After deciding that filmmaking would be his destiny, a teenage Werner Hiszog only needed one thing: a camera. He took it from a Munich film school, which he describes as “more theft than expropriation.”
He said: “You need a certain amount, I would say, of good criminal energy to make a movie.”
Herzog has produced more than 70 feature films and documentaries. At 82 years old, Herzog is still making films that no one else could or would ever dream of.
He also teaches his skills in what he calls “a film school for rogues.”
Herzog stated that “you have to step outside the norm”
A childhood of poverty defines you
Herzog is a director who has never received any formal training. He was born just two weeks prior to the Allies’ 1942 bombing of Munich, during World War II. While his father was in the German Army, his mother took him and his brother to the Bavarian mountains. Herzog was born into poverty. Herzog’s family lived in poverty, with little electricity or running water.
Herzog said that his mother was hungry and that they were wailing at her skirt. “She spins around, looks at us, and says: ‘Boys I’d cut it from my ribs if I could, but I’m not able to’.”
Herzog says that this experience has shaped him to be the person he is now.
Herzog did not see his first movie until he turned 11, but he quickly became addicted to American B-movies — low-budget, cheap films.
How far Herzog is willing to go for a film
Herzog began directing his own films in the 1960s. But it was “Aguirre: The Wrath of God” from 1972 that made him famous. The film is about a group conquistadors that gradually go mad as they search in the Amazon for a lost gold city.
Herzog’s will and determination were the only things that kept this movie on track, despite its low budget. He sold his shoes in order to buy some fish for the crew.
Herzog explained that “it’s not what a director is expected to do.” It’s nice to have some good shoes, but you can trade them for a bunch of fish or the wristwatch I would give away. I would give everything away.”
It’s worth the effort to him. He views the final product of a film as “loot” rather than money that he may make.
Herzog stated, “I make money on occasion and invest it into the next film.”
Herzog began work on “Fitzcarraldo” in 1979. It took three long years. Klaus Kinski, a German actor, played an Irishman obsessed with building an opera house in Amazon. Fitzcarraldo devised a plan for a rubber plantation in a remote jungle, and hired local laborers to move a 340 ton ship up a mountain.
The director stated that 20th Century Fox had suggested filming the film at a botanic gardens in San Diego, using a mini boat.
Herzog stated, “It would’ve been a terrible film.”
He bought a steamship weighing 340 tons and moved it up the mountain while filming.
The only problem was not the only one. Herzog was forced to relocate the production 1,000 miles due to a border war between Peru & Ecuador. Financial difficulties, plane accidents, fights between indigenous groups, and rain and mud were also challenges.
Herzog’s pursuit of his vision was relentless and took its toll not only on the crew and cast, but also on Herzog himself. The chaos behind the scene was captured by a documentary crew and made into “Burden of Dreams.” The movie has been released in cinemas again.
Herzog had to deal also with the “Fitzcarraldo’s” leading actor Kinski. Herzog claimed that Kinski was prone rage explosions. Herzog said Kinski was “mad” and “as insane as it gets.”
Herzog stated, “You had contain him.” “I turned his madness and explosive destruction into a film.”
Kinksi’s take on Herzog was his own. Kinski, who died in 1991, described Herzog in his autobiography in a dull, humorless and uptight manner. He also called him swaggering. Herzog calls Kinski’s descriptions “beautiful” and says he helped the actor with a dictionary.
Herzog, despite their turbulent relationship, won the Cannes Film Festival’s best director award when “Fitzcarraldo”, the film they finally released in 1982, was released.
The most unique filmmakers in our time
In the past six decades, Herzog has made films about everything, from a New Orleans cop who is out of control to a man that thought he could survive with Grizzly Bears. He did — until they ate his body. Herzog never shied from the extreme. He’s actually drawn to the extreme. In his films, he explores the fragility of mankind and the power of the natural world.
His curiosity has led him to some of the most remote regions on our planet. Herzog revealed the hidden landscapes beneath the Antarctic ice sheets and the apocalyptic fires that raged in Kuwait following the first Gulf War. He risked life and limb to capture the power volcanoes, as well as ancient cave paintings that had never been seen before in France.
Herzog is more than just a director. He published a book called “Conquest of the Useless” based on the journals he kept while making Fitzarraldo. He has also published 11 other books, including fiction, poetry, and memoirs.
Herzog isn’t a one-man show. He has occasionally acted. Most recently, he appeared in “Star Wars'” “The Mandalorian.” He also provided the distinctive voice of several characters in “The Simpsons.”
Herzog continues to be a director and is currently working on a documentary with Marco Capaldo about the hunt for a legendary herd of African elephants.
The usual and the unusual: He passes on his skills
60 Minutes accompanied Herzog in September as he instructed aspiring filmmakers at the Spanish island La Palma, off the coast of Africa. The island is covered with volcanic rock and ash due to an eruption that occurred three years earlier.
The 11-day workshop is what he calls a “filmschool for rogues” and it’s more about poetry and grit than the basics of filming.
“I also tell the rogues that you are capable. Earn money so you can finance your first film. Herzog advised: “But don’t earn money with clerical work in an office. “Go and work as an bouncer at a sexclub. Work as a guard in a lunatic hospital. Learn how to milk cows at a ranch. You can earn money in the real world by doing this.
He said, “You don’t become a poet just by attending college.”
Herzog has admitted to forging a permit himself.
“I also teach lock picking.” “You…have to be very good at it,” he said.
Herzog advises all of his “rogues”, to always carry bolt cutters.
He said, “It is not for the weak-hearted.”
