Director's Spotlight: Werner Herzog

 
Ah, Herzog. The great madman of movies. He has been a favorite of mine since I first saw Aguirre back in college 15+ years ago. Something about his work just clicked with me. I can't quite define it, but his work spoke to me. I have always looked forward to seeing his work and he works so prolifically that there is still a lot for me to catch up to. His love of fellow madmen, men walking the fine line between genius and madness, and often falling into the latter, is something that no other filmmaker has put on screen so well.

I also love his adherence to what he calls the "ecstatic truth" in the world. So that a scene in Little Dieter Needs to Fly where former POW Dieter Dengler has to go around and open all the doors and windows in his house so that he knows he's not trapped in there, is not literally true, Dieter didn't really do that, but it is a higher truth that Dieter did feel that way. So it becomes not a moment of fabrication in the middle of a documentary, but more of an abstract search for the highest truth. It is because of this approach that Herzog has said he doesn't see much difference between directing fiction and directing documentaries.

Roger Ebert said that Herzog "has never created a single film that is compromised, shameful, made for pragmatic reasons, or uninteresting. Even his failures are spectacular." And I have to agree.

So, what do you think of the great Werner Herzog's movies?

My list:

1. Aguirre, the Wrath of God - 10/10
2. Lessons of Darkness - 10/10
3. Into the Abyss - 10/10
4. Encounters at the End of the World - 10/10
5. Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans - 9/10
6. Nosferatu the Vampyre - 8/10
7. Grizzly Man - 8/10
8. The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser - 8/10
9. Fitzcarraldo - 8/10
10. From One Second to the Next - 8/10
11. My Best Fiend - 8/10
12. Heart of Glass - 7/10
13. Stroszek - 7/10
14. Land of Silence and Darkness - 7/10
15. Little Dieter Needs to Fly - 7/10
16. The White Diamond - 7/10
17. Lo & Behold: Reveries of the Connected World - 7/10
18. Cave of Forgotten Dreams - 6/10
19. Rescue Dawn - 6/10