Thomas von Steinaecker flips the camera on one of Germany's favourite filmmaking sons, investigating his long and far-reaching career.
Filmmaker. Dream-weaver. Footwear-epicure. Whatever your impression of Werner Herzog is, this affectionate docuprofile is unlikely to drastically alter it. And that’s no bad thing. Within the opening minutes of Werner Herzog: Radical Dreamer, impassioned tributes from such luminaries as Patti Smith, Nicole Kidman, Robert Pattinson, Wim Wenders and, yes, Carl Weathers, paint a picture of an almost mythological figure – a rare and enigmatic creative spirit without parallel.
This doesn’t necessarily tally with the image Herzog presents of himself, which lands somewhere between kindly uncle and glint-eyed loon. That, of course, is the paradox of Werner Herzog: somehow, all these things can be true at once.
Clips of his acting gigs in The Simpsons and The Mandalorian are introduced early on to show how far the cult of Werner has spread throughout contemporary pop culture. But director Thomas von Steinaecker is a serious fan, and as such he quickly moves on from examining the unlikely mass appeal of his eccentric subject.
Retracing Herzog’s humble upbringing in the Tyrolean Alps – his family were bombed out of Munich during World War Two – the film surveys his early life and career, his arrival on the international film scene and subsequent relocation to America, all the way up to his recent directorial endeavours.
Along the way Herzog reflects on the making of some of his best-known works, including Aguirre, the Wrath of God (1972), Fitzcarraldo (1982) and Cobra Verde (1987), expounding on his fruitful yet fractious relationship with the actor Klaus Kinski. These stories are already the stuff of cinematic legend, but that doesn’t make their retelling any less compelling.
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Published 19 Jan 2024
A whistle-stop tour through the world of Werner.
Engaging, but a fairly standard-issue biography.
Shine on you crazy German.
By Harry Harris
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In celebration of a BFI season of the German maverick’s sublime work in film, we pick ten of our absolute faves.
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