The unusual indie movie Werner Herzog called “a true science fiction film”
A small handful of filmmakers worldwide don’t quite abide by the stereotypical rules of filmmaking, branching out to inject their own idiosyncratic style into their respective movies. Having earned his stripes in the realms of both narrative and documentary filmmaking, German director Werner Herzog is most certainly one of these individuals, becoming a beloved industry icon over his celebrated years in cinema.
Together with his philosophical musings on modern-day life, Herzog has created a filmmaking niche where his psychoactive trips take audiences into a deep dive into some of life’s most fascinating topics. No two filmmaking journeys are the same for him either, taking on various projects from the study of loneliness and personal satisfaction in Grizzly Man to modern-day existentialism in Lo and Behold, Reveries of the Connected World.
There’s a reason why the widely respected filmmaker and French filmmaking icon François Truffaut once called Herzog “the most important film director alive,” with the German director having the profound ability to access the surreal heart of human existence. Making numerous critically acclaimed releases throughout his half-century-long career, including Aguirre, The Wrath Of God, Fitzcarraldo and Encounters at the End of the World, Herzog remains pertinent today as he ever has in the past.
Despite making his film debut back in 1968, Herzog’s voice remains a distinctive one, often offering his opinion on modern life to various media outlets.
His opinion of movies is highly-respected, dishing out much praise on Harmony Korine’s 1997 classic, Gummo, during an interview with the young filmmaker in 1999. Discussing the creative process of how the film was brought to life, Korine and Herzog discuss every inch of the film, from the apocalyptic-like setting to the bacon that is sellotaped to the walls during several curious scenes.
Speaking of the film, Herzog states, “I see Gummo as a true science fiction film in the way it shows a scary vision of the future: a loss of soul, a loss of spirituality. And yet you clearly see all that with very tender eyes”.
Herzog’s take on Korine’s gritty indie classic is a fascinating one, suggesting that, more than the dazzling display of Christopher Nolan’s Interstellar, Ridley Scott’s The Martian or Duncan Jones’ Moon, Gummo is “true science fiction”. Offering a peculiar vision for the future, in which contemporary youth are apathetic to the world around them and nihilistic in their attitude toward the future, Korine’s vision isn’t all too distant from reality, even if he frames the movie in sheer absurdity.
Considered something of a misfire following the release of his groundbreaking screenwriting debut of Kids in 1995, Gummo is today considered a cult classic of modern cinema, changing the landscape of independent cinema in the 1990s. Scruffy, authentic and seeming to be the direct product of its environment, Gummo presents a brutally honest depiction of contemporary America that spoke to a disgruntled generation who could see themselves in such a world.
