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(I know there's a documentary thread, but I don't want it to turn into the bin where all documentaries go to die.)

For those of you interested in NPR and Grizzly Man, Herzog's going to be on Fresh Air today discussing the film. If nothing else, we can all sit around the radio and listen to the hypnotic sound of his voice.

Does anyone know when this will be released? I didn't see anything on the http://www.grizzlyman.com/ site.

goofbutton wrote:Does anyone know the status of his Galileo Space Program doc? Has this been transmogrified into the WAKE FOR GALILEO/WILD BLUE YONDER film about the alien?

Yes indeed.
And it looks to be a thing of beauty:
Werner Herzog's Second Science Fiction Documentary

I saw "The Grizzly Man" in a New York theater yesterday, and found it to be absolutely spellbinding. Its impact is in no small measure due to the narration by Herzog. In all his work Herzog is fascinated by the neurotic. The impact is even greater when a neurotic character is not staged but is found somewhere in the world. And in this unique case such a character made extensive record of himself in the midst of his chosen obsession. What Herzog has contributed is selection and editing of this footage, augmented by conversations with Timothy's friends, and his own interpretation of the man and his world-view. This film will be quite different if it was seen without Herzog's narration.
Great surrealists like Luis Bunuel realized on film what they conjured up in their imagination. Herzog's unique vision takes people and nature in the world and shows them to be more surreal than anything we could imagine. If documentary evidence did not exist, it would be difficult to separate his fictional films from some of the so-called documentaries.
In my view Werner Herzog has a claim to be considered the greatest film-maker active today. This is one man's opinion, and I understand others might differ from it.

Also saw Grizzly Man today -- and agree that it is wonderful. I would also note that Herzog gently showed how massively Treadwell staged (and fictionalized) his "true stories".

Herzog's voice, as always, is a treasure.

A film reviewer at Philadelphia Weekly DID NOT APPRECIATE HERZOG'S VOICE!!

Despite Treadwell's ridiculous-seeming behavior, he does have an incredibly good cinematic eye, which isn't lost on Herzog. He takes every opportunity to interrupt blissful shots of bears cavorting and bushes rustling to tell the audience why he finds it so moving.

This is a possible reaction to all of Herzog's protagonists. Aguirre, Fitzcarraldo and Treadwell are all men made of the same fabric. They are all chasing strange and impossible dreams. They all come to a sad end. They are all utterly fascinating figures. When we read about what Herzog went through to capture these people and their obsessions, we develop a notion that the filmmaker is akin to one of his subjects. Indeed it would be fascinating if Herzog made a film on Herzog. I guess it is possible to respond to this film as did the critic from Philadelphia. I for one found Herzog's comments far more than a reiteration of what Treadwell had captured. Treadwell made a film about bears, and he manipulated his own image in a specific way. Herzog made a film about Treadwell, and he created an image entirely different from what Treadwell intended to project. In any case, the film is worthy of members on this forum seeing it and forming their own opinions.

A nice observation Kekid. The central motif of all Herzog's films have been a protagonist who is out-of-sync with both reality and the world around him, pursuing a dream to create his own reality. In that way, Treadwell very much is like Fitzcarraldo.

I have yet to see it. The only thing I know of it is what I've read and seen, as there recently was about 10 minutes from the film and comments about it on German television.

But Treadwell certainly appears like some wannabe hippie, who really only wanted to pet a Grizzly and thought that because he thought they were cute, they wouldnt hurt him. And from the few clips I've seen, he also appeared to be pretty far out there, talking about himself as a samurai warrior defending the rights of the Grizzly.

I couldn't help thinking of the old Saturday Night Live joke, where Aykroyd is a talkshow guest with a completely scarred face, who wrote a book about Grizzlies and says, "Never feed a Grizzly a Marshmellow with your mouth".

Gearing up to see "Grizzly Man" this weekend. Hoping we may have an Oscar nomination on our hands for Herzog? (Not that it matters, God knows "March of the Penguins" is a lock..) Anyone else completely entranced by those "Wild Blue Yonder" stills? I must have looked at all of them at least 3 times by now. Good year for Herzog fans!

Some more thoughts on Treadwell. In Hindu scriptures it is said that when a person becomes "harmless", all beings lose their capacity for violence with him. The term "harmless" is used in a very profound sense. The person is "harmless" when he is incapable of a violent act, word or thought. And violence here refers not just to physical violence but emotional violence (such as when someone says unkind things to others). And the statement extends not only to humans and animals but also to environment. In presence of such a person all beings cease to be violent. This is a belief very difficult to validate or negate because it is well neigh impossible to find such a person in our times. Treadwell perhaps believed in a somewhat limited version of this principle. However, he did not meet the definition of "harmless". He was prone to violent outbursts of temper against people he disliked (which in one instance included God). He believed that the bears had lost the capacity for violence with him. Unfortunately he was wrong.

"The White Diamond" showing for one week only @ Facets in Chicago. God is smiling on me.

I haven't read them yet myself, but no less than three new Herzog-related pieces have appeared on rogerebert.com in the past week: a review of The White Diamond, a "Great Movies" essay on Fitzcarraldo, and an interview with the director.

From the review of "White Diamond"

In "La Soufriere," a 1977 documentary released on DVD last month, he journeys to an island evacuated because of an impending volcanic eruption, to ask the only man who stayed behind why he did not leave.

Well, of course, this in not on DVD yet, but I googled it and found that several sites are listing an October 25 street date for a set of 3 shorts (Great Ecstasy of Woodcarver Steiner, La Soufriere & How Much Wood...) from New Yorker. Of Course! Just bought the bootleg! F**king unbelievable...

I see also in my research that New Yorker lists "Ballad of the Little Soldier" and "Dark Glow of the Mountains" in their Theatrical section. So maybe we'll see those at some point in R1.

For UK viewers and satellitists BBC TV 4 are showing Wild Blue Yonder in the Storyville slot next Monday at 9.00 p.m.
Also showing at the Cine Lumiere London Friday 16th. within the Goethe Institute Herzog Symposium/Conference weekend. Lots of other Herzog docs will be screened from the 12th. Grizzly Man is conspicuous by its absence however.
Herzog himself is scheduled to appear Friday for Q&A "shooting schedule willing".

I watched the BBC4 transmission of 'Wild Blue Yonder' last night.

Having heard nothing about this one prior to turning on the gogglebox last night (I like being surprised), I was initially disappointed that the great man himself was not narrating it. Despite this, only a couple of minutes viewing confirmed this as a typically Herzogian piece of filmmaking.

The use of title cards presenting the different segments and the style of music and images used all echo his previous work (both the features and those indefinable beauties 'Fata Morgana' and 'Lessons of Darkness') and while it's presented as a documentary, the Brad Dourif character fits neatly into Herzog's long line of lunatic loner heros.

I found it bizarre, bewitching and beautiful and at times felt like I was watching the mutant offspring of a union between '2001' and 'The Man Who Fell To Earth'.

The pseudo-science and initial premise might put a lot of people off this one, but I think Herzog fans will like it.

NABOB OF NOWHERE wrote:For UK viewers and satellitists BBC TV 4 are showing Wild Blue Yonder in the Storyville slot next Monday at 9.00 p.m.

Additionally, they're showing THE WHITE DIAMOND tomorrow evening (Wednesday 14 September 2005 9pm-10.30pm). There's also an interview with the subject of the documentary on the BBC's site. Tonight sees a broadcast of Aguirre: Wrath of God.

George

I have it on good authority that the Brattle theater in Cambridge will be showing The Wild Blue Yonder as part of their Boston Fantastic Film Festival October 13-16.

EDIT: And my "good authority" was wrong.

Grizzly Man, The Wild Blue Yonder and The White Diamond will be shown at the Copenhagen International Documentary Festival next month.

goofbutton wrote:I have to ask: is Treadwell as much of a fucking idiot in the larger context of the film as he was made to appear in the trailers? Because I was rooting for the bears to eat that annoying fucker just based on the first few words out of his mouth.

Yes, I guess he is. The very first shot of the film is extraordinary: it basically exposes just how flaky Treadwell is, and pretty much lets you know what's going to happen and why. When I first saw the film, I immediately thought "Herzog's blown it", because it looks like he's put the found-footage pay-off right up front and has left himself nowhere to go.

Which is why the film itself is such an amazing triumph. Treadwell's personality quirks are just the starting point for Herzog's investigation, which goes far, far deeper and further than I expected. And yes, he has even more revelations about Treadwell up his sleeve. Herzog knows exactly what he's doing here, and the film is much more than the Timothy Treadwell story.

It makes me half wish that there was a "Herzog edit" available for every wildlife documentary.

Grizzly is just as much Herzog's essay on nature (as well as the nature of filmmaking) as it is Treadwell's story; one of the triumphs of the film is that it works equally well in both regards, neither aspect at the expense of the other, while largely relying on Treadwell's own footage to accomplish the feat. My favorite quote from Herzog has him indicting Treadwell's naively lovey-dovey vision of the wild, spoken over a shot of the man tearfully mourning a half-eaten fox: "I believe the common denominator of the universe it not harmony; but chaos, hostility, and murder." Though on that point, I also found it curious that Herzog refers to the bear that killed Treadwell as a "murderer," apparently succumbing, if only momentarily, to a touch of melodramatic anthropomorphism himself. As a friend observed, "Murderer? It was just a hungry bear looking for food."

I've overheard some pretty remarkable audience comments about this film, but the most mind-boggling was from the woman who said "Was this commissioned by anti-environmentalists? Because it makes them look awful. Terrible film."

Grizzly Man was simply phenomenal. It was just such a well-unified and constructed film and yet he edited it in a couple of weeks. Herzog's instinct for story and theme truly amaze me. To me, he like no other except maybe Wong Kar Wai has mastered the art of improvisational filmmaking.

Also, and this might be deemed slightly OT, but I think some people on the forum will be interested to hear it... Jim O'Rourke (who among many other things played some during the Grizzly Man sessions) has basically said he's quitting music to pursue film directing. I'm surprised but also quite intrigued. Anyone familiar with his work will recognize the Nic Roeg references in several of his album titles, with his own album Eureka partially inspiring Shinji Aoyama's 2000 film of the same name.

I thought Richard Thompson did the music for this.

oldsheperd wrote:I thought Richard Thompson did the music for this.

You're correct. O'Rourke was one of the players for the score, though.

Oedipax wrote:Also, and this might be deemed slightly OT, but I think some people on the forum will be interested to hear it... Jim O'Rourke (who among many other things played some during the Grizzly Man sessions) has basically said he's quitting music to pursue film directing. I'm surprised but also quite intrigued. Anyone familiar with his work will recognize the Nic Roeg references in several of his album titles, with his own album Eureka partially inspiring Shinji Aoyama's 2000 film of the same name.

Well thats the sort of thing the maverick O'Rourke has been saying for years, he's done it all in the music world... self proclaimed champion of the avant garde, solo artist, producer, sound engineer... not all I might add too rapturous applause.
Leaving the music business, I doubt it - its the one niche able to accommodate such a maverick, blemishes and all.
Having got that of my chest, Eureka and Insignificance were great albums!