Werner Herzog: Filmmaking and Notable Works

Werner Herzog: A Filmmaker's Journey

• Werner Herzog is a highly respected and unconventional filmmaker with a career spanning over six decades.
• Herzog has directed over 70 documentaries and feature films, exploring diverse and extreme subjects.
• Herzog's films delve into nature's power, human frailties, and the boundaries of sanity.
• At 82, Herzog continues to work, creating unique and unconventional films.

Aguirre, the Wrath of God

• This 1972 film introduced Herzog to the world.
• The film follows conquistadors in the Amazon searching for a lost city of gold leading to them descending into madness.
• The film was shot on a limited budget in Peru.
• Herzog once sold his shoes to obtain fish for the crew.
• His films, not money, are his "loot".
• Money earned is reinvested into his next film ventures.

Grizzly Man

• This is among Herzog's most commercially successful documentaries.
• Timothy Treadwell, an eccentric, spent 13 summers in Alaska, interacting with grizzly bears and recording it.
• Treadwell believed he had a spiritual connection with the bears and saw himself as their protector.
• Herzog views nature as indifferent, not conducive to forming kinship with bears.

Herzog's Documentary Style

• Herzog's films contain remarkable and nightmarish moments.
• His curiosity has led him to explore remote regions of the planet.
• Herzog narrates his documentaries with a distinctive tone, posing questions with complex answers.
• Herzog has filmed hidden landscapes under the Antarctic ice sheet, apocalyptic oil fires in Kuwait, the power of volcanoes, and ancient cave paintings in France.

Current Project

• Herzog is currently working on a documentary in Los Angeles about the search for a legendary herd of elephants in southern Africa.
• He emphasizes that it is not a wildlife film but a "fantasy of elephants."

Early Life and Influences

• Born in Munich in 1942, just before the Allied bombing.
• Grew up in poverty in the mountains of Bavaria, lacking basic amenities.
• This early experience shaped his perspective.
• Saw his first film at age 11 and was drawn to American B movies like Zoro.
• Decided filmmaking was his destiny and acquired a camera from a film school without permission.

Fitzcarraldo

• In 1979, Herzog began working on Fitzcarraldo, a film he would spend three grueling years making.
• The film stars Claus Kinsky as an obsessed Irishman determined to build an opera house in the Amazon.
• Fitzcarraldo plans to harvest rubber trees to raise money and hires indigenous laborers to haul a ship over a mountain.
• Herzog insisted on moving a 340-ton steamship over a mountain, refusing to use special effects.
• Border disputes forced production to relocate, leading to money problems, plane crashes, and conflicts among local groups.
• Werner Herzog described the shoot as challenging nature itself and dealing with the misery of the environment.
• Werner Herzog said, "the trees here are in misery and the birds are in misery I don't think they they sing they just screech in pain did you feel that every day every night and the next day and the next night"
• The chaotic behind-the-scenes events were documented and turned into the film Burden of Dreams
• Herzog had to manage the explosive temper of Klaus Kinski, the film's star.
• According to Klaus Kinsky, in his autobiography, Herzog is "dull, humorless, uptight, and swaggering" as well as "a miserable hateful malevolent avaricious money hungry nasty sadistic treacherous cowardly creep"
• In 1982, Fitzcarraldo was released and Herzog won Best Director at the can film festival.
• Herzog considers himself "clinically safe" amidst the "craziness" of the film industry.

Writing Career

• Herzog has journals from the making of Fitzcarraldo, which he turned into a book called The Conquest of the Useless.
• He has published 11 books, including fiction, poetry, and Memoirs.
• Herzog predicts his writing will outlive his films.

Acting and Other Work

• Herzog has also acted, appearing in the Star Wars series The Mandalorian.
• He has voiced characters on The Simpsons.

Film School for Rogues

• Herzog teaches aspiring filmmakers on the island of laama, focusing on poetic vision and grit.
• Calls it a "film school for Rogues."
• Herzog advises students to work odd and difficult jobs to finance films.
• He teaches students how to forge permits and pick locks.
• He advises to carry Bol Cutters everywhere.