Line #27 Creator/WernerHerzog


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9	[[quoteright:250:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/rsz_8338205931_87b841fe45_b.png]]
10	[[caption-width-right:250:[[Series/TheMandalorian Directing is a complicated profession.]]]]
11
12	->''"There are deeper strata of truth in cinema, and there is such a thing as poetic, ecstatic truth. It is mysterious and elusive, and can be reached only through fabrication and imagination and stylization."''
13	-->-- "Minnesota Declaration", 1999
14
15	Werner Herzog (born September 5, 1942 in UsefulNotes/{{Munich}} as Werner Stipetić) is a German movie director and screenwriter who has emerged as the most successful of the German New Wave filmmakers. He has also dabbled in acting and voiceover work.
16
17	He is beloved on the arthouse circuit and with several mainstream successes under his belt, most notably with actor Creator/KlausKinski. His films, both fictional and documentary, are often slow and atmospheric, but are universally beautiful and human. Really, his films only have one subject - the infinite power of human will and the subsequent potential for self-destruction.
18
19	His official website can be found [[https://www.wernerherzog.com/index.html here]].
20	----
21	[[foldercontrol]]
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23	[[folder:Works he has directed:]]
24	* ''Film/EvenDwarfsStartedSmall'' (1970)
25	* ''Film/AguirreTheWrathOfGod'' (1972)
26	* ''Film/TheEnigmaOfKasparHauser'' (1974)
27	* ''Film/HeartOfGlass'' (1976)
28	* ''Film/{{Stroszek}}'' (1977)
29	* ''Film/NosferatuTheVampyre'' (1979)
30	* ''Film/{{Woyzeck}}'' (1979)
31	* ''Film/{{Fitzcarraldo}}'' (1982)
32	* ''Film/{{Cobra Verde}}'' (1987)
33	* ''Scream of Stone'' (1991)
34	* ''Lessons of Darkness'' (1992)
35	* ''Little Dieter Wants to Fly'' (1997)
36	* ''Invincible'' (2001)
37	* ''Film/IncidentAtLochNess'' (2004)
38	* ''Film/GrizzlyMan'' (2005)
39	* ''Rescue Dawn'' (2007)
40	* ''Film/EncountersAtTheEndOfTheWorld'' (2007)
41	* ''Film/TheBadLieutenantPortOfCallNewOrleans'' (2009)
42	* ''Film/CaveOfForgottenDreams'' (2010)
43	* ''Queen of the Desert'' (2015)
44	* ''Lo and Behold, Reveries of the Connected World'' (2016)
45	* ''Salt and Fire'' (2016)
46	* ''Meeting Gorbachev '' (2018)
47	* ''Family Romance, LLC'' (2019)
48	* ''The Fire Within: A Requiem for Katia and Maurice Krafft'' (2022)
49	[[/folder]]
50
51	[[folder:Works he has appeared in:]]
52	* ''Werner Herzog Eats His Shoe'' (1980) (see below)
53	* ''Film/WhatDreamsMayCome'' (1998) as Face
54	* ''WesternAnimation/TheBoondocks'' (2010) as himself (voice)
55	* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' (2011-2019) as Walter Hottenhoffer (voice)
56	* ''WesternAnimation/AmericanDad'' (2012) as himself (voice)
57	* ''Film/JackReacher'' (2012) as The Zec
58	* ''WesternAnimation/{{Metalocalypse}}'' (2012) as Ishnifus Meaddle (voice)
59	* ''Anime/TheWindRises'' (2013) as Castorp (English language version, voice)
60	* ''WesternAnimation/PenguinsOfMadagascar'' (2014) as Documentary Filmmaker (voice)
61	* ''Series/ParksAndRecreation'' (2015) as Keg Jeggings
62	* ''Film/FreaksOfNature'' (2015) as Perfect Being (voice)
63	* ''WesternAnimation/RickAndMorty'' (2015) as The Old Reptile (voice)
64	* ''Series/TheMandalorian'' (2019) as The Client
65	[[/folder]]
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67	!! Werner Herzog's works provide examples of:
68	%%As with all Creator/ pages, trivia tropes about the creator specifically are to be posted here, not a Trivia/ page, as they technically are InUniverse in the case of the person's career.
69	%%However: As with all Creator/ pages, items that could go on a specific work's trivia page go there, not here.
70	* AchievementsInIgnorance: He spent his childhood in a remote mountain village and had no idea there was such a thing as movies until age 11. When he finally was introduced to them, he thought they were real and thus got very upset at any mistakes he saw that none of his friends cared about, basically giving himself a crash course in the language of cinema.
71	* AdamWesting: Herzog has a number of acting credits and is often playing either a parody of himself, such as in ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' and ''Film/IncidentAtLochNess'', or using his very unique voice to play a very serious character [[MetaCasting saying totally]] [[PlayingAgainstType ridiculous things.]] [[invoked]]
72	** In ''WesternAnimation/TheBoondocks'' he appears as himself filming documentary footage:
73	--->"In Bavaria, we have a saying: ''[[GratuitousGerman Der Junge ist ja total bedient.]]'' It means ''This is the most depressing fucking kid I've ever met in my life.''"
74	** Also in ''WesternAnimation/AmericanDad'', providing the closing narration for the episode "Ricky Spanish":
75	--->''"Two beautiful creatures trapped in a prison of another's design like a madman lost in a supermarket. One is freed while the other dies alone in a glass tomb, which used to contain farts."''
76	** In ''WesternAnimation/RickAndMorty'', as an alien advisor criticizing the human race's obsession with penises:
77	--->''"I've dwelled among the humans, their entire culture is built around their penises. It is funny to say they are small. It is funny to say they are big. I've been at parties where humans have held bottles, pencils, thermoses in front of themselves and called out 'Hey look at me! I'm Mr. So-And-So Dick! I've got such-and-such for a penis!' I never saw it fail to get a laugh."''
78	** In ''Series/ParksAndRecreation'' he plays the owner of a former home for insane doll-head factory employees trying to sell the house to April and Andy.
79	--->''"After forty-seven years living here, I decided to move to UsefulNotes/{{Orlando}} to be closer to Disney World."''
80	** In ''WesternAnimation/PenguinsOfMadagascar'', he plays a documentary filmmaker and plays up his reputation for dramatic narration and taking artistic license with his documentary subjects.
81	--->'''Documentary Filmmaker:''' Antarctica, an inhospitable wasteland, but even here, on the Earth's frozen bottom, we find life. And not just any life: penguins. Joyous, frolicking, waddling, cute and cuddly life. Look at them, tumbling onto their chubby bum bums. Who could take these frisky snow-clowns...
82	** In ''WesternAnimation/OrionAndTheDark'', he voices the narrator of a short film that Dark shows to the titular character. Said "short" is basically composed of just Herzog's narration and the [[FakeOutFadeOut credits]], where he is also credited.
83	* CentralTheme: Many of his films are centered around the infinite power of the human will and the subsequent potential for self-destruction.
84	* ColdHam: Herzog is known for his ability to deliver dramatic speeches with a quiet intensity, both in the voice-over for his documentaries and in his acting roles.
85	* CreatorThumbprint: Many of his films feature men with strange abilities or obsessions, especially ones involving nature, and he has a notable hatred of chickens. In ''The Grand'' he plays a gambler with an obsession over his pet chicken.
86	* CutenessOverload: Reportedly, while filming ''Series/TheMandalorian'', he was moved to tears by his first sight of the Baby Yoda animatronic, calling it "heartbreakingly beautiful." Later, when the crew suggested doing a second take without the puppet in case it needed to be replaced with CGI, he denounced them as "cowards."
87	* {{Documentary}}: His filmography includes several documentaries and one {{Mockumentary}}.
88	* DoomedExpedition: He likes to explore humans getting lost in the wild.
89	* {{Dramatisation}}: Unusually, his documentaries employ this. He freely admits to embellishing details in them, such as Dieter Dengler opening and closing doors obsessively in ''Little Dieter Wants To Fly'' - that was invented by Herzog for dramatic effect.
90	* EatingShoes: The documentary filmmaker Errol Morris was having trouble completing his debut feature ''Film/GatesOfHeaven''. In order to provoke Morris into finishing the film, Herzog told Morris that he'd never finish it -- but that if he ''did'' finish it, he, Herzog, [[ClothesEatingWager would eat his own shoe]]. Morris finished the film. Herzog got the great Berkeley chef Alice Waters to cook his shoe in garlic, herbs and stock for five hours, and he ate it in public -- except for the sole, because as he explained, you never eat the bones of the chicken. The whole thing was filmed by director Les Blank and released as the aptly-titled short documentary ''[[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin Werner Herzog Eats His Shoe]]''.
91	* HeAlsoDid:
92	** He acted in protegé Creator/HarmonyKorine's ''Film/JulienDonkeyBoy'' and ''Film/MisterLonely'', and played the BigBad in ''Film/JackReacher'', fulfilling a lifelong dream of playing a Bond villain-like character on film. Most recently, he's been cast as an Imperial remnant leader in ''Series/TheMandalorian''.
93	** He's also written several books, most notably ''Of Walking In Ice'', and claims that his prose will prove more important than his films.
94	* HostilityOnTheSet: His friendship with his recurrent leading actor Creator/KlausKinski was... rocky, to say the least. Herzog made a film about their relationship titled, appropriately, ''My Best Fiend''.
95	* LargeHam: While his voice is generally calm and his diction even, the commentary he provides for his nature documentaries can come across as very melodramatic due to his tendency to narrate even the most mundane scenes in a very flowery, bombastic style.
96	* LemonyNarrator: A common component of his SignatureStyle is the contrast between his over-the-top narration and the stark, genuine nature of the footage he is talking over.
97	-->"[Subject] has a non-traditional method for fishing." [[MoreDakka gunshot]]
98	* NatureIsNotNice: Most notably in ''Grizzly Man'', in which Herzog narrates about how beautiful Timothy Treadwell's footage is, while at the same time lambasting him for being so naive about it. Also a theme in ''Aguirre'' and ''Rescue Dawn''.
99	-->''"Nature here is vile and base. I wouldn't see anything erotical here. I would see fornication and asphyxiation and choking and fighting for survival and growing and just rotting away. Of course, there's a lot of misery. But it is the same misery that is all around us. The trees here are in misery, and the birds are in misery. I don't think they sing, they just ''screech in pain''."''
100	* NotEvenBotheringWithTheAccent: Always uses his regular voice in his acting roles and makes no effort to tone down his distinctive accent, even when playing characters who are not German. However, he usually gets a pass from audiences because his unique diction is one of his biggest trademarks and a major part of his appeal as a dramatic actor.
101	* OneForTheMoneyOneForTheArt: He ended up playing a role in ''Series/TheMandalorian'' in order to [[https://screenrant.com/mandalorian-tv-show-werner-herzog-role-reason/ fund a future project]], although he did like the script and the role he ended up having.
102	* ProductionPosse: Despite the above-mentioned HostilityOnTheSet, he and Kinski collaborated with each other a lot until the latter's fatal heart attack.
103	* SceneryGorn: ''Lessons of Darkness'' is about the aftermath of the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait, with particular reference to the burning oil fields.
104	* SceneryPorn: The man can photograph a scene. He has also stated that he has a thing for forests, in case that was not evident from his films.
105	* SelfDeprecation: Perhaps somewhat unexpectedly, he appears to have a very good sense of humour about himself and is perfectly willing to lampoon his reputation as a hyper-intense Germanic semi-lunatic with a tendency to say very enigmatically dramatic and nihilistic things about nature and the human condition.
106	* SlidingScaleOfCynicismVersusIdealism: His films are all over the place. From idealistic ''Fitzcarraldo'' to cynical ''Aguirre, the Wrath of God''. Just comparing ''Film/TheEnigmaOfKasparHauser'' to ''Film/{{Stroszek}}'' can cause whiplash.
107	* SoundtrackDissonance: One of the scenes of burning oil wells in ''Lessons of Darkness'' is soundtracked by "Siegfried's Funeral March" by Music/RichardWagner, which is rather more triumphant than you might expect from the title.
108	** "Siegfried's Funeral March" is used again at the conclusion of ''La Soufriere'', after the eponymous volcano [[spoiler: does not actually erupt]] and Herzog calls it "a little bit embarrassing" in his narration.
109	* WritingByTheSeatOfYourPants: Herzog strongly frowns upon using storyboards (referring to it as a tool of cowards) or shooting any excess footage in his films.

Context Creator / WernerHerzog