly coherent. Upon completion of the book, I was left with the impression that Herzog is, more even than a filmmaker and writer, a man who thinks.
Above everything else I can take from this man (including his injunction to NEVER listen to the Song of Life) is his insistence that a "grown-up man should eat his shoes once in a while or do things that make equal sense".
Indeed.
June 1, 2022
"The volume and depth and intensity of the world is something that only those on foot will ever experience."
March 23, 2015
"Always take the initiative. There is nothing wrong with spending a night in a jail cell if it means getting the shot you need. Send out all your dogs and one might return with prey. Beware of the cliché. Never wallow in your troubles; despair must be kept private and brief. Learn to live with your mistakes. Study law and scrutinize contracts. Expand your knowledge and understanding of music and literature, old and modern. Keep your eyes open. That roll of unexposed celluloid you have in your hand might be the last in existence, so do something impressive with it. There is never an excuse not to finish a film. Carry bolt cutters everywhere. Thwart institutional cowardice. Ask for forgiveness, not permission. Take your fate into your own hands. Don’t preach on deaf ears. Learn to read the inner essence of a landscape. Ignite the fire within and explore unknown territory. Walk straight ahead, never detour. Learn on the job. Maneuver and mislead, but always deliver. Don’t be fearful of rejection. Develop your own voice. Day one is the point of no return. Know how to act alone and in a group. Guard your time carefully. A badge of honor is to fail a film theory class. Chance is the lifeblood of cinema. Guerrilla tactics are best. Take revenge if need be. Get used to the bear behind you." - Werner Herzog
December 23, 2014
Brilliant. Inspiring read even if you are not a fan of his work. Really puts into perspective how much can be accomplished if only by the sheer will of an individual. No doubts, no excuses, no circumstances to harsh to finish what seemed impossible.
Read
February 15, 2013C’è una caverna enorme in cui vanno a riposare milioni di rondoni. L’accesso a questa caverna è sbarrato dalle cascate di Kaieteur (Guyana britannica; quattro volte più alte delle cascate del Niagara, per dire), quindi solo i rondoni in volo possono entrarvi facilmente, aggirando in volo l’enorme massa d’acqua. Il medico della troupe di Werner Herzog, esperto scalatore, decide di farsi calare con una telecamera per filmare l’interno della caverna, così da rivelarci cosa si cela dietro il muro d’acqua. Fino a qui tutto molto semplice: il medico che si cala con la telecamera, il cinema che ci rivela una verità nascosta. Eppure subito dopo sappiamo che il mistero resterà tale, in quanto per la popolazione del luogo quella caverna è sacra e che, rivelandone la nuda verità, si andrebbe incontro a terribili cataclismi, innescati dalla presunzione umana. Così Werner Herzog decide di mostrarci solo le immagini della telecamera nel momento in cui viene issata assieme al medico-scalatore, e quelle che vediamo sono immagini vorticose di cascata-foresta-cascata-foresta. Io penso di essere come quel medico a cui Herzog ha dato la possibilità di accedere a quello che è tuttora un mistero per tutti gli altri suoi simili e che per rispetto e pudore non rivelerà.
Solo con le opere di Herzog mi è stato concesso di accedere a questo livello di contemplazione estatica del mondo, un po’ come essere riportati al ritmo del respiro primigenio. Le parole precedenti mi fanno sorridere se penso a quanto mi risultino odiosi gli irrazionalisti, i credenti tutti, quelli che “ci sono cose al mondo bellissime che non si possono spiegare, bisogna solo crederci”. Da ateo ho provato sempre un fastidio sottocutaneo ogni volta che percepivo qualche dogma dentro e fuori di me. Questo fastidio si ripete ogni volta che in un ragionamento che vado facendo con qualcuno o con me stesso mi ritrovo a dare per scontata qualche verità. Eppure quando guardo i film di Herzog tutti questi ragionamenti, questi pruriti – che dovrebbero acuirsi considerando le sue opere a volte così… inspiegabili- spariscono, non sono mai esistiti, e rimango come un ebete (sembra di sentir parlare Santa Teresa e i suoi orgasmi berniniani) a contemplare – è questo il termine esatto – la bellezza del mondo. E, per dire, ne Il diamante bianco, quando l’ingegnere aeronautico Graham Dorrington (che ha una passione sfrenata per tutto ciò che si libra nel cielo da quando è piccolo, tanto da aver sacrificato a questa passione cinque dita delle sue mani in un esperimento adolescenziale con un razzo) è sulla riva del fiume, in mezzo alla foresta amazzonica, e racconta l’incidente occorso al suo amico documentarista Dieter Plage, la forza evocativa del suo racconto orale (senza nessun commento, effetto, colonna sonora di sorta), il suo coinvolgimento emotivo così vivo e potente da trasferirsi a me, piccolo e ingenuo spettatore, tutto ciò mi ha avvicinato per vari istanti continuati a una bellezza assoluta (non so come altro descriverla); e quando in seguito, con movimenti lenti della macchina da presa, la visuale si è spostata sopra lo scorrere incessante del fiume e poi sopra la cascata e la nebulizzazione dell’acqua che saliva dalla cascata, con il violoncello di Ernst Reijsiger e il canto dei tenores sardi, i momenti “estatici” sono proseguiti.
A pensarci, uno dovrebbe essere grato ad un regista se questo gli avesse donato, tramite la sua opera, almeno un istante di condivisione del mondo come il mio. Se guardando tutta la sua (supponiamo sterminata) opera questo momento accadesse almeno una volta, lo spettatore in questione dovrebbe essergli davvero grato. Con Herzog capitano continuamente momenti del genere, e potrei elencarveli uno ad uno, disseminati come sono in tutte le sue opere. Stavo cercando nel mio esiguo vocabolario se esistesse un concetto più elevato della gratitudine, ma non l’ho trovato.
Ho scritto di questo libro-conversazione perché era l’unico modo di appuntarmi quello che penso del cinema di Herzog. Tendenzialmente (fatta eccezione per un paio di casi; in questo momento penso alla conversazione fra Hitchcock e Truffaut) i libri-conversazione mi stanno sui maroni. Li trovo delle trovate commerciali molto noiose, che si acquistano per una supposta illusione di avvicinare intimamente l’artista di turno. In questo invece ho trovato tante chicche per gli ossessionati come me da Herzog, anche se poi, alla fine, il mio rapporto con Herzog è fatto di tante immagini e pochissime parole, quasi tutte pronunciate in quell’inglese fantastico e preciso che solo la sua voce riesce a proferire.
www.liberdocet.it
Solo con le opere di Herzog mi è stato concesso di accedere a questo livello di contemplazione estatica del mondo, un po’ come essere riportati al ritmo del respiro primigenio. Le parole precedenti mi fanno sorridere se penso a quanto mi risultino odiosi gli irrazionalisti, i credenti tutti, quelli che “ci sono cose al mondo bellissime che non si possono spiegare, bisogna solo crederci”. Da ateo ho provato sempre un fastidio sottocutaneo ogni volta che percepivo qualche dogma dentro e fuori di me. Questo fastidio si ripete ogni volta che in un ragionamento che vado facendo con qualcuno o con me stesso mi ritrovo a dare per scontata qualche verità. Eppure quando guardo i film di Herzog tutti questi ragionamenti, questi pruriti – che dovrebbero acuirsi considerando le sue opere a volte così… inspiegabili- spariscono, non sono mai esistiti, e rimango come un ebete (sembra di sentir parlare Santa Teresa e i suoi orgasmi berniniani) a contemplare – è questo il termine esatto – la bellezza del mondo. E, per dire, ne Il diamante bianco, quando l’ingegnere aeronautico Graham Dorrington (che ha una passione sfrenata per tutto ciò che si libra nel cielo da quando è piccolo, tanto da aver sacrificato a questa passione cinque dita delle sue mani in un esperimento adolescenziale con un razzo) è sulla riva del fiume, in mezzo alla foresta amazzonica, e racconta l’incidente occorso al suo amico documentarista Dieter Plage, la forza evocativa del suo racconto orale (senza nessun commento, effetto, colonna sonora di sorta), il suo coinvolgimento emotivo così vivo e potente da trasferirsi a me, piccolo e ingenuo spettatore, tutto ciò mi ha avvicinato per vari istanti continuati a una bellezza assoluta (non so come altro descriverla); e quando in seguito, con movimenti lenti della macchina da presa, la visuale si è spostata sopra lo scorrere incessante del fiume e poi sopra la cascata e la nebulizzazione dell’acqua che saliva dalla cascata, con il violoncello di Ernst Reijsiger e il canto dei tenores sardi, i momenti “estatici” sono proseguiti.
A pensarci, uno dovrebbe essere grato ad un regista se questo gli avesse donato, tramite la sua opera, almeno un istante di condivisione del mondo come il mio. Se guardando tutta la sua (supponiamo sterminata) opera questo momento accadesse almeno una volta, lo spettatore in questione dovrebbe essergli davvero grato. Con Herzog capitano continuamente momenti del genere, e potrei elencarveli uno ad uno, disseminati come sono in tutte le sue opere. Stavo cercando nel mio esiguo vocabolario se esistesse un concetto più elevato della gratitudine, ma non l’ho trovato.
Ho scritto di questo libro-conversazione perché era l’unico modo di appuntarmi quello che penso del cinema di Herzog. Tendenzialmente (fatta eccezione per un paio di casi; in questo momento penso alla conversazione fra Hitchcock e Truffaut) i libri-conversazione mi stanno sui maroni. Li trovo delle trovate commerciali molto noiose, che si acquistano per una supposta illusione di avvicinare intimamente l’artista di turno. In questo invece ho trovato tante chicche per gli ossessionati come me da Herzog, anche se poi, alla fine, il mio rapporto con Herzog è fatto di tante immagini e pochissime parole, quasi tutte pronunciate in quell’inglese fantastico e preciso che solo la sua voce riesce a proferire.
www.liberdocet.it
July 13, 2018
Luminary. Herzog is a contrived and dour and absurd man, and yet charming and sincere. Here is him describing one 6 month block of his youth:
His whole life is lived with this undemonstrative fervour.
The interviewer is completely uninspired: he just works his way stolidly through Herzog's back catalogue, with no insight into anything much ("Precautions Against Fanatics was your first colour film, a bizarre comedy set at a racetrack where various individuals feel it necessary to protect the animals from local 'fanatics'. Any comments?"); we are fortunate that Herzog is self-stimulating and full of himself. I'll just let him show you how good he is:
Everything he makes is worth your time (even Dinotasia is so bad it's good).
I ended up penniless and was pushed around from place to place for weeks until finally I was picked up on a country road by the Franklin family. The mother had six children between seventeen and twenty-seven, her husband had died and there was a ninety-three-year-old grandmother. I owe them so much, this wonderful, crazy family who put me up in an attic... Of course I needed to earn some money, so I started to work on a project that was part of a series of films for NASA. That I made films for NASA always appears on those five-line biographies, and even if it is somehow true, it is completely irrelevant. I did have access to certain restricted areas and was able to talk to many of the scientists, but just before I was about to start work on the film they ran a security check...
It was evident I was about to be expelled from the country... so I took a rusty old Volkswagen and went to New York during a very bitter winter. I lived in the car for some time, even though its floor as rusted right through and I had a cast on my leg at the time because I had broken it quite badly after jumping out of a window... at night, when it gets cold, say at 3 or 4 a.m., the homeless of New York - who live almost like Neanderthal men - come and gather together on some empty, utterly desolate street and stand over fires they have kindled in the metal rubbish bins without speaking a word. Eventually I just cut the whole cast off with a pair of poultry shears and fled across the border into
Mexico.
His whole life is lived with this undemonstrative fervour.
The interviewer is completely uninspired: he just works his way stolidly through Herzog's back catalogue, with no insight into anything much ("Precautions Against Fanatics was your first colour film, a bizarre comedy set at a racetrack where various individuals feel it necessary to protect the animals from local 'fanatics'. Any comments?"); we are fortunate that Herzog is self-stimulating and full of himself. I'll just let him show you how good he is:
I have never been one of those who cares about happiness. Happiness is a strange notion. I am just not made for it. It has never been a goal of mine; I do not think in those terms. It seems to be a goal
in life for many people, but I have no goals in life.
I am someone who takes everything very literally... I am like a Bavarian bullfrog just squatting there, brooding. I have never been capable of discussing art with people. I just cannot cope with irony. The French love to play with their words and to master French is to be a master of irony. Technically, I am able to speak the language - I know the words and verbs - but will do so only when I am really forced to.
I was forbidden to use fireworks. I told the army major that it was essential for the film. 'You'll be arrested,' he said. 'Then arrest me,' I said, 'but know that I will not be unarmed tomorrow. And the first man who touches me will drop down dead with me.' The next day there were fifty policemen and soldiers standing watching me work, plus a few thousand people from the town who wanted to see the fireworks. Of course, I was not armed, but how were they to know? Nobody complained or said anything. So through all these incidents I learned very quickly that this was the very nature of filmmaking.
Everything he makes is worth your time (even Dinotasia is so bad it's good).
January 22, 2015
The bulk of this book is a dialogue between Cronin and Herzog - or rather, Cronin gives a theme and Herzog delivers a small essay. The later parts are a few collected poems of Herzog, an autobiographical fragment of traveling through Germany, and a few essays on Herzog.
The dialogue goes through Herzog's entire life and work up until ~2013, focusing mostly on his movies, especially his philosophy of his work. What impressed me most about this is how much Herzog is on fire for his work, he never compromises anything, with a certain pride to commit crimes in order to make his movies possible (forging documents, stealing cameras, a few break-ins, planned murders (understandable with Kinsi) etc.). I wish I would burn just half as much as that man.
The dialogue is full of great quotes on the theme Herzog vs. The World full of humor and warmth, here two examples:
or
or on one of Herzog's common themes, mankind's relationship with the indifferent universe:
The dialogue is filled to the brim with amazing anecdotes, some of which you may have heard already (the shoe-eating, the many quarrels with Klaus Kinski including that one time the local Natives offered to murder Kinski, all the crimes committed to get the movie done...), highly recommended. If you're not a fan of Herzog's movies or you haven't seen them, I'm pretty sure some parts will drag as you won't really know what he's talking about.
Recommended for: Those interested in impressive people, fans of Herzog,
Not recommended for: tax officials
The dialogue goes through Herzog's entire life and work up until ~2013, focusing mostly on his movies, especially his philosophy of his work. What impressed me most about this is how much Herzog is on fire for his work, he never compromises anything, with a certain pride to commit crimes in order to make his movies possible (forging documents, stealing cameras, a few break-ins, planned murders (understandable with Kinsi) etc.). I wish I would burn just half as much as that man.
The dialogue is full of great quotes on the theme Herzog vs. The World full of humor and warmth, here two examples:
Parents these days even send their children to the sandpit with a helmet. The whole thing is repulsive. I would never trust in a man who has had multiple helmets by the age of five.
or
You would get me watching WrestleMania before you could drag me into a theatre. I'm much more comfortable with the vulgarity of that crowd. There is more honesty in WrestleMania's fakery than in traditional theatre.
or on one of Herzog's common themes, mankind's relationship with the indifferent universe:
The overwhelming quality of the universe is monumental indifference and lack of order. It's a statistical improbability we're even on the plant, this miniscule speck surrounded by a myriad of uninhabitable, hostile and lethal stars that boil in nuclear rage. Look at the solar system from a satellite and see how utterly insignificant Earth looks. The universe couldn't care less about us, and I hope I never have to call upon it for asssistance.
The dialogue is filled to the brim with amazing anecdotes, some of which you may have heard already (the shoe-eating, the many quarrels with Klaus Kinski including that one time the local Natives offered to murder Kinski, all the crimes committed to get the movie done...), highly recommended. If you're not a fan of Herzog's movies or you haven't seen them, I'm pretty sure some parts will drag as you won't really know what he's talking about.
Recommended for: Those interested in impressive people, fans of Herzog,
Not recommended for: tax officials
April 15, 2015
I have enjoyed many of Werner Herzog's films but knew little of him otherwise before reading this book. The author interviewed him over many years and organized their conversations according to the order of release of the films they discussed. Herzog cooperated with the author reluctantly... "Facing the stark alternative to see a book on me compiled from dusty interviews with all the wild distortions and lies, or collaborating – I choose the much worse option: to collaborate." The result is a fascinating glimpse of the mind of a poet who happens to express himself in the form of film.
Although well known as a director of documentaries, Herzog interprets the genre differently than most of his peers. “Of course, we can’t disregard the factual; it has normative power. But it can never give us the kind of illumination, the ecstatic flash, from which truth emerges.” Reality has always been too obscure and unknowable for Werner to tackle head on. Mere facts – the “accountant’s truth” – have a shameful sterility about them, which is why he constantly plays with such things. He knows we respond more intensely to poetry than reportage and actuality, that the poet is able to articulate a more intensified, condensed, elevated and mysterious truth, that the artist is – wrote Amos Vogel". For me the book is an inspiring story of personal conviction, courageous exploration, and creativity.
Although well known as a director of documentaries, Herzog interprets the genre differently than most of his peers. “Of course, we can’t disregard the factual; it has normative power. But it can never give us the kind of illumination, the ecstatic flash, from which truth emerges.” Reality has always been too obscure and unknowable for Werner to tackle head on. Mere facts – the “accountant’s truth” – have a shameful sterility about them, which is why he constantly plays with such things. He knows we respond more intensely to poetry than reportage and actuality, that the poet is able to articulate a more intensified, condensed, elevated and mysterious truth, that the artist is – wrote Amos Vogel". For me the book is an inspiring story of personal conviction, courageous exploration, and creativity.
January 29, 2020
I wasn't perplexed to begin with. Since I saw "Aguirre" in the 1970s I've been a super fan, in love with the mystery and poetry of Herzog's films.
I don't know if I'll finish this fine book, because, the more I hear from Mr. Herzog, explaining away the 'perplexity,' the more I just want to remain inside his films and not his mind.
I don't know if I'll finish this fine book, because, the more I hear from Mr. Herzog, explaining away the 'perplexity,' the more I just want to remain inside his films and not his mind.
September 3, 2014
Great book, which contains interviews with one of the most interesting directors of all time. I found that in Herzog's life there was an episode which is very similar to the story that is told in Rachel Joyce's "The Unlikely pilgrimage of Harold Fry". Fantastic how things like that could actually happen! Recommend this book for Herzog's fans and those who are interested in New German Cinema.
October 21, 2020
Herr Herzog explains it all.
And offers up some wonderful reading lists, too.
And offers up some wonderful reading lists, too.
January 23, 2021
Very fun, funny, insightful, aggravating, hyperbolic and probably containing numerous fanciful reimaginings, nevertheless a fascinating peek into a singular mind.
July 26, 2022
A sensationally invigorating read, it stands among the most inspiring pieces of art i've come across. It will make you want to go on several very long solo treks as well as pick up a cheap camera and start filming. It's an essential source of life advice, wild anecdotes and great prose. Over the last few months Herzog has solidified into a hero of mine, a gleaming white head on my own personal mount rushmore. Well, here is a truly worthwhile and complete paean to the man.
June 13, 2022
Herzog is a genius--though he rails against the word throughout these interviews. His level of articulation and thoughtfulness borders on the absurd, combined with his Bavarian accent in interviews it almost strikes as parodic. But it isn't. This guy thinks very hard and is incredibly analytical. It may be blasphemy to say but I prefer his "documentaries" (quotes his, not mine). They are full of insight and poetic language, both visually and literally speaking. If you are a fan, this is a must-read. If you are not yet a fan, go watch some of his films and do a little research on the guy. If you don't become a fan, I'm sorry to say but you don't have very good taste.
November 27, 2020
This book kept me company for a little over a year. I was already a big fan of Werner Herzog, but reading this while watching most of his films (seen 49 and counting) has put him in the pantheon of my favorite artists of all time. A brilliant read that even those who have not seen his films can still greatly enjoy.
Shelved as 'abandoned'
February 18, 2023Maybe this is a cool book if you've seen most of Herzog's movies.
Otherwise it's just a book filled with an old man rambling and life is too short for that.
Otherwise it's just a book filled with an old man rambling and life is too short for that.
March 3, 2018
I bought this book to learn more about Werner Herzog and his movies. It went way beyond my expectations. What I learned is just how far from a stereotypical movie-maker Herzog is. It’s not about the technical side, or even in some ways about the story. What matters most is achieving direct touch with life through film — screw the trickery, the perfection of endless shots and editing, CGI, and even digital media. Meaning thrives in its raw state.
Herzog’s world is hyper-meaningful. What means nothing to someone else is over-filled with meaning for him. He lives and breathes dramatic extremes. Reading the book, I wondered whether this comes natural to him, or if it is something he purposely projects. It’s pretty clear that it is just who he is. It invades day to day life -- “Waiters in tuxedos intimidate me. It’s misery for me when being waited on; I’m literally close to panic."
The book is the result of interviews that actor Paul Cronin conducted with Herzog some time ago (the first publication of the content of the interviews was an earlier book, Herzog on Herzog, published in 2002). It is edited into roughly the chronological order of Herzog’s films, but his remarks do not stick closely either to the films or the chronology. He is a broad thinker, a broad reader, and we find that he’s done some things as an actor and writer that I, at least, hadn’t known. A collection of poems by Herzog is included after the interview content itself, along with a stylistically unusual essay, Thinking about Germany.
Herzog is iconoclastic. He denies being eccentric — "There’s nothing eccentric about my films; it’s everything else that’s eccentric.” But then that’s just the way everything looks if in fact you are eccentric.
We learn a good bit about Herzog’s life, his childhood, his attitudes, etc. But this is not an autobiography. It is more like a huge flow of self-expression — letting us behind the curtain to see how his mind works. Knowing the flurries of his thinking motivated me to take a new look at movies like Aguirre, Kaspar Hauser, and even the more mainstream Bad Lieutenant.
Despite the 500+ pages, I found it pretty quick reading. It’s a conversation, not an essay, so it flows pretty easily. If you’re a Herzog fan, or if you’ve seen just a few of his movies and been intrigued, it’s well worth your time. It deepened my experience of his films, giving me a kind of extra dimension of watching. I could imagine Herzog’s own thinking about what he was filming, why he was filming it, and why he put together the edits into its final form.
Herzog’s world is hyper-meaningful. What means nothing to someone else is over-filled with meaning for him. He lives and breathes dramatic extremes. Reading the book, I wondered whether this comes natural to him, or if it is something he purposely projects. It’s pretty clear that it is just who he is. It invades day to day life -- “Waiters in tuxedos intimidate me. It’s misery for me when being waited on; I’m literally close to panic."
The book is the result of interviews that actor Paul Cronin conducted with Herzog some time ago (the first publication of the content of the interviews was an earlier book, Herzog on Herzog, published in 2002). It is edited into roughly the chronological order of Herzog’s films, but his remarks do not stick closely either to the films or the chronology. He is a broad thinker, a broad reader, and we find that he’s done some things as an actor and writer that I, at least, hadn’t known. A collection of poems by Herzog is included after the interview content itself, along with a stylistically unusual essay, Thinking about Germany.
Herzog is iconoclastic. He denies being eccentric — "There’s nothing eccentric about my films; it’s everything else that’s eccentric.” But then that’s just the way everything looks if in fact you are eccentric.
We learn a good bit about Herzog’s life, his childhood, his attitudes, etc. But this is not an autobiography. It is more like a huge flow of self-expression — letting us behind the curtain to see how his mind works. Knowing the flurries of his thinking motivated me to take a new look at movies like Aguirre, Kaspar Hauser, and even the more mainstream Bad Lieutenant.
Despite the 500+ pages, I found it pretty quick reading. It’s a conversation, not an essay, so it flows pretty easily. If you’re a Herzog fan, or if you’ve seen just a few of his movies and been intrigued, it’s well worth your time. It deepened my experience of his films, giving me a kind of extra dimension of watching. I could imagine Herzog’s own thinking about what he was filming, why he was filming it, and why he put together the edits into its final form.
February 3, 2014
Good lord, what an amazing man. Werner Herzog has not only made some of the most stunning and wrenching movies of the last 50 years, he's also been everywhere, done everything and been involved in every roiling controversy imaginable.
The book is a set of chronologically arranged interviews covering Herzog's youth, followed by commentary on just about every film he produced through 2001.
At age 14, he walked from native Munich to the Adriatic coast simply because he felt like it. He came to America on a university scholarship which he almost immediately cast aside to live in a rusted-out VW. Then somehow ended up in Mexico, smuggling small items.
He has self-produced every one of his movies, written virtually every screenplay, directed every film, pulled "actors" off the street, worked with the immensely talented but barely functional Klaus Kinski, hauled a ship over a mountain in "Fitzcarraldo," filmed a volcano on the edge of eruption, and overcome absurdist obstacles that most would not even face.
The question, of course: Is all of this true? My guess: Yes and no; it's true in detail but not necessarily in extent. Driven with overwhelming intensity to produce film – which he sees as more important than himself or his trials – he presents his life as a series of cinematic scenes, alternating searing immediacy with odd jump shots. Do these add up to a continuous life, as lived? Hard to say. Certainly, they read like nothing else I've ever run across in the way of autobiography.
He comes across as a man who acts immediately on impulse, but it is impulse wrapped in self-certainty. "I have thought it, so it can be done." And in almost every case (at least in his telling), it was done. His films are segments of himself, and so that self is not yet complete, because all the films have not yet been shot.
He also comes across as a thoroughly decent, caring human being who values everyone that he has worked with. He claims to have no interest in "happiness," but his life may reflect the undefinable Buddhist concept of "joy."
Damn, you have to love him, whether you understand him or not.
The book is a set of chronologically arranged interviews covering Herzog's youth, followed by commentary on just about every film he produced through 2001.
At age 14, he walked from native Munich to the Adriatic coast simply because he felt like it. He came to America on a university scholarship which he almost immediately cast aside to live in a rusted-out VW. Then somehow ended up in Mexico, smuggling small items.
He has self-produced every one of his movies, written virtually every screenplay, directed every film, pulled "actors" off the street, worked with the immensely talented but barely functional Klaus Kinski, hauled a ship over a mountain in "Fitzcarraldo," filmed a volcano on the edge of eruption, and overcome absurdist obstacles that most would not even face.
The question, of course: Is all of this true? My guess: Yes and no; it's true in detail but not necessarily in extent. Driven with overwhelming intensity to produce film – which he sees as more important than himself or his trials – he presents his life as a series of cinematic scenes, alternating searing immediacy with odd jump shots. Do these add up to a continuous life, as lived? Hard to say. Certainly, they read like nothing else I've ever run across in the way of autobiography.
He comes across as a man who acts immediately on impulse, but it is impulse wrapped in self-certainty. "I have thought it, so it can be done." And in almost every case (at least in his telling), it was done. His films are segments of himself, and so that self is not yet complete, because all the films have not yet been shot.
He also comes across as a thoroughly decent, caring human being who values everyone that he has worked with. He claims to have no interest in "happiness," but his life may reflect the undefinable Buddhist concept of "joy."
Damn, you have to love him, whether you understand him or not.
January 26, 2010
This book is an extended interview between Cronin and Herzog and covers his early life and his filmography up until Invincible (2001). Simply put, if you a fan of Herzog’s films this is a must read. Like his films, Herzog is funny, insightful and unique. A lot of this ground is now covered in Herzog’s DVD commentaries, and if you have listened to any of these you’ll be quite familiar with his “ecstatic truth”, his “fever dreams” and his handling of Klaus Kinski. The real treat is the discussion of his smaller films and early filmography, much of which is difficult to find. For those of you interested My Best Fiend, Even Dwarfs Started Small, Woyzeck, The Enigma of Kasper Hauser, and Aguirre, The Wrath of God are all available to view online at the starzmedia channel on YouTube. Since Herzog is so prolific (he has made 9 films subsequent to these interviews), a companion book about these films, as well as his acting roles, would be wonderful.
April 21, 2020
"Ho l'impressione che le immagini che ci circondano al giorno d'oggi siano logore, abusate, inutili ed esauste".
Un viaggio entusiasmante, divertente, profondo all'interno delle immagini create da Werner Herzog, regista e intellettuale di una grandezza e lucidità rare. Che ciò che racconti sia vero o falso poco importa, perché solo nell'immaginazione più fervida - solo nell'irreale - si può cogliere un po' di verità.
Splendido.
Un viaggio entusiasmante, divertente, profondo all'interno delle immagini create da Werner Herzog, regista e intellettuale di una grandezza e lucidità rare. Che ciò che racconti sia vero o falso poco importa, perché solo nell'immaginazione più fervida - solo nell'irreale - si può cogliere un po' di verità.
Splendido.
July 13, 2015
It took me four months to read this, largely because I felt I needed to see the movies referenced in the book. I had to find them everywhere from youtube to the Werner Herzog company in Germany to PAL formatted discs to ROKU channels and so forth. All in all, I've seen 33 of his movies now, more than any other director. It's a fascinating book if you find him a fascinating director, as I do.
November 26, 2017
There is just no one on Earth like Werner Herzog, and this book is a fascinating glimpse into the way his mind works and offers up too many great stories to be highlighted here. I savored this one for a while because I didn't want it to end.
May 20, 2022
I watched 50 Herzog movies and then read this whole book in his voice. The nomadic director is a nexus of experiences and encounters across the world, a polyglot storyteller with an intensity of language that sharpens every page. It reads more like an adventure novel than a biography, though it's a simple interview format about his films in chronological order. He has an endless curiosity to explore and an infectiously great estimation of the human spirit that makes him an inspiration wherever he goes.
Spoiler section is reserved for my top ten Herzog films, just to sneak some movie reviews onto goodreads...
Spoiler section is reserved for my top ten Herzog films, just to sneak some movie reviews onto goodreads...
August 15, 2016
They only thing that's wrong in this book is Herzog's estimation of how unimportant it is. I would argue that it might even change the course of your life.
February 26, 2021
Read this while going through Herzog's filmography this month (vaguely up until the endpoint of this book). Interesting read!
April 15, 2022
53 stars out of 5
"A work of pure genius" is what I think of Herzog's brain.
"A work of pure genius" is what I think of Herzog's brain.
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July 6, 2020I stopped reading because the more Herzog explains himself, the less magic there is.
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