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Incontri Alla Fine Del Mondo: Conversazioni Tra Cinema E Vita (2009)

by Paul Cronin(Favorite Author)

4.49 of 5 Votes: 1

ISBN

8875212287 (ISBN13: 9788875212285)

languge

English

genre

Memoir & Autobiography

publisher

minimum fax

review 1: Good lord, what an amazing man. Werner Herzog has not only made some of the most stunning and wrenching movies of the last 50 years, he's also been everywhere, done everything and been involved in every roiling controversy imaginable.The book is a set of chronologically arranged interviews covering Herzog's youth, followed by commentary on just about every film he produced through 2001. At age 14, he walked from native Munich to the Adriatic coast simply because he felt like it. He came to America on a university scholarship which he almost immediately cast aside to live in a rusted-out VW. Then somehow ended up in Mexico, smuggling small items.He has self-produced every one of his movies, written virtually every screenplay, directed every film, pulled "actors" off the str... moreeet, worked with the immensely talented but barely functional Klaus Kinski, hauled a ship over a mountain in "Fitzcarraldo," filmed a volcano on the edge of eruption, and overcome absurdist obstacles that most would not even face.The question, of course: Is all of this true? My guess: Yes and no; it's true in detail but not necessarily in extent. Driven with overwhelming intensity to produce film – which he sees as more important than himself or his trials – he presents his life as a series of cinematic scenes, alternating searing immediacy with odd jump shots. Do these add up to a continuous life, as lived? Hard to say. Certainly, they read like nothing else I've ever run across in the way of autobiography. He comes across as a man who acts immediately on impulse, but it is impulse wrapped in self-certainty. "I have thought it, so it can be done." And in almost every case (at least in his telling), it was done. His films are segments of himself, and so that self is not yet complete, because all the films have not yet been shot. He also comes across as a thoroughly decent, caring human being who values everyone that he has worked with. He claims to have no interest in "happiness," but his life may reflect the undefinable Buddhist concept of "joy."Damn, you have to love him, whether you understand him or not.
review 2: I wasn't sure what to expect from Herzog on Herzog, but I really liked the Q&A format. A book written about Herzog would not have been nearly as interesting as Herzog speaking for himself! What a strange, opinionated, fascinating guy. His life is full of crazy, unusual stories, and I loved hearing them in his voice. After hearing the background on all his films, I also definitely want to watch a few of them. less

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