4479ce78   
   From: ggggg9271@gmail.com   
      
   On Sunday, March 6, 2011 at 4:16:53 PM UTC-8, Mr. Hole the Magnificent wrote:   
   > He has a reputation for being difficult and dangerous, his films   
   > celebrated for their nihilistic brilliance. Yet despite saying he   
   > never smiles, the German director can't stop laughing at himself – and   
   > the comedy in his work   
   > By Hadley Freeman   
   > Perhaps it is because the German film-maker Werner Herzog has, over   
   > the years, during working hours, been shot at, hauled a steamboat over   
   > a mountain, threatened to kill his leading man, thrown himself on a   
   > cactus, informed the Greek military that he would kill anyone who got   
   > in the way of his filming, been caught in the middle of a South   
   > American border war, taken a film crew to the lip of a volcano, and   
   > once, on camera, ate his shoe, he has a reputation for, let's say,   
   > reckless eccentricity.   
   > It is a reputation that has been compounded by events that have   
   > happened to him off sets – including being shot by an air rifle on   
   > camera mid-interview with the BBC – and the claims of some of those   
   > who have worked with him. Klaus Kinski, with whom Herzog made five   
   > films, wrote: "He creates the most senseless difficulties and dangers,   
   > risking other people's safety and even their lives." To be fair,   
   > Kinski was the actor whom Herzog once threatened to kill. And to be   
   > more fair, Kinski was not exactly known for mental stability himself.   
   > He may be "the most important film-maker alive", according to François   
   > Truffaut, but he is just as well known for being the one most   
   > dangerous to the health of others.   
   > Yet the reputation is difficult to marry with the warm, friendly and,   
   > quite frankly, hilarious gentleman in an anorak I find in the lobby of   
   > a hotel in Beverly Hills, looking a little bemused, possibly because   
   > he is standing next to – with pleasing unlikeliness – Joan Rivers.   
   > When I suggest we get away from all the celebrity hullaballoo, his   
   > face lights with gratitude: "Yes, please, thank you." Standing on a   
   > volcano might not scare Herzog, but standing next to Joan Rivers does.   
   > There is no doubt that Herzog plays to his reputation of Teutonic   
   > gloom. Upstairs, when the Guardian photographer asks him to smile, he   
   > replies brusquely: "I never smile." Yet just minutes earlier he was   
   > chortling at the memory of his sole trip to the Oscars last year for   
   > his – incredibly – sole nomination, for Encounters at the End of the   
   > World. "It was embarrassing – I had no idea what to expect because I   
   > never watch the Oscars."   
   > Of course you don't, Werner – the idea of you watching such shallow   
   > backslapping is as improbable as you going to an NDubz concert.   
   > "No, not at all. It's just that 12 years ago I made a bet on who would   
   > win best actor, and it was only after I gave my money that I realised   
   > the person I bet on wasn't even nominated!" he laughs. "So every time   
   > I see the Oscars, I think of that money I threw on the table!"   
   > We meet two days before the big shindig and, despite the bad memories,   
   > Herzog is eager to discuss who he thinks most deserves an Oscar. Even   
   > more surprisingly, that person is Colin Firth, an unexpected choice   
   > for someone more associated with actors known for hyper intensity –   
   > Kinski, Nicolas Cage, Christian Bale – than the quiet elegance of   
   > Firth. Nonetheless, Herzog insists, "That kind of performance happens   
   > once a decade." (Later that week, I see Firth at an after-Oscars party   
   > and pass on Herzog's compliment. Firth nearly drops his Oscar.)   
   > But it is the reputation of Herzog's films that is perhaps the most   
   > misleading. The intimidating, even obfuscating aura of respect for his   
   > work among cinephiles magnifies its machismo and intelligence, but   
   > obscures its humour. It's a focus that mystifies Herzog, who takes   
   > great pride in his comedy (at one point, he lists his favourite funny   
   > sequences and can hardly speak from laughing) and is himself very   
   > funny, particularly about himself. To see Herzog chuckling about his   
   > fondness for Baywatch seems even more improbable than the famous scene   
   > in his 1982 film Fitzcarraldo when a ship is dragged up the mountain –   
   > which, infamously, Herzog insisted on doing for real due to his   
   > distaste for artifice.   
   > He has immortalised his feelings for Baywatch in his latest   
   > documentary and first branch into 3D, Cave of Forgotten Dreams, about   
   > the Chauvet cave drawings. At one point Herzog examines a Paleolithic   
   > – and very curvaceous – statue. "There seems to have existed a visual   
   > convention extending all the way beyond Baywatch," he muses solemnly   
   > in the voiceover. My favourite moment of Herzogian comedy is in   
   > Encounters at the End of the World when, upon arriving at the camp in   
   > Antarctica, he finds to his horror "abominations such as an aerobic   
   > studio and yoga classes. For all these reasons, I wanted to get out   
   > into the field as soon as possible."   
   > "And cash machines!" laughs Herzog, whose comic delivery is decidedly   
   > less dry in person. "That's why you need to go out of the camp right   
   > away!"   
   > Nonetheless, the impression of Herzog's movies coming laden with gloom   
   > persists. The New York Times's Janet Maslin described Herzog as "the   
   > consummate master of doom". ("I think Janet Maslin is the consummate   
   > master of doom!" giggles Herzog undoomily.)   
   > Yet his films are more aptly described as cheerfully nihilistic.   
   > Repeatedly, they suggest that although we are alone in a disinterested   
   > universe, glory is possible. They celebrate the grandeur of follies,   
   > those who dare to do what few would dare to dream, whether its   
   > dragging a boat over a mountain (Fitzcarraldo), flying in a balloon   
   > over the rainforest (The White Diamond) or diving into unexplored rock   
   > crevices (Cave of Forgotten Dreams.) That Herzog himself does all of   
   > those things to make his movies has often been taken as proof that he,   
   > like his characters, is an egomaniacal daredevil.   
   > But the aim of his films, he says, is "the illumination of something   
   > that is beyond sheer facts", what the New Yorker described as "the   
   > ecstatic truth". Does he experience that illumination when he is   
   > making his films? "Yes, I sometimes feel like the little girl in a   
   > fairytale," says the 68-year-old. "She steps out into the night sky   
   > and golden stars fall into her apron. These moments, when you have   
   > that shudder of something falling into your lap and you don't know how   
   > it happened – that happens."   
      
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   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)