Herzog at the Beach

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She:  Oh, Werner!  This is beautiful!  Look at those swaying palms!  Listen to those lovely songbirds!  It’s simply perfect!

Herzog:  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.*

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* Actual text spoken by celebrated German film director Werner Herzog not at the beach but in Burden of Dreams, a 1982 documentary about the making of his film Fitzcarraldo.

Comments

[tournedo]

The man is seriously twisted. That's why I love his movies. The Mystery of Kaspar Hauser was my all-time favorite until I saw Grizzly Man last year.

[ahfukit]

LOL, literally. He is so unrelentingly serious, ya (I) just gotta (naturally) love 'im. (Did you watch the making of the soundtrack on the Grizzly Man DVD? One of the musicians lampoons Werner and Treadwell's Timmy character beautifully, while Werner is seen in the background smiling xxxx (the adjective that goes here is a real challenge; I was gonna say wanly but that's not quite it.)

[Felix del Campo]

Please don't make me decide between Kaspar Hauser and Grizzly Man. In each case I sat in stunned silence for about 15 minutes after the film ended. And I'll definitely check out the Grizzly Man DVD -- thanks for the tip. I need Enrique the Gay Philosopher's help with this one, but despite the fact that Herzog is so twisted, he never appears to include cheap depictions of violence in his films. He seems to be obsessed with death -- with people who, like himself, have a special relationship with death. Herzog has "defied" death in his own life, but then I imagine it's impossible to defy something that has no volition, like, for example, a stone. When he and Timothy Treadwell defy death, do they see themselves as opposing something that has a will, something, moreover, that has a will for them?

[ahfukit]

A good friend was discussing Grizzly Man over dinner with a group of female co-workers (all RNs.) Turns out three of eight had seen it and she was the only one who liked it. Especially interesting is that the other two recalled hearing Treadwell being consumed onscreen. My friend pointed out that the explicit audio was never played into the soundtrack, we only saw Herzog listening to it in the presence of Treadwell's female friend -- then telling her she must never listen to it, that she must destroy the tape. They still remembered hearing him screaming and that it was gross.

Wikipedia has DEATH tattooed on Herzog's arm. He seems to believe in nemesis and fiendship. He stalked Kinski and Kinski him with MURDEROUS intent (literally, willfully, he says.) Five films that couldn't have been made otherwise, danced to completion with a possible doppelganger. Oh boy.