Showing posts with label Herzog Werner. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Herzog Werner. Show all posts

Saturday, 17 March 2018

"My Best Fiend", directed by Werner Herzog

Documentary, 1999

Recollections and clips of Klaus Kinski, mainly from Herzog, though occasionally balanced with other acquaintances involved in the films the two men made together. Kinski comes across as damaged and deranged, a method actor to beat all method actors and as self-obsessed and violent as a documentarian could wish for. On the one hand, this film has the feel of a hatchet job - we hear nothing from Kinski himself who had died long before the film was put together. There are, however, times when Herzog is more generous, not in giving Eva Mattes and Claudia Cardinale time to praise Kinski, but also in describing his own working relationship and admiration.

Tuesday, 16 May 2017

"Woyzeck," directed Werner Herzog

Movie, 1979

Intense portrait looking at the disastrous effects of the military and psychological manipulation on a less than stable subject. The Herzog-Kinski combination brings in bucket loads of atmosphere and dread into a combat situation with no fighting, other than the destructive relationships raging through and around the main character. Beautifully shot and with a number of meditative scenes in among the high drama, but still coming up well paced. Brutal viewing tacking dehumanisation and absurdity full on and giving much pause for thought along the way.