Table Of ContentHerzog
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,
