When asked if he turned off his cell phone, writer-director Werner Herzog replied, “I don’t have a cell phone. I don’t need to turn anything off. I just want to be alive and have real conversations with real people.” That’s all,” he answered. ”
What Mr. Herzog had hoped for was a genuine conversation he had had not long ago at his home in the Hollywood Hills.
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He is a legitimate film-maker, having directed more than 20 feature films and 30 documentaries, both in Hollywood and around the world, from a journey into the depths of Amazon darkness to life among grizzly bears in the Arctic. He is a visionary person.
He compiled it all into a memoir with a Vintage Werner-esque title, Every Man for Himself and God for All (Penguin Press).
“The title has to captivate people in some way,” Herzog said. “If you’re walking by a book and you see this, you stop and say, ‘Hey, what is this?'”
It’s the story of a filmmaker like no other. “Yes, I’ve been through so much, it’s like I’ve lived 10 times already,” he said. “And that’s the beauty of this memoir is that it’s so condensed. It’s never boring to read.”
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Born in Munich, Germany during World War II, Herzog began making films as a teenager. He was drawn to characters with impossible dreams. That can be seen in the 1982 film Fitzcarraldo, in which he co-starred with longtime collaborator Klaus Kinski. Fitzcarraldo’s character wants to build an opera house in the middle of the Amazon rainforest. To do this, you need to take the steamboat up the mountain and then back down.
Director Herzog said, “20th Century Fox was interested in financing and producing the movie, but they wanted to make it in the jungle, a small plastic replica of the ship in the ‘good’ jungle.” And they thought, “We should do it.” At the San Diego Botanical Garden. ” So I said, “No, we actually need to shoot in a big jungle or a big river or something.”
Without the benefit of CGI, Herzog found his big jungle, his big river. He made the surprising decision to tow a real 320-ton riverboat over real mountains and into the Amazon River on the other side.
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I asked. “It seems to me that there was a moment on ‘Fitzcarraldo,’ perhaps for the first time, and perhaps only, where you feared that at least the crew no longer believed in you. Is that true?”
“That’s true,” Herzog replied. “There were some very dangerous moments, and only the fire that I had inside managed to carry us. The strength of my vision took everyone, even if many of them didn’t believe I could move the ship over the mountains.”
To watch the trailer for “Fitzcarraldo” starring Klaus Kinski, click on the video player below.
Both the staff and critics believed in the completed film. Although Herzog won the Best Director award at the Cannes Film Festival, Fitzcarraldo was a very different film. Jason Robards originally led the cast, with Mick Jagger playing his assistant. Then, after nearly half of the film had been shot, Robards became unwell and had to be evacuated to the United States. The delays also hurt Jaguar. The Rolling Stones were on tour.
So Herzog hired Kinski.
He said that if Kinski had not been available for the film, he would have played the role. “I would have done it, because the main job of moving the ship over the mountains is no longer in the movies. It was the job I had to do.” I had to fulfill it. And I couldn’t have done half as well as Kinski, and I couldn’t have done half as well as “God, on my knees.” I didn’t have to play it. ”
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That’s not to say Herzog isn’t a good actor. He was born to play bad. He played a villain in Jack Reacher and an evil character in The Mandalorian. “Well, I got dragged into acting,” he said, “but I enjoy it a lot, and I’m good at it. I’m good at it. I know, but only in very specific parts. And I swear to God, it’s a performance.”
But his best performance is his own love story. Werner Herzog is a hopeless romantic. He fell in love with photographer Elena Pisetski in the late 90s. To seal the deal, he sold everything he owned and flew from Germany to the United States with only a toothbrush in his pocket and his passion in his heart.
“It’s just me. It’s just me, it’s just me, that guy, that person, and that’s it,” he said of arriving on Pisetski’s doorstep. “So I have nothing to offer, just me, just myself. And I’m in America, I’m in Los Angeles because I fell in love so deeply. And I’m so lucky that I… I’m not here because of Hollywood. I’m here because I’m in love.”
This is Herzog’s third marriage. He and Elena have been together for 28 years now. “I’m a very lucky guy,” he said.
It’s been 63 years since the first film, and Herzog is still working on it. And he promises there will be more to come. “I’m working on two feature films,” he said.
“Aren’t you saturated?” I asked.
“So who knows?” Herzog replied. “Eventually, they’re going to have to get me off the scaffold first. I hope that happens.”
Click on the video player below to watch the full interview with Werner Herzog.
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Story produced by John D’Amelio. Editor: Emanuele Setti.
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