It had been a long while since I watched anything from
Werner Herzog. And I mean awhile, going back perhaps to the 1980s, where Herzog’s films were in their heyday. Herzog is one of a small handful of
German filmmakers who redefined post-war German cinema in the 1970s and 80s. His films were ambitious, to say the least, often shot in remote locations with inexperienced locals in grand plots worthy of the films of
David Lean or
Cecile B. DeMille. When
The Criterion Collection announced this month its slate of Herzog films was disappearing by the end of April, I got to it and started watching. And while I am sure I had seen at least two or three of these films before I can’t remember them. Maybe they were a figment of my imagination as per a character in one of Herzog's films. And with Herzog you get two for one. I mean the actors. In this case the extraordinary
Klaus Kinski (top photo) and
Bruno S (bottom photo)…..First up was 1972’s
Aguirre, the Wrath of God. Many of Herzog’s films are set in
South America. Here Aguirre played by the riveting Kinski, leads a group of
Conquistadors and
Indian slaves deep into the
Amazon jungle in search of
El Dorado (gold). The journey to say the least is perilous. Kinski as Aguirre is his maniacal self, a creature so wound you can’t take your eyes off him. Then there was
Fitzcarraldo, another film set in South America where an ambitious white gringo, the namesake played by Kinski (his wife the esteemed
Claudia Cardinale) is
consumed with conquering an area of the jungle for a vast rubber plantation. There are scenes in the movie that today would have been recreated by special effects, not so here. The sure audacity of this filmmaking is breathtaking. Then there is
Woyzeck, where Kinski plays a personally diminished Polish soldier, fraught with mental pain. Then in
Cobra Verde, Herzog take us on a voyage from South America to
Africa during the slave trade where Kinski as the namesake is convinced he is the only white man on the continent as he seeks a bargain with African tribes to turn over their captives. Here we have a cast of seemingly thousands in tribal arrays and confrontations. As always Kinski’s character is consumed by a kind of madness – in reality he was diagnosed a psychopath – so, folks, this ain’t acting! The famous collaboration between Herzog, who can only be described as a genius for the making of these and countless other films that pushed the limits, and Kinski, is depicted in the documentary
My Best Fiend. That’s right, fiend not friend. Kinski, father of the famed
Natassha Kinski, may sear his presence into a character but he alienated virtually everyone around him. There are scenes of him raving at the camera crew and women especially despised him. But Herzog, another searing but actually sane individual, had just the personality that made their collaboration “magic.” Kinski is one great Herzog film character. The other is
Bruno S, as in
The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser, based on a true story of a boy locked in a dungeon until freed and having to learn the rules of life. Even with Kinski, Herzog says
Bruno Schleinstein was “the best” actor he ever worked with.....With just under a week to go, there are many, many other Herzog films to watch before the online screen goes dark.
