The Werner Herzog enigma
A self-taught filmmaker who made over 40 films without studio backing, directed operas, shot documentaries and wrote books, Werner Herzog is in Greece to attend the Thessaloniki International Film Festival, which is running a tribute to his life and work. Herzog will also be visiting the Goethe Institute in Athens, where he will introduce a screening of his 2001 war drama «Invincible» on Monday evening and be available for a discussion with the audience afterward. The Goethe Institute will additionally be showcasing his work with screenings running at the institute and at the Michael Cacoyannis Foundation from Thursday to November 25. Born in Munich in 1942, Herzog was raised in a village in the Bavarian Alps where his family had sought refuge after the city was bombed by the Allies. Given that he had no access to television or cinema as a boy, it is perhaps a little surprising that Herzog became drawn to filmmaking. Nevertheless, he stole a camera from the local film school in his early teens and later emerged as one of the main proponents of New German Cinema, ranking among such greats as Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Margarethe von Trotta, Volker Schlondorff, Hans-Jurgen Syberberg and Wim Wenders. Herzog, who made it into this year’s Time magazine list of 100 people who most affect the world, is one of those genre-defying filmmakers who appears to have no favorite subjects. Everything inspires or intrigues him, be it a man’s obsession with building an opera house in the middle of a jungle, the end of civilization as we know it, or love. His films blend truth and fiction, either by introducing real emotions to fantastical situations, or vice versa. His life and actions have also provided much fuel for speculation and endowed him with an almost mythical aura. Roger Ebert, the esteemed critic of the Chicago Sun-Times, writes about how Herzog walked from Munich to Paris in 1974 to personally deliver his new film to the dying film critic Lotte Eisner. Another anecdote, captured in a documentary by Les Blank in 1980, has Herzog cooking and eating his shoe in honor of a promise he made to Errol Morris. The tributes cover a good chunk of his opus, showing shorts and features, from the 1960s to the present. Goethe Institute, 14-16 Omirou, tel 210.366.1000; Michael Cacoyannis Foundation, 206 Pireos, tel 210.341.8550. For details of the Thessaloniki tribute, log on to www.filmfestival.gr. Energy in stills In the context of the Thessaloniki International Film Festival’s tribute to Werner Herzog, the National Bank Educational Foundation’s library (11 Tsimiski, tel 2310.288.036) is hosting an exhibition of photographs by Beat Presser titled «Werner Herzog: Film Has to Be Physical,» until November 21. Presser worked with Herzog as a still photographer on three of his films – «Invincible» (2001), «Cobra Verde» (1987) and «Fitzcarraldo» (1982) – and the exhibition features images that capture the energy with which Herzog works on set. There are also a number of random behind-the-scenes shots from other projects.
