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Werner Herzog

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Werner Herzog


Werner Herzog (born Werner Stipetic on September 5, 1942) is a German film director, screenwriter, actor and opera director of Serbian origin.

He is often associated with the German New Wave movement (also called New German Cinema), along with Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Volker Schlöndorff, Wim Wenders and others. His films often feature heroes with impossible dreams or people with unique talents in obscure fields.

Early life

Herzog was born Werner Stipetic (Serb pronunciation "Stipetich") in Munich to a Serbian father and German mother, and grew up in a remote village in Bavaria. When he was thirteen he and his family shared an apartment with Klaus Kinski. About this, Herzog recalled, "I knew at that moment that I would be a film director and that I would direct Kinski".

When Herzog was thirteen he was told to sing in front of his class at school and adamantly refused. He was almost expelled for this and until the age of eighteen listened to no music, sang no songs and studied no instruments.

In the early 1960s Herzog worked as a welder in a steel factory to help fund his first films.

He received his post-secondary education at the University of Munich and Duquesne University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

In 1967 Herzog married Martje Grohmann. Their son, Rudolph Amos Achmed, was born in 1973. In 1980, daughter Hanna Mattes (mother Eva Mattes) was born. In 1987, Herzog married Christine Maria Ebenberger. Their son, Simon David Alexander Herzog, was born in 1989. Herzog is at present (2006) married to Lena Herzog.

Films and Criticism

Herzog's films have received considerable critical acclaim and achieved popularity on the art house circuit. They have also been the subject of controversy in regard to their themes and messages, especially the circumstances surrounding their creation. A notable example is Fitzcarraldo, in which the obsessiveness of the central character is mirrored by the director in the making of his film.

Herzog directed five films starring the German actor Klaus Kinski: Aguirre: The Wrath of God, Nosferatu, Woyzeck, Fitzcarraldo, and Cobra Verde. In 1999 he directed and narrated the documentary film My Best Fiend, a retrospective on his often rocky relationship with Kinski.

Trivia

  • Once walked on foot from Munich to Paris to visit an ailing friend, critic Lotte Eisner. The experience is recounted in Herzog's book Of Walking in Ice (ISBN 0934378010).
  • Once ate his own shoe after promising to do so in an attempt to inspire then-fledgling filmmaker Errol Morris. Morris was interested in making a film about a pet cemetery (Gates of Heaven) and Werner believed Morris was not ambitious enough to do so. This story was the subject of a documentary by Les Blank called Werner Herzog Eats His Shoe (1980).
  • "Game in the Sand" has never been released and to date has only been viewed by a handful of individuals. Herzog has expressed that this film grew "out of control" during filming, and that he would never publicly release it and that he was considering destroying the negatives before his death. It is purportedly about four children and a rooster.
  • Narrowly avoided travelling on an airliner that crashed in the Amazonian rainforest with only one survivor (Juliane Koepcke) on 24 December, 1971. Werner Herzog was location scouting for Aguirre, Wrath of God and his reservation on this flight was cancelled due to overbooking. The incident inspired Herzog to film Wings of Hope together with Koepcke.
  • On January 26, 2006, Herzog helped to rescue actor Joaquin Phoenix when his car overturned after a brake malfunction on a winding road in Laurel Canyon, near Herzog's home. As Phoenix described it: "I remember this knocking on the passenger window. There was this German voice saying, 'Just relax.' There's the air bag, I can't see and I'm saying, 'I'm fine. I am relaxed.' Finally, I rolled down the window and this head pops inside. And he said, 'No, you're not.'"
  • It is often rumoured that Herzog filmed Kinski at gunpoint in Aguirre, Wrath of God because he had made attempts to leave the set. Herzog himself has claimed that this is a gross exaggeration. His own version of these events can be seen in "My Best Fiend" and read in the interview book "Herzog on Herzog" - in which he states that Kinski threatened to leave the set and he informed the volatile actor that if he did, he would have eight bullets in his head before he reached the first bend in the river.
  • On 3 February, 2006, it was reported that Herzog was shot by a crazed fan during a BBC interview. Herzog was chatting with Mark Kermode about his documentary Grizzly Man, when a sniper opened fire with an air rifle. Kermode thought a firecracker had gone off. Herzog said afterwards, "It was not a significant bullet. I am not afraid."
  • The original vinyl release version of Joy Division's posthumous album Still featured the following groove notation: "The chicken won't stop" (side A), etched chicken tracks across the grooves (sides B & C), and "The chicken stops here" (side D). These are all references to the film's grim finale.
  • In 1990 a Joy Division-influenced band named themselves The Stroszeks. They split up in 1992.
  • Claims not to dream at night and is so opposed to the idea of self-reflection that he "swear to God" that he does not even know the color of his own eyes. (They are blue)
  • Has a tattoo of Death on his upper right arm.

Quotes

"...centuries from now our great-great-great-grandchildren will look back at us with amazement at how we could allow such a precious achievement of human culture as the telling of a story to be shattered into smithereens by commercials, the same amazement we feel today when we look at our ancestors for whom slavery, capital punishment, burning of witches, and the inquisition were acceptable everyday events." -- Werner Herzog

Awards

Herzog and his films have won and been nominated for many awards over the years. Most notably, Herzog won the best director award for Fitzcarraldo at the 1982 Cannes film festival.

Complete Works

Film

Director

TV

Opera (director)

Actor Filmography

References

  1. Yahoo News: Herzog Shooting Interview

External links

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