Fata Morgana (film)
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Fata Morgana | |
---|---|
Directed by | Werner Herzog |
Written by | Werner Herzog |
Starring | Eugen Des Montagnes Lotte Eisner (voice) |
Music by | Blind Faith The Third Ear Band Leonard Cohen |
Cinematography | Jörg Schmidt-Reitwein |
Release date(s) | 1971 |
Running time | 79 min |
Language | German |
IMDb profile |
Fata Morgana is a film by Werner Herzog, shot in 1969, which captures mirages in the desert. Herzog describes the film as "a documentary shot by extraterrestrials from the Andromeda Nebula, and left behind." The only spoken words consist of a recitation of the Mayan creation myth (the Popul Vuh) by Lotte Eisner, and text written and recited by Herzog himself.
Film critic David Thomson describes Fata Morgana as "extraordinary": "[The] desert is a model for mankind. The film is in three sections: the first showing an unpeopled, beautiful wasteland; the second introducing signs of human wreckage; and the third showing wretched vestiges of life. Totally imaginative, it is a legend of life at extremes that exposes the fatuity of 2001: A Space Odyssey. Whereas Stanley Kubrick glibly assumes some all-powerful, riddle-making consciousness behind the universe, Herzog's creator is as fallible, quirky and uncertain as man himself."
[edit] External links
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