Werner Herzog Survey

Along with Wim Wenders, Werner Herzog is the most recognizable of the New German filmmakers who emerged in the 1970s.  His questing, unconventional attitude has resulted in an ongoing career that alternates drama and documentary with a quizzical sense of humour and a generous sense of humanity.  In the last decade, however, Werner Herzog has reached a new plateau of cinematic expressiveness that sees his own bemused personality take centre stage.  We are pleased to present a short retrospective of his work, with a concentration on his most recent films.

SCREENINGS WEDNESDAYS AT 8 PM. FREE ADMISSION.

28 September - Aguirre: The Wrath Of God

West Germany, 1972, 100 minutes.  This telling of the extraordinary tale of the 1560 Spanish expedition to the Amazon influenced Apocalypse Now and ran for 15 months in Paris – and helped establish Herzog’s international reputation.

5 and 12 October – closed for exhibition installation

19 October - Nosferatu the Vampyre

France/West Germany, 1979, 107 minutes.  A dual update and homage to F.W. Murnau’s 1922 movie of the same name, Nosferatu stars Herzog favorite Klaus Kinski as a remarkably sensual and defiantly creepy vampire.

26 October - Fitzcarraldo

West Germany, 1982, 157 minutes.  Based on the true story of a rubber baron who dragged a river steamboat over the mountains to bring opera to the Amazon, Fitzcarraldo remains Herzog’s most enduring and obsessive work.

2 November - Burden Of Dreams

Les Blank, USA, 1982, 95 minutes.  The making-of documentary of Fitzcarraldo mirrors that film’s greatness and obsessions, while revealing some footage of an earlier, alternate cast of Jason Robards and Mick Jagger.

9 November - Lessons of Darkness

France/Germany/UK, 1992, 50 minutes and 

Gesualdo: Death for Five Voices, Germany, 1995, 59 minutes

Two hour-long documentaries by Herzog, the first being a poetic examination of the burning oil wells in the wake of the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait, the second a portrait of the aristocratic Italian Renaissance composer who murdered his wife and her lover, and lived the rest of his life as a mad recluse.

16 November - Encounters at the End of the World

UK/USA, 2007, 99 minutes.  Antarctica as no-one has seen it before, brilliantly photographed and curiously considered, full of whimsy, wonder and bafflement.

23 November - My Son, My Son, What Have Ye Done?

USA, 2009, 91 minutes.  Produced by David Lynch and starring Michael Shannon as an unhinged actor who, inspired by the Oresteia, murders his mother with an antique weapon, My Son, My Son – based on a true story – sees Herzog returning to one of his dominant themes, that of relentless human obsession.

30 November and 7 December – closed for exhibition installation

14 December - Cave of Forgotten Dreams

Canada/France/Germany/UK/USA, 2011, 90 minutes.  Using a spare 3 person crew, (Herzog himself operated the lights), the great German director filmed the 30-thousand-year-old paintings in the Chauvet cave in Southern France, capturing the work of the very first human artists to stunning effect.