The new documentary "Werner Herzog – Radical Dreamer" (trailer) presents a comprehensive portrait of an iconic artist. It is about filmmaker Werner Herzog, whose films like "Fitzcarraldo" or "Aguirre, the Wrath of God" are classics and have long been part of collective cinema memory. In 2009, Time magazine named him one of the 100 most influential people of our time. At 80, Herzog continues to make films. Next-generation German filmmaker Thomas von Steinaecker accompanies him on shoots on Lanzarote and in his Bavarian home village of Sachrang, and follows him all the way to Los Angeles, where Herzog has been living for many years. In addition to Herzog himself, his wife Lena and his brothers have their say in the doc, as well as companions such as Wim Wenders and Volker Schlöndorff, and Hollywood stars with whom he has worked, including Nicole Kidman, Christian Bale and Robert Pattinson.
In the article "Welcome to Werner World," which we are bringing you in five parts over the next few weeks, von Steinaecker dives deep into his encounter with Herzog:
"... In the ensuing weeks, as I accompany Herzog with my team in Munich and on Lanzarote, where he’s shooting a new documentary and giving a workshop for young directors from all over the world, moments like this occur regularly:
Herzog instinctively always knows how to stand perfectly for the camera and where to place an apogee to maximum effect in his story. Herzog is nothing like the image I had of him before our first meeting and which continues to dominate among the German public – unapproachable, unpredictable. Yet most of the time it’s literally as if he were in his own movie, one of his main characters, whose appeal, in no small part, lies in the absence of any psychoanalyzing. Aguirre, Stroszek, Fitzcarraldo, the Bad Lieutenant – all these protagonists contradict the golden rules of screenwriting; they undergo no development. Their inner lives remain a black box. That’s what makes them so mysterious and fascinating at the same time. But perhaps that’s also why Herzog’s diaries touch me so much, because in them, unlike the people in his films, he suddenly seems unprotected in his euphoria about his projects and his despair about the difficulties of realizing them. The words, Herzog says to me at one point, give me support."
Werner Herzog – Radical Dreamer by Thomas von Steinaecker (Germany 2022) premiered at the Telluride Film Festival in honour of Herzog’s 80th birthday. It stars Werner Herzog with appearances by Patti Smith, Paul Holdengräber, Chloé Zhao and more. The documentary is a Hot Docs Partners project.
Author, journalist, and film director Thomas von Steinaecker was born in Germany in 1977. His acclaimed novels include Wallner beginnt zu Fliegen and Die Verteidigung des Paradieses, both of which were nominated for the German Book Prize. His films include Richard Strauss and his Heroines and Leonard Bernstein The Torn Genius.
Article "Welcome to Werner-World“ by Thomas von Steinaecker/FAZ.NET, 9 September 2022, translated with permission. © All Rights Reserved. Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung GmbH, Frankfurt.
image © 3B Produktion
