(THIS ARTICLE IS MACHINE TRANSLATED by Google from Norwegian)
The last DOK Leipzig festival dedicated a special tribute to Werner Herzog (76), the film director who may not need any introduction.
He has been described as one of the most influential German filmmakers of our time, and has distinguished himself with a rich career as a director. During DOK Leipzig he not only presented his new film Meeting Gorbachev, but also shared their insights with the audience in a special talk during the festival, dubbed "Ecstatic Truth". The discussion about Herzog's latest documentary Meeting Gorbachev was obviously at the center of the conversation with Kristina Jaspers, who was the curator of this special tribute.
"Russia is a more natural and long-term ally for the West than China or Pakistan, India or Brazil, for example."
Meeting Gorbachev is a portrait of the Russian politician and his agenda and vision. But in addition to politics, Herzog would "look into this man's heart." In the documentary, we see another page of Mikhail Gorbachev, where he remembers, for example, his late wife, whom he misses dearly to this day.
During the conversation with Herzog, the latter did not hide what anyone has called his "disappointing heat" esteem for the former Soviet Union leader. The filmmaker praised the retired politician for his "integrity" and "long-term vision", emphasizing that Gorbachev saw "things on his radar that are as valid today as the disarmament agreement".
Condemns the demonization of Russia
Contrary to the anti-Russian sentiments that are noticeable in Western media today, there was little Russian animosity to trace in Herzog's statements. The director openly condemned the "demonization" of Russia, which he determined was "utterly flawed" and expressed hope that the world would not fall back into "a new form of cold war". "Russia is a more natural and long-term ally for the West than, for example, China or Pakistan, India or Brazil," he said.
Besides being a man of poetry, Herzog is also a funny man. There's a touch of black humor in it Meeting Gorbachev, as when the film is cut in rapid sequences between epic burials by Soviet secretaries after Leonid Breshnev's death in 1982. The black humor does not, however, seem to reduce the seriousness of the film; the comic parts draw attention to the irony of life and the many failures of the past heads of state.
Warns against expressing truth in precise terms
During the conversation, Herzog and Jaspers visited some of the director's previous work – including Lessons of Darkness (1992) – exploring the oil fields in Kuwait, which was ravaged by Iraqi soldiers who withdrew at the end of the first Gulf War. "When Saddam's forces were forced out, they set fire to everything," Herzog said. "There wasn't a single oil well that didn't burn. The whole country was on fire. When I watched this on television every night, I got the feeling that this was completely wrong. It is not a political event, it is a cosmic event. This is a crime, not just a political crime, but a crime against the creation itself. ”
Herzog noted that he had "a bigger vision" of what the film should have portrayed; he wanted to emphasize the catastrophic alienation of the landscape as a result of the devastating fires. He shouted that Lessons of Darkness was one of the films in which he chose to modify reality in a truthful way.
"It was very clear that we did not want to make a film that was completely fact-based. It is poetry-based. It is music based. It is based on visions […]. From the beginning, it was clear that the film was not about our planet – so unseen, so hidden that it can only take place on another planet, a science fiction film. Throughout the film, our planet is unrecognizable. "
The German filmmaker does not seem to falter in his decision to find truth beyond the real. In a desire to find a cinematic language that has a deeper humanistic reverberation, he does not hesitate to process reality – often by resorting to scenic solutions. Real cinema (truthful cinema) was the "60s response", and it's "a failure," he said during the interview. "The facts are not the truth. It's a fundamental misconception many filmmakers are guilty of. "
"The facts are not the truth. It's a fundamental misconception many filmmakers are guilty of. "
He also warned against trying to express the truth in precise terms, forcing one to treat it with "beak tongues": "Because it's not just mathematicians who can't tell you what the truth is. Philosophers don't know it either. The only ones who seem to know it are the Catholics. They have the certainty of faith. "
The film's digitization
In addition to discussing Herzog's own filmmaking, he and Jaspers also discussed lesser known aspects of his work, such as the use of his voice in other people's films. His accomplished monotony, which never seems to conflict with his intricate prose, arouses the viewer's curiosity.
Almost a decade ago, Herzog gave voice to a plastic bag in Ramin Bahrani's short film from 2009, in which he followed the bag's search for its lost originator. Herzog's voice, which he claims is quite stylized and contrived, has inspired a large number of followers. Some of these, who were almost mesmerized by what the director did, went so far as to make an ironic video in which they developed a special speech synthesizer, called 'WernAcular', which promises to turn the most boring voice into a powerful 'Herzog- act 'voice.
But Herzog is also a man who can turn a rather mundane conversation about the digitization of film into more refreshing utterances that shed light on aspects important to any documentary film.
creates.
Apart from the democratization of filmmaking and easier access to tools that make it easier for everyone to make films, digitalisation has brought the film back to the director, according to Herzog. It enables you to “take a handheld camera on your shoulder and walk between the actors and weave yourself into a choreography while you can do what you have to. Technology is not so important anymore. You are free from technology, from greenscreen and steadycam. […] It's great that we bring the film back to where it really belongs, and it belongs to a filmmaker who thinks, breathes and feels and has a vision. "
See review by Meeting Gorbachev
