Werner Herzog: Radical Dreamer

Herzog is one of the founders of the New German Cinema along with Alexandra Kluge, Volker Schlöndorff, Win Wenders and of course Rainer Fassbinder. Throughout his career he has directed, written and produced more than 60 films. With the locations of his films he has been able to take us to the most remote places on the planet and his characters have allowed us to imagine what we thought unimaginable.

This documentary analyzes the work of this visionary dreamer. The director himself, accompanied by those closest to him, as the writer Lotte Eisner and including his wife, analyzing his career since his beginnings in cinema with Lebenszeichen (1968) . Together with them, Christian Bale who played in ¨Herzog's Rescue Dawn¨, while Nicole Kidman, Robert Pattison acted in ¨Queen of the Desert¨, review their works with him. Herzog's usual cameraman Thomas Mauch tells his experiences while shooting these spectacular on the dangerous Amazon lands . Wim Wenders tells us how the director helped him reach a wider audience and Chloe Zao tells us about his admiration for him,

There's also a chilling portrayal of Klaus Kinski and his profoundly creative partnership with his friend/enemy Werner Herzog , the latter regards him as a man plunging into insanity but also to lucidity and genius , as Kinski is assaulted from all sides by forces he cannot control between brilliance and craziness . Werner Herzog depicts this prestigious actor as a very strange , mysterious and bizarre person , gradually devolving into maniac instinct and attacks of rage . Werner Herzog offers a sturdy studio from Klaus Kinski , an extremely furious and strong actor , usually providing magnificent performances . Werner Herzog's relationship with Klaus Kinski reached thunderous walks . Being five the Werner Herzog/Klaus Kinski collaborations; Klaus Kinski gave portentous interpretations in these films providing various eccentric , queer , insane characters similar to him . The first was : ¨Aguirre, Warth of God¨ (1972) , from now on , a violent, intense , love-hate relationship was born ; the four remaining and essentially combative relationships were the following ones : ¨Nosferatu, the vampyre¨ (1979) ¨Woyzeck¨ (1979) and ¨Fitzcarraldo¨(1982) , while this interesting documentary depicts the tumultuous relations between them . ¨Aguirre¨ was the start of an extremely stormy, and sometimes violent, professional relationship with Herzog that lasted 15 years .There are frames from films as ¨Aguirre , Wrath of God ¨ (1972) , according to director Werner Herzog, Klaus Kinski threatened to abandon the film entirely at one point during the shooting. Herzog says he threatened to kill Kinski and then turn the gun on himself if Kinski left and later declared he was quite prepared to do so. Kinski stated in interviews that Herzog wielded a pistol to emphasize the threat, but Herzog denies this . While in Nosferatu the Vampyre (1979) , Klaus plays an outlandish Count Dracula who moves from Transylvania to Wismar, spreading the Black Plague across the land and only a woman pure of heart : Isabelle Adjani , can bring an end to his kingdom of terror.¨Fitzcarraldo¨based on an actual story of a charismatic Irishman's impossible quest at the turn of the Century . Here Kinski gives an awesome acting as the dreamer who moves mountains , carrying out a monumental mission : hauling the ship manually over a hill towards a parallel river . ¨Woyzeck¨ the same dizzy folly as Aguirre , but Herzog´s similarly long perspective conjures as a brooding and thought-provoking film , giving a harsh vision of suffering beyond despair , eventually cracking when Woyzeck discovers his wife's infedility played by Eva Mattes who tells a splendid description about her colleague Kinski . Kinski/Herzog relation was also tumultuous in their last collaboration : ¨Cobra Verde¨ in which he delivers a peculiar and intense acting in his usual style as the freed outlaw Cobra Verde hired by a plantation owner to supervise his slaves , being fifth and final reunion. Even by Werner Herzog/Klaus Kinski standards , their last collaboration was a wild trip, as well .

This documentary was competently directed by Thomas von Steinaecker, though some may find hard to take . This great German director Herzog has made several thoughtful , provoking and interesting films , such as : "Fata Morgana" , "Aguirre Wrath of God" , "The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser", "Heart of Glass" , "Stroszek", "Woyzeck" , "Nosferatu the Vampire", "Where the Green Ants Dream" , "Cobra Verde" ,"Lessons in Darkness", "My Dearest Enemy", "Invincible" , "The White Diamond", "Rescue Dawn" , and without forgetting the prestigious documentaries such as: ¨Grizzly man¨, ¨Into the Inferno¨, ¨Fireball: Visitors from Darker World¨, ¨Cave of forgotten dreams¨ . Rating : 7/10 above average and irresistible movie thanks to the great Werner Herzog . The flick will appeal to Werner Herzog followers.