The Films of Werner Herzog

[Demoncrat]

as i saw Ferrara's BL at the cinema (an astounding experience) i was appalled that some one of Herzog's calibre would dirty his hands with a remake. phew said i as i sat through Cage's odd Nixon impersonation...cementing my opinion that he will do ANYTHING for money.

AAAnyway. no love for Cobra Verde? ahem.

[napalm-in-the-morning]

Kinski carried Cobra completely. I thought the narrative was a bit underdeveloped and remote. It is often overlooked though and Kinski is, as usual, manic entertaining! Nobody did lunacy better than Herzog / Kinski! The more I watch Herzog the closser to my all-time favourite director he gets.

[Wes]

One of my favourite Herzog things is his 1976 documentry How Much Wood Would A Woodchuck Chuck, a film about US midwestern cattle auctioneers. The speed these guys talk is incredible !

[Prince_Vajda]

Originally Posted by oaxaca

Herzogs remake of Nosferatu really is one of the finest horror films I've ever seen.

I agree. It's mainly due to the fact that Kinski is one fine actor - his portrayal of the Vampire as a suffering creature is heartbreaking and extremely moving.

Greetings!

[keirarts]

My first real experience of Werner herzogs films was way back in my university days (over 10 years now.) I'd been smoking a little of the 'special tobacco' that one sometimes indulges in as a student and was flicking through channels when I came across Aguirre wrath of god on one of the bbc digital channels. The opening scene of the conquistadores making their way down the mountain through the fog to the haunting music immediately captured my imagination and i've been a fan ever since. I currently own both anchor bay uk boxsets, rescue dawn, bad lieutenant and my son my son, what have ye done? and theres a boxset out in germany I have cosidered that collects a vast number of his documentaries (though it is quite dear)

Firstly I'd highly reccomend herzogs take on bad lieutenant, imagine the ferrarer one (of which I am a fan I might add) without the catholisism filtered through the imagination of Herzog and you might get a good impression of what your in for, definately worth a look.

I would also reccomend my son my son to anyone reading this post, a genuinely brilliant movie that deserves far more recognition, its also produced by david lynch! Michael shannon gives one of his best performances and the supporting cast udo keir, chloe sveginy, willam dafoe, grace zabriskie and brad dourif (who collaborates with herzog a lot these days) are all brilliant as well.

[napalm-in-the-morning]

Kinski was always at his best with Herzog. In many ways he was a bit of a one-note actor, i.e. crazy obsessive but Herzog found in him the perfect representation of madness. Kinski was criminally underused, in my opinion, ending up the the token loony in a bunch of pretty awful horror B movies and the like. I wonder if his reputedly difficult attitude just kept him out of the main stream and big budget stuff. Maybe the Hollywood A list were afraid he would overpower their billing! Herzog remains one of the best auteur directors in the film business and I would happily hunt down anything he directs! I miss Kinski's appearances A LOT!

[Wes]

I have a copy of Kinski's autiobiography, Kinski Uncut and it's a lively affair to say the least...

[napalm-in-the-morning]

Originally Posted by Wes

I have a copy of Kinski's autiobiography, Kinski Uncut and it's a lively affair to say the least...

I have a friend in the publishing business who had some involvement in this book and apparently it was hugely "embellished" in an effort to drum up sales / controversy, etc. Kinski was pretty near flat-broke and needed something to be controversial and salacious to get the money in. Accordingly I was told it was 99% "fantasy" He deserved a better epitaph than a book scraped together for financial necessity. The guy could have been massive and never quite made the leap. I suspect it was down to reputation rather than fact.

[oaxaca]

Agreed. I remember he had this tiny almost cameo part in DR ZHIVAGO, whats the point? An actor of Kinski's presence and talent should have had a much bigger part.

[napalm-in-the-morning]

Why isn't Herzog properly represented on Blu Ray?! Come on Arrow, jump in and make it right!!