Werner Herzog

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Werner Herzog (born Werner Stipetić on September 5, 1942) is a critically and internationally acclaimed German film director, screenwriter, actor, and opera director.
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.


Werner Herzog in 2005
Werner Herzog in 2005

Contents

[edit] Early life

Herzog was born "Werner Stipetić" (IPA pronunciation: [stɪpɛtɪtʃ]) in Munich. He adopted the name Herzog, which means "duke" in German, later in life. His mother was of Croatian descent and his father abandoned them early in Herzog's youth.[1] He grew up in a remote village in Bavaria. When he was thirteen he and his family shared an apartment with Klaus Kinski in Elisabethstr. in Munich-Schwabing. About this, Herzog recalled, "I knew at that moment that I would be a film director and that I would direct Kinski".

The same year, Herzog was told to sing in front of his class at school and he 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. At fourteen he was inspired by an encyclopedia entry about film-making which he says provided him with "everything I needed to get myself started" as a film-maker - that, and the 35mm camera that the young Herzog stole from the Munich Film School.[1] He received his post-secondary education at the University of Munich and Duquesne University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

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

[edit] Family

Herzog has been married three times and has had three children. In 1967 Herzog married Martje Grohmann, with whom he had a son in 1973, Rudolph Amos Achmed. In 1980 his daughter Hanna Mattes was born to Eva Mattes. In 1987, Herzog married Christine Maria Ebenberger. Their son, Simon David Alexander Herzog, was born in 1989. In 1999 Herzog married photographer Lena Pisetski (now Herzog). They now live in Los Angeles.

[edit] 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. His treatment of subjects has been characterized as Wagnerian in its scope, as Fitzcarraldo and his later film Invincible (2001) are directly inspired by opera, or operatic themes. He is proud of never using storyboards and often improvising large parts of the script, as he explains on the commentary track to Aguirre: The Wrath of God.

Aguirre: The Wrath of God - 1972
Aguirre: The Wrath of God - 1972

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.

Herzog has used other actors repeatedly in his films:

[edit] 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

On the Peruvian jungle: "The trees are in misery, and the birds are in misery. I don’t think they sing. They just screech in pain. …Taking a close look at what’s around us, there is some sort of harmony: it’s the harmony of overwhelming and collective murder." -- Werner Herzog

"I do not believe in the Cinema verite. Sometimes a really good lie is better than any truth." -- Werner Herzog

"I will believe what you say, as long as others confirm it." -- Werner Herzog

"I try to understand the ocean beneath the thin layer of ice that is civilization. There's miles and miles of deep ocean, of darkness and barbarism. And I know the ice can break easily." -- Werner Herzog

"What would an ocean be without a monster lurking in the dark. It would be like sleep without dreams." -- Werner Herzog

[edit] 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.

Grizzly Man, directed by Herzog, won the Alfred P. Sloan Prize at the 2005 Sundance Film Festival

Herzog was honored at the 49th San Francisco International Film Festival, receiving the 2006 Film Society Directing Award. Four of his films have been shown at the San Francisco International Film Festival throughout the years: Herdsmen of the Sun in 1990, Bells from the Deep in 1993, Lessons of Darkness in 1993, and Wild Blue Yonder in 2006.

[edit] Complete Works

[edit] Film

[edit] Director

[edit] TV

[edit] Opera (director)

[edit] Actor Filmography

Herzog as himself in Incident at Loch Ness
Herzog as himself in Incident at Loch Ness

[edit] References

  • Descheneaux, A. Présence Wagnérienne dans le film Invincible (2001) de Werner Herzog in Canadian University Music Review 24:30-61 n1 2003
  1. ^ a b Bissell, Tom. "The Secret Mainstream: Contemplating the mirages of Werner Herzog". Harper's. December 2006.

[edit] External links

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to:


v • d • e
Films directed by Werner Herzog


Herakles (1962) Game in The Sand (1964) • Last Words (1967) • The Unprecedented Defence of the Fortress Deutschkreuz (1967) • Signs of Life (1968) • The Flying Doctors of East Africa (1969) • Precautions Against Fanatics (1969) • Even Dwarfs Started Small (1970) • Handicapped Future (1971) • Land of Silence and Darkness (1971) • Fata Morgana (1971) • Aguirre, the Wrath of God (1972) • The Great Ecstasy of Woodcarver Steiner (1974) • The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser (1974) • Heart of Glass (1976) • No One Will Play with Me (1976) • How much Wood Would a Woodchuck Chuck (1976) • Stroszek (1977) • La Soufrière (1977) • Nosferatu the Vampyre (1979) • Woyzeck (1979) • Huie's Sermon (1980) • God's Angry Man (1980) • Glaube und Währung (1980) • Fitzcarraldo (1982) • Ballad of the Little Soldier (1984) • The Dark Glow of the Mountains (1984) • Where the Green Ants Dream (1984) • Cobra Verde (1987) • The French as seen by... (1988) • Wodaabe - Herdsmen of the Sun (1989) • Film Lesson 1-4 (1990) • Echoes From a Somber Empire (1990) • Jag Mandir (1991) • Scream of Stone (1991) • Lessons of Darkness (1992) • Bells from the Deep (1993) • The Transformation of the World Into Music (1994) • Gesualdo: Death for Five Voices (1995) • Little Dieter Needs to Fly (1997) • The Lord and the Laden (1999) • My Best Fiend (1999) • Wings of Hope (2000) • Invincible (2001) • Pilgrimage (2001) • Ten Minutes Older (2002) • Wheel of Time (2003) • The White Diamond (2004) • Grizzly Man (2005) • The Wild Blue Yonder (2005) • Rescue Dawn (2006)

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Persondata
NAME Herzog, Werner
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Werner Stipetić
SHORT DESCRIPTION German film director, screenwriter, actor, and opera director.
DATE OF BIRTH 5 September 1942
PLACE OF BIRTH Bavaria
DATE OF DEATH
PLACE OF DEATH
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