Documentary Masterclass by Werner Herzog free to view til Jan 20th

Get it while it's hot... while you still can...

http://dafilms.com/download/key/zTaGWLtX3w

Holy shit, thank you so much for this! Great to see an interview like this with Herzog solely dedicated to film, when I saw him live in conversation in London a few years back he sure did love to speak about everything in between (not that's a bad thing mind you).

For anyone interested there's a playlist here of a few clips of that interview, as well as this clip that wasn't added to the playlist for some reason.

In a way, the point of a masterclass by him is somewhat moot. So much about his method is so very subjective. It seems impossible to teach.

Still, listening to him talking about anything is deeply fascinating.

I'm about half-way through this (163 minutes!) and he's telling a lot of famous, fan-familiar stories, but it is great to hear him speak about his work with passion. He has more passion about his work than very few people can ever dream to possess.

yeah it really is somewhat moot, still very good

he's a weird guy, weirder than it seems at first I think. he's has a good sense of humor but like many artists seems oblivious to certain things

also, as much as I wish not to, I have to wonder his stance on the new information regarding Kinski

I could listen to Hertzog all day

I could watch this a few times. There's a lot to think about here. He's fascinating.

Cool, I turned on an App called Jaksta in my Mac's menu bar and have a file thats 938.4mb.

  On 1/17/2013 at 1:14 AM, MCJ said:

Cool, I turned on an App called Jaksta in my Mac's menu bar and have a file thats 938.4mb.

wuwuwuwait.

You were able to rip it?

favorite herzog?

I've only seen about a third but right now I'm inclined to say:

Even Dwarfs Started Small

Lessons of Darkness

I love Grizzly Man, Kaspar Hauser.... but when I think Herzog, I think those above two really capture the important core aspect of his approach.

  On 1/17/2013 at 12:51 AM, happycase said:

I could watch this a few times. There's a lot to think about here. He's fascinating.

same, I really like learning about his artistic approach. listening to this has genuinely taught me a few things about making music.

  On 1/17/2013 at 12:33 AM, vamos scorcho said:

yeah it really is somewhat moot, still very good

 

he's a weird guy, weirder than it seems at first I think. he's has a good sense of humor but like many artists seems oblivious to certain things

 

also, as much as I wish not to, I have to wonder his stance on the new information regarding Kinski

please elaborate

he's a pedofile and he raped two of his daughters, basically

I haven't seen Aguirre but it almost seems bizarre to consider watching it now... I really believe in some level of ethics and it asks some bizarre questions about our perception of art vs reality. It's actually quite similar to the problems facing us regarding the upcoming virtual reality technology...

I'll watch Aguire anyway, I personally don't think the personal life can really have anything to do with the interpretation of a film. It's just one part of the whole picture, possibly a serious part of it but not enough to say "don't watch it." Too many levels to consider.

this is awesome thanks

  On 1/17/2013 at 4:46 AM, vamos scorcho said:

favorite herzog?

I've seen almost everything (with the exception of a handful of films) and the ones that come to mind are..

- Stroszek (favorite narrative, by far)

- Land of silence and darkness (fave doc feature)

-

I also love aguirre, nosferatu, heart of glass and all of the others. Fuck it. Dude is a genius.

I'm watching Stroszek again this moment, took a pause because I realized some shit and wanted to type it

LOL. the thought was that both Kinski and Bruno have the same tendencies... on film they lose track of reality and beyond just acting fall into social disgrace on camera.

not to get too interpretive, on second viewing it seems like Stroszek is the more intruiging outgrowth of Kaspar Hauser

distinctions

nice one jefferoo!

favourite herzog - fitzcarraldo.

Yvw!

I finished it all last night. Good stuff. I kinda want to watch it again, now.

Thanks for the link.

If Herzog had anything to be teached, it would be to stop doing voice-overs. I mean, in most of the cases, it gets annoying fast.

No.

On the contrary I always liked that he narrates his documentaries. It shows a lot about his approach to work.

To me perfect documentaries have to have absolutely no point of view. It's impossible but some docs get near that.

  On 1/17/2013 at 9:43 PM, the anonymous forumite said:

To me perfect documentaries have to have absolutely no point of view. It's impossible but some docs get near that.

Lessons of Darkness is close to this. I think there is a small amount of narration but for the most part it's just experimental classical music / Wagner and images of Kuwait... it's actually supposed to be a "sci-fi" if I remember correctly.

Its impossible for documentaries to be 100% objective.

In this inteview, Herzog talks specifically about his feelings on this issue. He says the ony real objective documentary is a security camera at a bank and that would be fucking boring to watch.

Therefore, make the film entertaining. Otherwise, there is no point in making the film.

I agree with him.

Even the most objective of documentary films are, by nature of being made by a human, subjective.

It simply cannot be avoided. He just embraces his own interference and subjectivity in someone's story.