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Early life
Herzog was born "Werner Stipetić" in Munich. He adopted the name Herzog, which means "duke" in German, later in life. His mother was of Croatian descent and his father abandoned them early in Herzog's youth.[1] He grew up in a remote village in Bavaria. When he was thirteen he and his family shared an apartment with Klaus Kinski in Elisabethstr. in Munich-Schwabing. About this, Herzog recalled, "I knew at that moment that I would be a film director and that I would direct Kinski".
The same year, Herzog was told to sing in front of his class at school and he adamantly refused. He was almost expelled for this and until the age of eighteen listened to no music, sang no songs and studied no instruments. At fourteen he was inspired by an encyclopedia entry about film-making which he says provided him with "everything I needed to get myself started" as a film-maker - that, and the 35mm camera that the young Herzog stole from the Munich Film School.[1] He received his post-secondary education at the University of Munich and Duquesne University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
In the early 1960s Herzog worked night shifts as a welder in a steel factory to help fund his first films.
Family
Herzog has been married three times and has had three children. In 1967 Herzog married Martje Grohmann, with whom he had a son in 1973, Rudolph Amos Achmed. In 1980 his daughter Hanna Mattes was born to Eva Mattes. In 1987, Herzog married Christine Maria Ebenberger. Their son, Simon David Alexander Herzog, was born in 1989. In 1999 Herzog married photographer Lena Pisetski (now Herzog). They now live in Los Angeles.
Films and criticism
Herzog's films have received considerable critical acclaim and achieved popularity on the art house circuit. They have also been the subject of controversy in regard to their themes and messages, especially the circumstances surrounding their creation. A notable example is Fitzcarraldo, in which the obsessiveness of the central character is mirrored by the director in the making of his film. His treatment of subjects has been characterized as Wagnerian in its scope, as Fitzcarraldo and his later film Invincible (2001) are directly inspired by opera, or operatic themes. He is proud of never using storyboards and often improvising large parts of the script, as he explains on the commentary track to Aguirre: The Wrath of God.
Herzog directed five films starring the German actor Klaus Kinski: Aguirre: The Wrath of God, Nosferatu, Woyzeck, Fitzcarraldo, and Cobra Verde. In 1999 he directed and narrated the documentary film My Best Fiend, a retrospective on his often rocky relationship with Kinski.
Herzog has used other actors repeatedly in his films:
- Bruno S. in The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser and Stroszek
- Eva Mattes in Woyzeck and Stroszek
- Clemens Scheitz in The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser, Heart of Glass, Stroszek and Nosferatu the Vampyre
- José Lewgoy in Fitzcarraldo and Cobra Verde
- Brad Dourif in Scream of Stone and The Wild Blue Yonder
Quotes
"...centuries from now our great-great-great-grandchildren will look back at us with amazement at how we could allow such a precious achievement of human culture as the telling of a story to be shattered into smithereens by commercials, the same amazement we feel today when we look at our ancestors for whom slavery, capital punishment, burning of witches, and the inquisition were acceptable everyday events." -- Werner Herzog
On the Peruvian jungle: "The trees are in misery, and the birds are in misery. I don’t think they sing. They just screech in pain. …Taking a close look at what’s around us, there is some sort of harmony: it’s the harmony of overwhelming and collective murder." -- Werner Herzog
"I do not believe in the Cinema verite. Sometimes a really good lie is better than any truth." -- Werner Herzog
"I will believe what you say, as long as others confirm it." -- Werner Herzog
"I try to understand the ocean beneath the thin layer of ice that is civilization. There's miles and miles of deep ocean, of darkness and barbarism. And I know the ice can break easily." -- Werner Herzog
"What would an ocean be without a monster lurking in the dark. It would be like sleep without dreams." -- Werner Herzog
Filmography
Director
* 2006 - Rescue Dawn
* 2005 - The Wild Blue Yonder
* 2005 - Grizzly Man
* 2004 - The White Diamond
* 2003 - Wheel of Time
* 2002 - Ten Minutes Older: The Trumpet - (Ten Thousand Years Older)
* 2001 - Pilgrimage
* 2001 - Invincible
* 2000 - Wings of Hope
* 1999 - My Best Fiend
* 1997 - Little Dieter Needs to Fly
* 1993 - Bells from the Deep
* 1992 - Lessons of Darkness
* 1991 - Scream of Stone
* 1990 - Echoes From a Somber Empire
* 1987 - Cobra Verde
* 1984 - Where the Green Ants Dream
* 1984 - The Dark Glow of the Mountains
* 1982 - Fitzcarraldo
* 1979 - Woyzeck
* 1979 - Nosferatu the Vampyre
* 1977 - La Soufrière
* 1977 - Stroszek
* 1976 - How much Wood Would a Woodchuck Chuck
* 1976 - No One Will Play with Me
* 1976 - Heart of Glass
* 1974 - The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser
* 1974 - The Great Ecstasy of Woodcarver Steiner
* 1972 - Aguirre, The Wrath of God
* 1971 - Fata Morgana
* 1971 - Land of Silence and Darkness
* 1970 - Even Dwarfs Started Small
* 1969 - Precautions Against Fanatics
* 1968 - Signs of Life
* 1967 - The Unprecedented Defence of the Fortress Deutschkreuz
* 1967 - Last Words
* 1964 - Game in The Sand
* 1962 - Herakles
External links
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Werner Herzog
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