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InfiniteZero posted:Aguirre is a movie that wraps itself around you without your even consciously noticing because of how well it's made. I could talk about Aguirre all day, but really the bottom line is fairly simple. A lot of good films will have a shot here and there where you say to yourself "goddamn, how did he get that shot?". Almost every single shot in Aguirre is like that. The shot at the end of Aguirre on the raft with the monkeys for instance, it feels like a ghost is filming it or something, it just blows my mind to see that shot. Even hearing the explanation of how it was done doesn't really lessen its impact, the effort that Herzog went to in order to get these shots is staggering. Herzog as a person is almost depressing to learn about because he makes me feel like an absolute failure; I've never cared about anything in my life as much as Herzog cared the tiniest details in Aguirre(and all of his work). He's not even just a stickler for details either, he has the ability to adapt like no other director I've heard of. The rafts in Aguirre actually did float away in the night because of the rising water level, and Herzog just rolled with it and incorporated into the story.
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May 5, 2015 17:09
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Didn't the script for Aguirre lose something like 20 pages because Herzog spilled some coffee on a busride?
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May 5, 2015 17:45
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Raxivace posted:Didn't the script for Aguirre lose something like 20 pages because Herzog spilled some coffee on a busride? My understanding is that he wrote the first draft on a bus ride with a soccer team he was a member of. One of his teammates got hammered after a game and threw up all over it, and Herzog tossed it out the window. It was the only copy so he had to rewrite the whole script from scratch.
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May 5, 2015 17:53
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talktapes posted:My understanding is that he wrote the first draft on a bus ride with a soccer team he was a member of. One of his teammates got hammered after a game and threw up all over it, and Herzog tossed it out the window. It was the only copy so he had to rewrite the whole script from scratch. Weren't the film cans lost for a couple of weeks once the film had been completed? I remember some story about them sitting in the baking sun on a runway and it being a miracle they survived.
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May 5, 2015 17:57
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Mr. Flunchy posted:Weren't the film cans lost for a couple of weeks once the film had been completed? I remember some story about them sitting in the baking sun on a runway and it being a miracle they survived. I think the film was lost like halfway through the shoot. In the blu ray commentary Herzog says that there was a period of a week or something like that where he knew the film was lost and that the whole thing was possibly hosed, but he kept filming because he didn't know what else to do. He didn't tell anyone on the set about it because he didn't want them to get pissed off or leave. He was very relieved when the film turned up.
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May 5, 2015 18:03
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Thanks for making me check out the Wikipedia article of the film:Wikipedia posted:To obtain the monkeys used in the climactic sequence, Herzog paid several locals to trap 400 monkeys; he paid them half in advance and was to pay the other half upon receipt. The trappers sold the monkeys to someone in Los Angeles or Miami, and Herzog came to the airport just as the monkeys were being loaded to be shipped out of the country. He pretended to be a veterinarian and claimed that the monkeys needed vaccinations before leaving the country. Abashed, the handlers unloaded the monkeys, and Herzog loaded them into his jeep and drove away, used them in the shot they were required for, and released them afterwards into the jungle. Wikipedia posted:The camera used to shoot the film was stolen by Herzog from the Munich Film School.
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May 5, 2015 18:09
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The entire thing sounds like a fever dream of barely-avoided disaster. Which is kind of appropriate.
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May 5, 2015 21:16
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Werner Herzog is one of the few public figures I can say is an honest-to-god hero of mine.
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May 6, 2015 00:20
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maybe I should actually watching aguirre, it's one of those "why the gently caress haven't I watched this yet?" movies like brazil, I just keep putting it off! which makes no sense! I'll try to watch it and report back since maybe someone will find my completely idiotic but fresh faced opinion interesting
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May 6, 2015 00:23
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talktapes posted:My understanding is that he wrote the first draft on a bus ride with a soccer team he was a member of. One of his teammates got hammered after a game and threw up all over it, and Herzog tossed it out the window. It was the only copy so he had to rewrite the whole script from scratch. Ah, I see. Somehow I can't imagine Herzog playing soccer, haha.
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May 6, 2015 04:32
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How easily do you imagine him sporting a tattoo of a skeleton in a tuxedo singing into a microphone?
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May 6, 2015 04:52
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Raxivace posted:Ah, I see. Somehow I can't imagine Herzog playing soccer, haha. Imagine no more: 
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May 6, 2015 12:24
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"Where are you Mount Everest? Give me some Everest!" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zt7x0hhDGB0 If you haven't seen Julien Donkey-Boy yet what's wrong with you?
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May 6, 2015 13:20
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Mr. Flunchy posted:Imagine no more: The weird thing about this photo isn't Herzog playing soccer, but rather the lack of a stache. Just so used to the image of young Burden of Dreams Herzog.
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May 6, 2015 14:18
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Imagine even less. Here is a video of Herzog playing football. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7r2RUp1dyx4
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May 6, 2015 14:49
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Olderish guys playing soccer on the weekends is something that happens in everyplace that isn't the US right? Seems nice compared to a bunch of fat old assholes screaming at American football from the couch, while being unable to do anything remotely physical themselves. I blame those people for organized sports being such a cesspit.
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May 6, 2015 15:46
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Casimir Radon posted:Olderish guys playing soccer on the weekends is something that happens in everyplace that isn't the US right? I never saw it in China.
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May 6, 2015 15:52
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Casimir Radon posted:Olderish guys playing soccer on the weekends is something that happens in everyplace that isn't the US right? Seems nice compared to a bunch of fat old assholes screaming at American football from the couch, while being unable to do anything remotely physical themselves. I blame those people for organized sports being such a cesspit. The only reason most older guys in America don't play sports regularly is because they are fat and out of shape, whereas in a lot of Europe obesity just isn't as culturally accepted. In America you will see the in-shape old guys playing basketball, tennis, racquetball, and sometimes softball. If you go into a local basketball gym you're almost certain to find a few guys in their 40's or even 50's trying to run with the kids, knee brace and all.
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May 6, 2015 15:53
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Variety posted:LONDON — Dogwoof has acquired worldwide rights to Werner Herzog’s volcano documentary “Into the Inferno,” and will screen a teaser clip to buyers at the Cannes Market on May 15. 
Slate Action fucked around with this message at 20:25 on May 6, 2015 |
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May 6, 2015 20:22
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Looking forward to the story of Herzog's escape from a North Korean labor camp.
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May 6, 2015 22:52
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Herzog might actually be the coolest dude ever. I've always got time for him. Not much of his stuff has really clicked with me, but I can see it's good and the amount of effort and passion he puts into it just boggles the mind. The best part is, he's not a snob. He puts all this passion into these insane projects of his, but he'll do the voiceover in Penguins of Madagascar, and he loving loves kung fu movies. Just something on Aguirre. That shot where they get attacked and fire a cannon into the jungle, no shot in cinema has ever captured the insanity of colonialism better. That cannon shot is just such a brilliantly futile gesture, it's amazing, and it's stuck with me vividly for many years since seeing the film.
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May 7, 2015 06:53
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TrixRabbi posted:Looking forward to the story of Herzog's escape from a North Korean labor camp. I for one am looking forward to the satellite photography of Herzog beating a camp guard to death with their own rifle.
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May 7, 2015 06:55
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mr. stefan posted:I for one am looking forward to the satellite photography of Herzog beating a camp guard to death with their own rifle. Then eating the rifle strap as a metaphor for...something.
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May 7, 2015 07:05
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Not to just make this the Aguirre thread, but I just got the archives upgrade and read through people's comments from when it was the movie of the month. I wanted to quote poster Herman Smellville from that thread, because he said something that really rang true to me, especially because I recently watched Aguirre with the Herzog commentary and Herzog talks about how this was his intention: "It never seemed like we were watching a story, but a documentary in itself that never could have been made. And as the film went on, it became more unnatural, more uncomfortable. The camera was capturing things that were never meant to be captured. It saw things that the human eye couldn't see." Several times throughout the film Herzog refers to a certain shot or dialogue or prop etc, as stylization. The way people stand in the background of scenes, the way Kinski moves almost literally like an animal. The dulled, almost apathetic reactions of Aguirre and his daughter at the end of the film. These were all stylizations, but filmed in the most realistic way possible. The result is, as Herman Smellville(what a name) said, is something that almost feels like a documentary, but yet there is a mythical quality to it. Its hard to describe, but the film takes you from the real to the unreal in a way that I have never seen before or since. Its like I'm watching a legend, but its real at the same time.
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May 7, 2015 16:07
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Heart of Glass has an interesting premise that tried to deliver that similar idea of stylized documentation of real events. Every actor in the film is put under deep hypnosis and fed lines one at a time and Herzog films it all like an insane stage play. The concept is fascinating but in practice is actually quite boring, because, as it turns out, people under deep hypnosis can't act particularly well.
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May 7, 2015 17:26
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Snowman_McK posted:Then eating the rifle strap as a metaphor for...something. Not even as a metaphor, as a way to strike fear into the other guards, so that they know that the mighty Herzog is truly invincible.
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May 8, 2015 00:04
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Things Werner Herzog likes to use in his films: - Klaus Kinski  - "Ecstatic Truth" (ie: lying a bit)  - Chickens, so many chickens  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IcoqeNdMAfA I'm not quite sure what is up with all the chicken imagery. He just loves to put a chicken in his films. He also likes to hypnotize chickens: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QhMo4WlBmGM
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May 11, 2015 15:20
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Currently, Werner Herzog's 2005 documentary Grizzly Man is up for streaming on Netflix - it's the one about about Timothy Treadwell, the slightly strange man who went every summer (mostly) alone to the Alaskan Peninsula to "protect" the grizzly bears there and live among them, and did so for 11 summers successfully before he and his girlfriend both got, well, eaten by a bear. The last 5 summers he shot over 100 hours of footage of the bears and himself. It's utterly fascinating, the whole documentary is just riveting. It's fascinating, too, because Treadwell's perspective on life is extremely different than Herzog's, but Herzog never judges or makes any sort of pronouncement, and is utterly fascinated by the man himself and why he did what he did and the footage that he left, much of it fairly confessional. Anyway, perhaps a lesser work in some ways by Herzog, but a beautiful and fascinating film that stays with you in an odd way, like many of Herzog's films.
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May 16, 2015 00:50
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I think it might be my favorite of all his films- Treadwell's story and footage haunted me for quite some time. It's certainly the best found footage movie ever made.
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May 16, 2015 01:17
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As crazy as people claim him to be Herzog made a pretty sane choice in not putting the audio of Threadwell getting eaten on his doc.
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May 16, 2015 02:49
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frank.club posted:As crazy as people claim him to be Herzog made a pretty sane choice in not putting the audio of Threadwell getting eaten on his doc. Honestly it would have been kind of exploitative if he had used the audio.
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May 16, 2015 02:55
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Raxivace posted:Honestly it would have been kind of exploitative if he had used the audio. The scene where he listens to it might be the only glimpse we ever get of Herzog looking uncomfortable.
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May 16, 2015 03:00
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Ebert said this in his review, but the way the audio is presented is WAY more emotionally impactful the way its done in the film than it would have been if we had heard it. We see Jewel (Treadwell's closest friend it seems) with his video camera in her lap, and Herzog half in the foreground with headphones on, and she's allowing him to listen to the audio. And we see her reaction, and Werner's reaction, and it's heartbreaking. And then Werner takes his hand in hers and places the cassette case in it and tells her that she must never listen to this tape, and that she should destroy it because it would be the white elephant in her room for the rest of her life - to have this tape and never listen to it. Anyway, I feel like that encounter is way more emotional and riveting than hearing the footage would have been. That would have been exploitative and in extremely bad taste; and this is not a documentary that is in bad taste. Much of the footage that he shot really was extremely beautiful, though. Werner did a great job by backing off a lot of the time, and letting the footage speak for itself and Treadwell speak for himself. It's nice to hear other people think highly of it, because I just caught it randomly a few nights ago and I've literally watched it 2 more times since, because I was just fascinated by how different the pace and tone of it was, and yet how well it functioned as an engaging and entertaining story. And it had all these quiet moments of accidental beauty interspersed, here and there.
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May 16, 2015 03:08
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Al Cu Ad Solte posted:I just recently watched his version of Bad Lieutenant and...holy poo poo. It's one of those bizarre experiences that should be terrible, but I was enthralled the whole way through. The lizards. His Bad Lieutenant loving rules and I'm legit mad that it isn't on Netflix streaming anymore, I'm glad I caught it while it was. That's also the movie that made me realize Nic Cage is actually a great actor and not just a weirdo.
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May 16, 2015 03:40
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Herzog doesn't give a poo poo if you "get" it.
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C-Euro posted:His Bad Lieutenant loving rules and I'm legit mad that it isn't on Netflix streaming anymore, I'm glad I caught it while it was. That's also the movie that made me realize Nic Cage is actually a great actor and not just a weirdo. Nic Cage is one of those actors who needs someone to channel his insanity. Kind of like Jim Carrey or Robin Williams.
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May 16, 2015 04:28
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kaworu posted:Much of the footage that he shot really was extremely beautiful, though. Werner did a great job by backing off a lot of the time, and letting the footage speak for itself and Treadwell speak for himself. Towards the end there's footage of two bears fighting and its absolutely mesmerizing, if maybe a little sickening because I found myself imagining what they could do to a person. I have no idea if these two bears would be considered especially large, but watching them go at it in slow motion, especially on a big screen in HD, is pretty drat scary. A person would just disappear underneath one of these things.
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May 18, 2015 14:36
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I watched Grizzly Man a couple days ago too, and I don't really have anything insightful to say, but is it just more is that coroner a total weirdo? It seemed like he was either poorly acting or he's just kind of a creep. In fact I got a strong sense of "acting for the camera" from a bunch of people Herzog interviewed. I've seen other Herzog documentaries so I know he's not coaching them or anything, at least I don't think so, it just seemed like he was interviewing very strange people who thought they were supposed to act a certain way. It's strange.
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May 18, 2015 19:18
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TrixRabbi posted:eaten his own shoe, http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xl61of_werner-herzog-eats-his-shoe_shortfilms
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May 19, 2015 09:39
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Would like him more if he let me hear the guy get eaten by the bear
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May 19, 2015 09:46
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Zesty Mordant posted:How easily do you imagine him sporting a tattoo of a skeleton in a tuxedo singing into a microphone? Very. My father did the tattoo.
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May 19, 2015 21:51
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