My Best Fiend (1999) is Werner Herzog’s tribute to the infamous Klaus Kinski, arguably one of the most difficult actors to work with in cinematic history. While Burden of Dreams somewhat downplays Kinski’s antics, My Best Fiend offers an unflinching look at the man through the eyes of someone who saw him as just that:…
Tag: Werner Herzog
Making-of Documentary Shows the ‘Burden of Dreams’
Making-of documentaries have long since been co-opted as public relations vehicles and as DVD extras, but some truly amazing documentaries show what really went on behind the scenes in some epic productions. Les Blank’s Burden of Dreams (1982) is one of these documentaries. Burden of Dreams follows the making of Werner Herzog’s Fitzcarraldo, a fiction…
‘Lessons of Darkness’ is Aching and Horrifying
Lessons of Darkness (1995) is an hour-long documentary about the devastation in Kuwait’s oil fields. While this documentary could have been straightforward recounting in another maker’s hands, it becomes achingly and horrifyingly meaningful in the hands of Werner Herzog. Lessons of Darkness consists of 13 parts, and only the first part shows the city before…
Herzog Finds Antarctica Fascinating in His Own Way in ‘Encounters at the End of the World’
Only Werner Herzog could make Antarctica into a fascinating place I would like to visit, as he does in the documentary Encounters at the End of the World. Herzog’s 2007 documentary includes what you might expect of him: intellectual voiceover, intriguing stories, and immense landscapes all bundled with a sense of wonder infused with a…
The Title ‘Happy People: A Year in the Taiga’ Says It All
The title of Happy People: A Year in the Taiga describes well what the documentary is about. For one year, it follows trappers from the village of Bakhtia, located in the Siberian taiga. In the voiceover, co-director Werner Herzog explains why the trappers are happy with their lives and with hunting in balmy minus 33-degree-Fahrenheit…