For better or worse Werner Herzog is a director who deals in extremes. At times his films touch genius and there are many such moments and if sometimes he wanders down dead ends, he should be applauded for a least trying to push the boundaries of cinema.
This box set, beautifully presented with a booklet and lovely cover, includes his key works. These are Aguirre, Wrath of God (1972), The Enigma of Kasper Hauser (19740, Heart of Glass (1976), Stroszek (1977), Nosferatu (1979), Wyyzech (1979) and Fitzcarraldo (1987). Although Herzog is still going strong and still pushing himself, this is the heart of his work, with a five-year gap to Cobra Verde (1987) which is the last film included here.
It’s always tempting to see Klaus Kinski as the on-screen persona of Herzog, mad with staring eyes and an unstoppable presence, and indeed his work here would back that up, especially his egomaniacs in Fitzcarraldo and Aguirre, Wrath of God, both films a metaphor for the impossibility and futility of trying to achieve huge projects like making a film. Kinski as Nosferatu is certainly madder than Max Schreck in the original, but perhaps has less charm.
However, watching these films together it’s not just Kinski who Herzog sees the world through. Bruno S gives remarkable performances, especially in The Enigma of Kasper Hauser, playing a man who has been kept captive for 20 years and who is suddenly, tragically, released into society. He ends up in an Elephant Man-style circus.
Arguably Herzog’s greatest achievement features no stars at all, and a cast under hypnosis a classic Herzog risk. The beautiful Heart of Glass features a tiny town under threat when the maker of special glass dies, taking the formula to the grave with him. The inhabitants are faced with ruin, but Herzog’s camera, instead of focusing on death and decay, fixes on the beauty of the surrounding landscape, which features some of the most awe-inspiring shots cinema had yet seen. It’s a particularly German romantic view of the world, full of awe at the power of nature and the insignificance of man.
It all started with Aguirre, Wrath of God. Shootings, stabbings, threats of violence, tantrums and near-starvation were just an average day’s filming when director Herzog met Kinski. This, their first film together, set the template for what was to come over the next 30 years Kinski storming off set, Herzog threatening to kill him and then turn the gun on himself, Kinski shooting the tip of an extra’s finger off, Herzog’s crew going without food while Kinski stayed in a hotel, it was all there.
The resulting film is pretty extraordinary, an insane journey down a river into Kinski’s heart of darkness, and it shares a lot of visual feel and pacing with Apocalypse Now. Here Kinski’s Aguirre is a trooper among a group of conquistadors travelling through South America in search of El Dorado in 1560. Just in case we don’t know, it’s pointed out at the start that the rumour of El Dorado was began by native Americans to get their revenge on the invading Spaniards, but they fell for it.
The film is an assault on the senses, an amazing visual feast, especially considering Herzog only had one camera, the one he “borrowed from film school. He decided he did such a good job he never gave it back, a fair deal in retrospect. The opening shot, of the troops climbing down a mountainside into the jungle with clouds whispering around them, is stunning, and there are many more visual treats. The music too is highly ethereal, and combined with highly committed acting it adds up to a gripping experience.
Fitzcarraldo is perhaps the perfect metaphor for Herzog’s mad version of film-making. The story of a man determined to build an opera house in the middle of the jungle, it features a by now strung out Kinski barking orders at natives to drag his ship up the side of a mountain and over into the river on the other side. It’s gloriously mad, and the best thing about this box set is that after viewing it you can watch Burden of Dreams, about its making perhaps even more extreme than the film itself.
Overall verdict: Herzog will always divide people and makes few concessions to his audiences, but make time for his particular world view and you will be richly rewarded. This box set contains pretty much all of his finest moments.
Additional features: 10 discs, all in HD, optional 5.1 German and English audio on all titles, original aspect ratios 1.33:1, 1.66:1, 1.85:1, Dolby Digital mono audio and stereo audio (320kbps), Dolby Digital 5.1 surround audio (448kbps)
Reviewer: Mike Martin