Werner journeys to the Kaierteur Falls in Guyana with Dr. Graham Dorrington, an obsessive engineer who is still struggling with the death of filmmaker Dieter Plage in his earlier prototype airship in the Sumatran rainforest 12 years earlier. The White Diamond follows their expedition but is as much a psychological examination of the fragile and damaged individuals as it is of an improbable and miraculous white airship floating like some magical apparition in the haze of the jungle canopy.
On site in Guyana, Herzog stumbles upon a parallel story of loss and longing in the character of local Rastafarian Mark Anthony, a diamond miner who is a hired hand in the professor's project. Anthony quietly and placidly reveals to Herzog the story of the loss of his family -- eight brothers, two sisters and his mother -- who have all emigrated to Spain and who he wishes to see more than anything else.
As Anthony watches the professor undertake test flights of the craft, he muses how he would like to fly the craft over the Atlantic Ocean and land on his family's roof in Malaga, Spain, and say to them, "Hello, I am home." Ultimately, there are two heroes in the film, Dorrington and Anthony. Dorrington overcomes his ghosts and past failures by fine-tuning his craft and successfully flying it around the jungle canopy with Herzog, who comes along for the ride to film.
Anthony, meanwhile, presents a figure of strength and perseverance, as well as deep wisdom. At one point, when Herzog poses an unusually banal question to him, Anthony flatly replies, "I cannot hear you for the thunder that you are," effectively brushing off the director. He is clearly deeply appreciated by the crew for his composure and his optimism in the face of hardship. Finally, he's offered a ride, after which he comments that his only regret was that his pet rooster wasn't able to join him.
Aguirre - Wrath of God (1973)
Aguirre Gonzalo Pizarro has led his men into the jungle in search of El Dorado. Now, with supplies running out, he is contemplating a retreat. But in case the fabled city of gold should be round the next bend, he decides to send a small advance party to explore upriver. This smaller group is reluctantly led by aristocrat Don Pedro de Ursua, with Aguirre his second in command. Also present - along with soldiers and slaves - are the priest Gaspar de Carvajal, the nobleman Fernando de Guzman, Ursua's wife Flores, Aguirre's daughter Inez, and a black slave named Okello.
Aguirre leads a putsch - the choice of term is deliberate if we take Aguirre as a stand-in for Hitler - overthrowing de Ursua, then bides his time by encouraging de Guzman's election as leader. The nobleman, who gorges himself as the others share a few meagre grains of corn amongst themselves and shows no concern for their wellbeing, soon goes the same way as his predecessor. Any hope that Aguirre would prove any better is soon shattered as the expedition continues deeper and deeper into the green inferno.
This is a film that has to be experienced, from its breathtaking opening sequence - an endless stream of men flowing through the winding mountain paths in the distance whilst in the foreground Klaus Kinski deploys his all but patented manic stare, accompanied by the otherwordly strains of Popol Vuh's ambient music.
Madness is impossible to separate from Werner Herzog's method here in his denial of the conventional boundaries between fiction and documentary with the cast and crew submitting themselves to similar conditions as their filmic subjects. The near constant fights between director and star are now the stuff of legend.
Werner Herzog (born Werner Stipetic on September 5, 1942) is a German film director, screenwriter, actor, and opera director.
He is often associated with the German New Wave movement (also called New German Cinema), along with Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Volker Schlöndorff, Wim Wenders and others. His films often feature heroes with impossible dreams or people with unique talents in obscure fields.
Werner Herzog Eats His Shoe
EARLY LIFE
Herzog was born "Werner Stipetic" (IPA pronunciation: [st?p?t?t?]) in Munich. He adopted the name Herzog, which means "duke" in German later in life. His mother was of Croatian descent and his father abandoned them early in Herzog's youth.[1] He grew up in a remote village in Bavaria. When he was thirteen he and his family shared an apartment with Klaus Kinski in Elisabethstr. in Munich-Schwabing. About this, Herzog recalled, "I knew at that moment that I would be a film director and that I would direct Kinski".
The same year, Herzog was told to sing in front of his class at school and he adamantly refused. He was almost expelled for this and until the age of eighteen listened to no music, sang no songs and studied no instruments. At fourteen he was inspired by an encyclopedia entry about film-making which he says provided him with "everything I needed to get myself started" as a film-maker - that, and the 35mm camera that the young Herzog stole from the Munich Film School.[2] He received his post-secondary education at the University of Munich and Duquesne University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
In the early 1960s Herzog worked night shifts as a welder in a steel factory to help fund his first films.
FAMILY
Herzog has been married three times and has had three children. In 1967 Herzog married Martje Grohmann, with whom he had a son in 1973, Rudolph Amos Achmed. In 1980 his daughter Hanna Mattes was born to Eva Mattes. In 1987, Herzog married Christine Maria Ebenberger. Their son, Simon David Alexander Herzog, was born in 1989. In 1999 Herzog married photographer Lena Pisetski (now Herzog). They now live in Los Angeles.
FILMS AND CRITICISM
Herzog's films have received considerable critical acclaim and achieved popularity on the art house circuit. They have also been the subject of controversy in regard to their themes and messages, especially the circumstances surrounding their creation. A notable example is Fitzcarraldo, in which the obsessiveness of the central character is mirrored by the director in the making of his film. His treatment of subjects has been characterized as Wagnerian in its scope, as Fitzcarraldo and his later film Invincible (2001) are directly inspired by opera, or operatic themes.
Herzog directed five films starring the German actor Klaus Kinski: Aguirre: The Wrath of God, Nosferatu, Woyzeck, Fitzcarraldo, and Cobra Verde. In 1999 he directed and narrated the documentary film My Best Fiend, a retrospective on his often rocky relationship with Kinski.
“But Werner believes in the motto, when one wants something enough, one can do it! He is a visionary and he managed to realize the impossible. He has surpassed himself. To me, Fitzcarraldo is a poetic and brilliant adventure. Only Werner could have transformed this utopia into reality. Nothing is impossible for him.” --Claudia Cardinale
QUOTES:
...centuries from now our great-great-great-grandchildren will look back at us with amazement at how we could allow such a precious achievement of human culture as the telling of a story to be shattered into smithereens by commercials, the same amazement we feel today when we look at our ancestors for whom slavery, capital punishment, burning of witches, and the inquisition were acceptable everyday events.
The trees are in misery, and the birds are in misery. I don’t think they sing. They just screech in pain. …Taking a close look at what’s around us, there is some sort of harmony: it’s the harmony of overwhelming and collective murder.
I do not believe in the Cinema verite. Sometimes a really good lie is better than any truth.
I try to understand the ocean beneath the thin layer of ice that is civilization. There's miles and miles of deep ocean, of darkness and barbarism. And I know the ice can break easily.
(In response to being shot by a sniper with an air rifle during a BBC interview) "It was not a significant bullet. I am not afraid."
We comprehend... that nuclear power is a real danger for mankind, that over-crowding of the planet is the greatest danger of all. We have understood that the destruction of the environment is another enormous danger. But I truly believe that the lack of adequate imagery is a danger of the same magnitude. It is as serious a defect as being without memory. What have we done to our images? What have we done to our embarrassed landscapes? I have said this before and will repeat it again as long as I am able to talk: if we do not develop adequate images we will die out like dinosaurs.
What would an ocean be without a monster lurking in the dark. It would be like sleep without dreams.
Que devenez vous Werner?Vos films m'ont ébranlés jusqu'a l'os c'etait de la pure poésie il nous donné foi en l'Homme au moins dans son versant lumineux;merde! revenez fêter l'âme universelle d'Holderlin Georgette Kala Lobé
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