Six Definitive Films: The ultimate beginner’s guide to Werner Herzog
The cinema of German filmmaker Werner Herzog is almost a genre in and of itself, with the auteur known for his meditative and philosophical approach to his narrative tales and documentaries. A multi-faceted talent, whilst Herzog started off making narrative films in the German language, as his fame grew, so did the diversity of his projects, taking to documentary filmmaking and even Hollywood cinema.
With deeply considered existential musings, Herzog takes audiences on psychoactive trips that explore some of life’s most fascinating topics, from the arrogance of human endeavour in 1982s Fitzcarraldo to the ethereal new reality of the internet, analysed in 2016s Lo and Behold, Reveries of the Connected World. Often featuring protagonists who strive forward with unlimited ambition, Herzog has a curious eye for life’s most fascinating individuals.
Making his first film in 1961 at 19, Herzog has since enjoyed over 50 prolific years in the filmmaking industry. He has had the chance to collaborate with the likes of Tom Cruise, Nicolas Cage, Val Kilmer, Christian Bale and his long-time right-hand actor, Klaus Kinski. An eccentric visionary who evolves after every project, join us as we look back at the six most definitive movies of Werner Herzog’s astonishing career.
Werner Herzog’s six definitive films:
Signs of Life (1968)
Making short films throughout his youth, Herzog would quickly become part of the beginning of the New German Cinema movement with fellow burgeoning directors Rainer Werner Fassbinder and Volker Schlöndorff. Such led the filmmaker to make his very first feature film in 1968 in the form of Signs of Life, a WWII story about three wounded soldiers who are removed from battle and tasked to look after a fortress in a small coastal town.
Much like Herzog’s later filmography, the film had a passionate interest in the workings of the human mind, particularly when facing severe moral conflict. Featuring Peter Brogle and Wolfgang Reichmann, the film would win several awards, including the Silver Bear Extraordinary Prize of the Jury at the Berlin International Film Festival.
Aguirre, the Wrath of God (1972)
Further success for Herzog came in the form of the niche experimental movie Even Dwarfs Started Small in 1970 and the non-narrative documentary Fata Morgana. These were followed by his well-known 1972 masterpiece, Aguirre, the Wrath of God. Shot in the jungles of Amazon on a shoestring budget, Herzog’s epic historical drama is one of New German Cinema’s defining works, showcasing his first collaboration with actor Klaus Kinski.
Building on the myth of El Dorado, Herzog launches a powerful investigation of greed and desire in the 1972 movie, which follows Aguirre, the Faustian conquistador, who is rendered insane by the scorching heat of ambition as he leads a search to find the mythical land. The most complete feature of Herzog’s filmography, Aguirre is the finest showcase of his fascination with nature, desire and humankind.
The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser (1974)
Indeed, the 1970s were a particularly flourishing period for Herzog, with the filmmaker making two of his greatest movies of all time in Aguirre, the Wrath of God and The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser, two years later. Based on his own book, the film tells the story of a young man named Kaspar Hauser who suddenly appears in Nuremberg in 1828 with a strange note, barely able to talk or walk.
The film follows Herzog’s fondness for innately human tales that unravel the inner workings, led by the fantastic performance of Bruno S. in the lead role, who would later work with Herzog again on Stroszek. Winning the Silver Palme at the Cannes Film Festival and being nominated for a Palme d’Or, Herzog’s 1974 film is one of his most decorated.
Fitzcarraldo (1982)
Werner Herzog’s most famous narrative movie came several years after his flourishing in the 1970s, making Fitzcarraldo following the release of Stroszek in 1977, as well as Nosferatu the Vampyre and Woyzeck in 1979. Surrounded by infamous production troubles, Herzog hauled a boat up a mud mountain in the Amazon jungle for the making of Fitzcarraldo, showing his sheer dedication to the cinematic epic about a maniacal eccentric.
Another collaboration with Kinski in what is surely his most outrageous film role, Fitzcarraldo is a surreal, astounding feat of cinema about a man obsessed with opera who tries to architect an opera house in the middle of the Amazon. A bizarre, mythical masterpiece, Herzog’s 1982 classic may well be his most technically impressive.
Grizzly Man (2005)
It would be amiss not to include one of Herzog’s seminal documentaries on a list of his six most definitive movies, with 2005s Grizzly Man being the most popular of his many factual explorations. Coming many years after his heyday in the late 20th century, Grizzly Man is a tentative human analysis in the vein of his previous fictional classics, telling the story of Timothy Treadwell, a grizzly bear activist. The latter lived with the creatures for several months every year.
Released years after Herzog’s turn to invigorating documentaries, releasing Lessons of Darkness, Bells from the Deep, and Little Dieter Needs to Fly throughout the 1990s, Grizzly Man was the perfect culmination of Herzog’s newfound skills. A critical and commercial success, there is a deep innate humanity to Herzog’s 2005 film that feels like a truly honest, noble use of documentary filmmaking.
Family Romance, LLC. (2019)
In contemporary cinema, Herzog is recognised as one of the most influential documentarians of all time, with his narrative fiction films not as recognised as his modern explorations of man. His 21st-century films included frequent collaborations with some of Hollywood’s finest names, including Christian Bale in Rescue Dawn, Nicolas Cage in Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans and Queen of the Desert with Nicole Kidman.
Though, following the success of Grizzly Man, his documentary efforts did not cease either, making a name for himself among modern film lovers with such explorations as Encounters at the End of the World, Cave of Forgotten Dreams and Into the Abyss. Indeed, his modern filmography is a culmination of a half-a-century-long career, using every arm of the film medium to tell his incredible stories.
Whilst not his greatest movie, Family Romance, LLC. acts as the greatest representation of Herzog in modern cinema, telling a strange story that mixes both narrative and documentary elements. It all follows a man in Japan who is hired to impersonate the missing father of a young girl, with the two exploring the city and enjoying each other’s company whilst trying to ignore the artifice of their relationship.
Herzog flickers between fact and fiction with blurred distinction, though in the process finds something inherently honest about modern relationships and contemporary life.
