Herzog by Ebert other books by An Illini Century roger ebert A Kiss Is Still a Kiss Two Weeks in the Midday Sun: A Cannes Notebook (orig. publ. 1987; university of chicago press ed. 2016) Behind the Phantom’s Mask Roger Ebert’s Little Movie Glossary Roger Ebert’s Movie Home Companion annually 1986–1 993 Roger Ebert’s Video Companion annually 1994– 1998 Roger Ebert’s Movie Yearbook annually 1999–2 013 Questions for the Movie Answer Man Roger Ebert’s Book of Film: An Anthology Ebert’s Bigger Little Movie Glossary I Hated, Hated, Hated This Movie The Great Movies The Great Movies II Awake in the Dark: The Best of Roger Ebert (orig. publ. 2006; 2nd ed. 2017) Your Movie Sucks Roger Ebert’s Four- Star Reviews 1967– 2007 Scorsese by Ebert The Great Movies III The Pot and How to Use It: The Mystery and Romance of the Rice Cooker Life Itself: A Memoir A Horrible Experience of Unbearable Length The Great Movies IV With Daniel Curley The Perfect London Walk With Gene Siskel The Future of the Movies: Interviews with Martin Scorsese, Steven Spielberg, and George Lucas DVD Commentary Tracks Beyond the Valley of the Dolls Casablanca Citizen Kane Crumb Dark City Floating Weeds Herzog Roger Ebert by Ebert foreword by Werner Herzog the university of chicago press Chicago and London The University of Chicago Press, Chicago 60637 “‘Images at the Horizon’: A Workshop with Wer- The University of Chicago Press, Ltd., London ner Herzog, Conducted by Roger Ebert at the © 2017 by The Ebert Company, Ltd. Facets Multimedia Center, Chicago, Illinois, Foreword © 2017 by The University of Chicago April 17, 1979, Transcribed, Annotated, and Ed- All rights reserved. No part of this book may be ited by Gene Walsh” was originally published as used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever a pamphlet by Facets Multimedia, Inc., © 1979, without written permission, except in the Facets Multimedia, Inc. Reprinted by permis- case of brief quotations in critical articles and sion of Facets Multimedia, Inc. reviews. For more information, contact the University of Chicago Press, 1427 E. 60th St., All other previously published reviews, essays, Chicago, IL 60637. and interviews originally appeared in the Chicago Published 2017 Sun- Times, and are reprinted with permission. © Printed in the United States of America Chicago Sun- Times, Inc., 1977, 1979, 1982, 1984, 26 25 24 23 22 21 20 19 18 17 1 2 3 4 5 1998– 2000, 2002, 2005, 2007– 2011, and 2013. ISBN- 13: 978- 0-2 26- 50042- 3 (cloth) ISBN- 13: 978- 0- 226- 50056- 0 (e- book) DOI: 10.7208/chicago/9780226500560.001.0001 library of congress cataloging-in-publication data Names: Ebert, Roger, author. | Herzog, Werner, 1942– writer of foreword. Title: Herzog by Ebert / Roger Ebert ; foreword by Werner Herzog. Description: Chicago ; London : The University of Chicago Press, 2017. | Includes index. Identifiers: LCCN 2017003539 | ISBN 9780226500423 (cloth : alk. paper) | ISBN 9780226500560 (e-book) Subjects: LCSH: Herzog, Werner, 1942– | Motion picture producers and directors. Classification: LCC PN1998.3.H477 E24 2017 | DDC 791.4302/33092—dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017003539 This paper meets the requirements of ANSI/NISO Z39.48- 1992 (Permanence of Paper). Contents foreword by werner herzog ix editorial note xiii Part 1: Facets Multimedia, 1979 Images at the Horizon 3 Notes 46 Part 2: Reviews Aguirre, the Wrath of God 51 Nosferatu the Vampyre 53 Fitzcarraldo 55 Burden of Dreams (directed by les blank) 58 Where the Green Ants Dream 60 Little Dieter Needs to Fly 62 My Best Fiend 65 Invincible 68 Grizzly Man 71 The White Diamond 74 Rescue Dawn 77 Walking to Werner (directed by linas phillips) 80 Encounters at the End of the World 83 Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call, New Orleans 86 My Son, My Son, What Have Ye Done 89 Cave of Forgotten Dreams 92 Into the Abyss 94 Part 3: Interviews At Cannes Film Festival (May 1982) 99 Herzog Defies Death for His Films (May 20, 1984) 104 Herzog Finds Truth beyond Fact (September 29, 1998) 108 A Conversation with Werner Herzog (August 28, 2005) 111 “Tell Me about the Iceberg, Tell Me about Your Dreams” (July 7, 2008) 124 The Ecstasy of the Filmmaker Herzog (April 6, 2010) 128 Part 4: The Great Movies Aguirre, the Wrath of God 135 The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser 139 Heart of Glass 143 Stroszek 147 Nosferatu the Vampyre 151 Fitzcarraldo 155 Part 5: Summing Up A Letter to Werner Herzog: In Praise of Rapturous Truth (November 17, 2007) 161 Herzog and the Forms of Madness (July 20, 2008) 166 Comment by Werner Herzog 169 Comment by Daniel Quiles 170 Additional Comment by Daniel Quiles 171 The Great Ecstasy of the Sculptor Herzog (January 26, 2013) 172 appendix: walker art center, 1999 Note concerning Herzog’s Films 179 Herzog’s “Minnesota Declaration” 180 index 183 Foreword It would be incomplete if I just made a point that I am missing Roger Ebert. It goes far beyond him; it goes much deeper. Cinema, in rare cases, has created a few men and women we can consider the con- sciousness of all of us who love cinema, our guardians, our light at the end of the tunnel. Lotte Eisner was one of them, Amos Vogel as well, and so was Henri Langlios, the fierce dragon who guarded the treasures of cinema. Roger’s and Lotte’s and Henri’s fire that they had within keeps us going. We would be lonesome stragglers left stranded in a cold and hostile world that knows no history and has no compass. And this is the world Roger saw coming, and I saw coming, when the studio (Disney, I believe) left no doubt it wanted to take At the Movies with Ebert and Roeper in a “different” direction. What they meant, in blunt terms, was taking the show away from movie criti- cism and love and appreciation of cinema into the realm of celebrity news. This was not a singular shift. You saw it coming, as taking on Roeper meant accepting a partner who had hardly any clue about cinema, who had to be tutored in crash courses in what real cinema was all about. The print media, by now, have abandoned almost all of their film critics and replaced them with writers and paparazzi in hot pursuit of celebrities. The Internet, now, does the same. I have never been part of what I call the culture of complaint, nor was Roger ever into this. He plowed on until there was no breath left in him. I always kept talking about him as the Good Soldier of Cinema,