Journey Into the Unknown: The Films of Werner Herzog

‘I believe the common denominator of the universe is not harmony; but chaos, hostility and murder.’
– Werner Herzog

Herzog is, in essence, an explorer. Whether making documentaries or fiction (though he himself dislikes the distinction), he is constantly asking questions – about individuals, societies, the world. Making a movie enables him to ponder the many mysteries of life (and death), to test theories, to imagine what it’s like to be someone or something other than Werner Herzog. At the same time, of course, he is unusually ubiquitous in his work. His films are defined by his intense curiosity and point of view; whatever the subject matter, Herzog’s presence as the prime mover, on screen or off, is always palpable. This selection of films from his long and illustrious career offers an opportunity to discover the wide range of his interests, the intelligence of his insights, and his sure sense of what makes a good story.

Geoff Andrew, season curator

Releases

Werner Herzog: Radical Dreamer

A riveting and all-encompassing portrait of the iconic German filmmaker.

The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser

Bruno S is a compelling presence at the heart of Werner Herzog’s strange, striking and emotionally devastating tale.

Season programme

Werner Herzog’s Tales of Life and Death: An Illustrated Talk

Season curator and BFI Programmer-at-large Geoff Andrew guides us through the fiction and documentary work of this singular filmmaker.

Signs of Life

Herzog’s first feature is an impressive, highly atmospheric account of German soldiers stationed on a Greek island during the Second World War.

Even Dwarfs Started Small

Herzog’s withering parable about power combines surrealism, satire and a palpable affection for the cast’s anarchic antics.

Fata Morgana + The Great Ecstasy of Woodcarver Steiner

Herzog’s wry, weird and wonderfully imaginative cine-poem about creation and decay, and his exhilarating documentary tribute to the art of ski-jumping.

Land of Silence and Darkness

Herzog’s magnificent, deeply moving documentary about people who are deaf-blind and others still more isolated.

Land of Silence and Darkness + BSL intro by deaf filmmaker Sam Arnold

Herzog’s magnificent, deeply moving documentary about people who are deaf-blind and others still more isolated.

Aguirre, Wrath of God

Kinski at his most memorably manic in Herzog’s classic about Spanish conquistadores all at sea in the Amazon jungle.

Heart of Glass

Herzog’s strange fable about an ailing pre-industrial community – complete with cast under hypnosis – is visually stunning and engagingly intense.

Stroszek

Herzog’s sardonic but touching tale of an odd trio of misfits leaving Berlin to find a new life in deepest Wisconsin.

La Soufrière + Lessons of Darkness

Herzog courting fire with documentaries about a ready-to-erupt volcano and about the blazing Kuwaiti oil fields following the first Gulf War.

La Soufrière + Lessons of Darkness + intro by writer Ian Haydn Smith

Herzog courting fire with documentaries about a ready-to-erupt volcano and about the blazing Kuwaiti oil fields following the first Gulf War.

Nosferatu the Vampyre

Herzog’s beautiful, stylised foray into vampire territory is a rich, resonant tribute to an earlier German cinema.

Woyzeck

Herzog’s film of Büchner’s play, with Kinski as the titular soldier broken by cruelty and oppression, is one of his finest.

Fitzcarraldo

One of Herzog’s most ambitious movies, an epic tale of individual obsession confronting the seemingly insuperable obstacle of the Amazonian wilderness.