Werner Herzog

the long version

An invaluable set of career-length interviews with the German genius hailed by Francois Truffaut as "the most important film director alive" Most of what we've heard about Werner Herzog is untrue. The sheer number of false rumors and downright lies disseminated about the man and his films is truly astonishing. Yet Herzog's body of work is one of the most important in postwar European cinema. His international breakthrough came in 1973 with 'Aguirre, The Wrath of God,' in which Klaus Kinski played a crazed Conquistador. For 'The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser,' Herzog cast in the lead a man who had spent most of his life institutionalized, and two years later he hypnotized his entire cast to make 'Heart of Glass.' He rushed to an explosive volcanic Caribbean island to film 'La Soufriere,' paid homage to F.W. Murnau in a terrifying remake of 'Nosferatu, ' and in 1982 dragged a boat over a mountain in the Amazon jungle for 'Fitzcarraldo.