Werner Herzog is the German film-maker whose notion of “ecstatic truth” has brought him, among other places, to the Peruvian rainforest (Aguirre, The Wrath of God), Death Row (Into the Abyss), Antarctica (Encounters at the End of the World), and the Alaskan wilderness (Grizzly Man). But to me his finest film is Land of Silence […]
WERNER HERZOG
INTO THE ABYSS
Transcript from the Werner Herzog documentary Into the Abyss: Death House at Walls Unit Huntsville, Texas Interview with Fred Allen, former captain of Death House team Allen is describing what would take place on the night of an execution: the dressing in “street clothes,” the eating of the last meal, the accompanying of the inmate, […]
BELLS FROM THE DEEP
Werner Herzog has a touch of megalomania, and was not ENTIRELY sympathetic to Timothy Treadwell in Grizzly Man–but I love his notion of “ecstatic truth.” Bells from the Deep is his 1993 “documentary” about Russian mysticism. Here’s his description of one scene: “I wanted to get shots of pilgrims crawling around on the ice trying […]