Land of Silence and Darkness. 16mm/1970/71.
In ostensibly documentary guise the film observes a middle-aged woman, now deaf and blind, as she visits similarly affected people.
As the film unfolds it transforms into another reality probing human communication.
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Klaus Kinski as Fitzcarraldo
Fitzcarraldo 1982.
This legendary film established both Herzog and the actor Klaus Kinski as international stars of cinema. A mythology has grown around the project, which took four years to shoot.
It tells tale of a late 19th century rubber baron, Brian Sweeney Fitzgerald, who dreams of building a grand opera in the Peruvian jungle. He sets about forging a new route in the rubber territory by transporting a huge boat over a mountain and connect two rivers. Three real ships were constructed and the epic scene of the ship being pulled over the mountain by indigenous Indians was really undertaken.
This Herculean feat is central to Herzog's concerns and allows the full operatic fever of his imagination. The metaphor of transporting the boat is evident in Herzog's struggle to complete the project and some of the tensions of this ambitious project.
Klaus Kinski and Werner Herzog
Mein Liebster Feind.
(My Best Fiend) 35mm/1999.
Made 8 years after Klaus Kinski's death, Herzog has explored their bizarre and legendary relationship. Their story began when Herzog was a child in a Munich apartment and continued to the Brazilian jungles and beyond. The film project carefully revisits these locations while weaving film clips into this intimate portrait.
Switching between a comical and moving tribute to Kinski who at one time caused Herzog to seriously consider firebombing his house. Herzog has said of Kinski "Undoubtedly, Kinski was the ultimate pestilence to work with. He was such an intense man, something that naturally frightens most people. But often he was a joy and you know, he was one of the few people I ever learned anything from".