[HN Gopher] Werner Herzog: 'Film-making is always some sort of r...
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Werner Herzog: 'Film-making is always some sort of risk-taking'
Author : joubert
Score : 72 points
Date : 2020-06-27 12:24 UTC (1 days ago)
(HTM) web link (www.ft.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.ft.com)
| nkurz wrote:
| Unblocked: http://archive.is/tiOAw
| qilo wrote:
| It looks like archive.is finally resolves correctly via
| Cloudflare DNS servers.
| Reedx wrote:
| Wow, finally indeed. That's been a pain for the longest time.
| What was the holdup anyway?
| mojuba wrote:
| One of the greatest documentalists of our time. A favorite quote
| that has a double meaning in this context:
|
| _Storyboards are the instruments of the cowards_
|
| (For the record, I don't believe the above is true for iOS
| development :)
| aphextron wrote:
| Not just documentaries, but films too. Fitzcarraldo, Cobra
| Verde, and Aguirre Wrath of God are some of the best films ever
| made.
| IMAYousaf wrote:
| My single favorite scene from any Herzog related film:
|
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zWH_9VRWn8Y
|
| Herzog inquires and videos insane penguins in Antarctica as they
| march on towards their doom.
| [deleted]
| atlasunshrugged wrote:
| There was also a very good interview done with him (~1.5hrs) a
| while back https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eua5iPUKw6Y
| kevinskii wrote:
| Unfortunately this was the interview that diminished my opinion
| of him somewhat. He was obnoxiously self-absorbed and self-
| congratulatory throughout.
| nowandlater wrote:
| I see what you mean, but wow, his description of Klaus Kinski
| frothing at the mouth while shattering a wine glass by
| screaming at it (whether true or not) definitely makes me
| want to keep watching -- Herzog is unapologetically over the
| top, but he sure knows how to tell a story.
| at_a_remove wrote:
| I mean, if there was someone who _could_ scream at a wine
| glass loud enough to make it shatter, Klaus Kinksi would be
| that person. He was, by all accounts, only of utility to
| humanity when chained to a stage. Even the director who
| made "Please Kill Mr. Kinski" after working with him said
| that he was great in front of a camera.
| fossuser wrote:
| My read was similar, I also couldn't get through Lo and
| Behold which set off bullshit alarms [0] and just gave me the
| impression of confidence being used in the place of actual
| explanation.
|
| It feels like an emperor has no clothes situation. For some
| reason people think it signals high status or intellectualism
| to like Herzog so they say they do.
|
| I haven't watched all of his movies so this may be unfairly
| harsh, but that was my initial impression.
|
| Portal podcast also came across that way to me. First
| interview with Thiel was interesting, but I stopped somewhere
| after the next couple.
|
| Too much "the media doesn't want us to talk about this" and
| "the Clintons are a globalist conspiracy against the people".
|
| If you have real arguments then make them.
|
| Don't just confidently state things as fact without backing
| them up.
|
| Thankfully when Sam Harris was on he at least pushed back on
| some of the bullshit.
|
| [0]: https://youtu.be/Bqx6li5dbEY
| hawkice wrote:
| The paywall is stopping me from learning Herzog appreciates the
| Fast and Furious franchise as much as I do.
| op03 wrote:
| Running joke with the boss - we will do it only if you eat your
| shoe - https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/1979-werner-herzog-
| at...
| brudgers wrote:
| On YouTube https://youtu.be/RNNGzMK5e4c
| paulcole wrote:
| This guy dragged a boat over a freaking mountain so he knows what
| he's talking about.
| andi999 wrote:
| While I applaude and admire his effort, I am somewhat concerned
| with the result. Can anybody elaborate why his movies are
| considered great? (This is not a rhetorical question, I am
| curious what other see that I do not.)
| mitchbob wrote:
| Here's Roger Ebert on Herzog's Nosferatu, one of my
| favorites: https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/great-movie-
| nosferatu-the... . For me, the quality of Herzog's films is
| wildly variable, but in his best films, he's a poet of human
| extremes and vulnerabilities, as in his documentary The Great
| Ecstasy of the Woodcarver Steiner, about a champion ski
| jumper https://slate.com/culture/2018/02/the-genius-of-
| werner-herzo... and The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser
| https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/the-enigma-of-kaspar-
| haus...
| spiderjerusalem wrote:
| He said somewhere that he wants to portray the 'madness in
| the hearts of men' and I think that is a very good guiding
| principle to view his oeuvre from.
| saiya-jin wrote:
| Must say, his portrait of Rheinhold Messner's and Hans
| Kammerlander's double summit of both Gasherburms in one go is
| on another level compared to basically any mountain
| documentaries of that era. Name is Dark glow of the
| mountains, german speaking but I found some english
| subtitles.
|
| You have dark aspects of protagonists revealed, questions
| about what to do with belongings if they don't come back and
| so on. Its not the style that was common at that time. I
| mean, it gives you perspective on extreme mountaineering and
| people doing it like few documents do, even in these days.
|
| Whether you like Messner's personality or not, its a damn
| fine documentary and shows why these guys are not mere
| athletes like world champions/olympic winners.
| beloch wrote:
| I love many of Werner's movies (and dislike a couple). He
| tends to root things in historical fact without going _too_
| far afield. His protagonists are usually realistically flawed
| and frequently outright unhinged (e.g. most of Kinski 's
| roles). Many of his films have a uniquely lyrical character,
| and his taste in music usually coincides with my own. (If you
| hate the music a director chooses it often makes it hard to
| like his films). His documentaries (e.g. "Little Dieter Needs
| to Fly" or "Grizzly Man") feature unique and fascinating
| people, and Herzog digs deep into their stories.
|
| It's okay to hate good films though. A big part of
| appreciating culture is learning to recognize when something
| is good, but not for you. e.g. Many go gaga for Antonioni's
| "L'Avventura". It may have done some pretty revolutionary
| things for film, but I hate it with a passion. I can't stand
| it's plot structure and loathe every one of it's characters.
| I recognize that it is a good film, but also that it's not
| for me.
|
| Be careful to say, "I didn't like that film" instead of "That
| is a bad film because I didn't like it".
| leephillips wrote:
| They're considered great by the people who consider them
| great. Personally, I think he's insufferable. He was granted
| exclusive access to make a documentary about the Chauvet
| caves, and made a film mostly about himself. What a waste.
| evan_ wrote:
| _He_ didn 't, he hired indigenous people to do it.
| pimeys wrote:
| And worked with Kinski. Lucky he's still alive!
|
| brilliant movies though...
| noblethrasher wrote:
| It's Kinski that is lucky to have survived the filming:
|
| "In _My Best Fiend_ , Herzog says that one of the native
| chiefs offered in all seriousness to kill Kinski for him, but
| that he declined because he needed the actor to complete
| filming"[1]
|
| [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fitzcarraldo
| staticautomatic wrote:
| Yeah the movie made it very blurry as to whether Herzog
| liked, respected, tolerated, or used Kinski. Maybe all
| those things.
| weinzierl wrote:
| Not to forget when he was shot _" with an insignificant
| bullet"_ in the middle of a BBC interview in LA[1].
|
| Also, if I had the choice between dragging a 320 ton steamship
| over a mountain in the Amazon rainforest and working with a gun
| carrying Klaus Kinski, I'd certainly chose the former. No
| wonder nothing can frighten Werner Herzog, I guess.
|
| [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HrRNM9cMBDk
| js2 wrote:
| _Fitzcarraldo_ for anyone who doesn 't know the reference.
| [deleted]
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