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The tales of filmmaker Werner Herzog are the stuff of cinematic legend. His quest to explore the ‘ecstatic truth’ through the power of celluloid has lead to extremes, from threatening to kill his lead actor to encouraging fellow filmmakers by eating his own shoe. Of course, this unusual approach to life and art appears on his celluloid as well with his often-surreal style, that can involve everything from a dancing Chicken (Stroszeck) to reptile vision (Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans), yet one fact is clear above all; he’s a true cinematic genius.
The extremes of his filmmaking are most evident in Fitzcarraldo, which as with his earlier film Aguirre: The Wrath of God is shot amongst the heat, confusion and hostile terrain of the Peruvian jungle. Not only is the film shot in a jungle, but involved a 320 tonne steamboat being hauled over a large hill without special effects (he thought quite rightly it would look much better this way), whilst also using people of the native tribes as extras who the director became quite friendly with. The shoot was of course a nightmare; the original lead Jason Robards caught dysentery and Klaus Kinski had to be cast instead, meaning forty percent of the film needed reshooting. The conditions inevitably took an enormous toll on the film with one member of the crew even having to cut their foot off with a chainsaw having been bitten by a poisonous snake.
That said Herzog claims he takes care of his cast and crew and has reflected that no one has ever died during the shooting of one of his films. Though in the case of long-term collaborator Klaus Kinski, with whom he shared a legendarily fraught relationship, this was very nearly not the case. As when the actor became angry during the filming of Aguirre, The Wrath of God leading to the director threatened to shoot him, and during the filming of Fitzcarraldo, where his arguments with Herzog led a group to offer to kill him on the filmmaker’s behalf. Yet it is worth noting that the pair did continue to work together after this and that the director has shown great respect for his actors as well. For example during the shooting of Even Dwarfs Started Small, out of gratitude he promised to jump into a cactus, and followed through on his promise.
The aim of all of this though is to achieve and display ‘the ecstatic truth’, the harsh reality and beauty of mankind through the medium of cinematic art, something he has yearned to do his entire career. This world he has claimed is not very nice, stating in his documentary Grizzly Man that ‘the common denominator of the Universe is not harmony, but chaos, hostility and murder’. This is something he has sought with great beauty and audacity, by using strange visual and verbal metaphors that may just sound bizarre on paper but work so well on celluloid. It also means that he looks at stories of obsession, despair and those who dare to dream great and near impossible dreams. For example, when he made arctic documentary Encounters at the End of the World he insisted it would not be about ‘fluffy penguins’, and instead details the reasons people live there, and when dealing with the birds found in them suicidal derangement and even prostitution. Which is why Herzog is such beacon of hope in cinema, as not only does he create unique works of incredible power and beauty, yet also seeks to encourage others to do the same; notably Errol Morris, who he famously encouraged to make the superb Gates of Heaven by promising he’d eat his shoe if he did so.
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