It is not to be expected that Werner Herzog could ever become old age. The cult director freely reveals that he doesn’t even look at newer works from the streaming era. Almost everything is “junk”. The old master finds warmer words for his own films.
Director Werner Herzog spoke in Berlin about his work and was harsh on other people’s films. When asked how he was dealing with today’s flood of images, with the wide range of streaming services, the 80-year-old said: “I see relatively few films, and of course I know that almost everything is junk.”
It’s the same at the big festivals: “Cannes: 90 percent junk. Berlinale: 95 percent junk. Venice: 90 percent junk,” said Herzog in the Deutsche Kinemathek. It’s the same with the series. “But the difference is that my films are different and also better.” The Kinemathek is currently showing an exhibition about Herzog, who was born in Munich and now lives in the USA.
The cult director shot “Fitzcarraldo” with Klaus Kinski and “Queen of the Desert” with Nicole Kidman as well as documentaries such as “The Cave of Forgotten Dreams” and “Encounters at the End of the World” about Antarctica.
Wasn’t he afraid that something wouldn’t work out? There has always been something that is known in Catholicism – certainty of salvation, said Herzog. “And that’s why you can enter the gladiator arena, singing. And the wild lions are there. And your certainty of salvation lets you stand tall and walk through it.” There were always setbacks, but he never really had any doubts about his films.
In his opinion, filmmaking hasn’t gotten any easier these days. It’s gotten worse because “this whole culture of woke suddenly sets frames that almost kill film and creativity,” Herzog said. At the press conference, the director also reported how he once got into trouble while filming on a Japanese train platform and what writing means to him.
He doesn’t want to write worse than Kafka or Kleist. “That means if I publish a book – for example “Conquest of the Useless” or the hike to Paris “On Walking in the Ice” – it must not be worse than Büchner would have written it.” When he commented that it had worked, he replied: “Thank you, I know.”
