Werner Herzog Q & A + Encounters at the end of the world

Werner Herzog. What a guy.

The cinema at BFI Southbank in London was full to the brim with Herzog fanboys and intellectuals alike, all waiting in awed expectation. Herzog briefly spoke before the screening of his new documentary, listing a couple of points about the film.

The documentary was set in the antarctic, in a desolate, alien land where the ice caps are king. In the interview with Mark Kermode, Herzog had stated that he only came across the idea when he saw producer Henry Kaiser's footage from his underwater work in the antarctic. The images were running on Kaisers laptop, and Herzog rushed over to ask him about them. The original stock formed the basis for Herzog's 'The Wild Blue Yonder', a science fiction docudrama. This led Herzog onto pursue this new project.

The film has much in common with both Herzog's previous fiction and documentary work. Firstly, the location is relatively cut away from the rest of the world and inhabits it's own bubble. Like the mountains in Aguirre or the rainforest in Fitzcarraldo, the setting is beautiful and takes on it's own character. Secondly, the inhabitants of the town are distinctly Herzog-ian. Dreamers, philosophers, travellers; all outsiders who have somehow reconvened in this distant corner of the earth. We meet a truck driver with his own New Age ideals, a pipefitter descended from Aztec royalty and a near mute penguin expert. Herzog finds both the humour and the sadness in these people. Trying to continue the conversation, Herzog asks the penguin expert if any of the penguins have shown gay or insane behaviour. The camera observes an absurd outdoor training exercise where buckets with painted faces on are put over the visitors heads in order for them to prepare for poor vision in bad conditions.

Herzog reiterated in his interview that he felt nature was indifferent to human beings, yet his film is full of beauty, poetry and humour. We marvel as we look over the abyss of a simmering volcano, and as we scale the luminous, otherworldly depths beneath the ice. It is frequently jaw dropping in its beauty. As far as transcendental possibly. There is one brilliant, silent moment where Herzog's gentle tones narrate a lost penguin. An extreme wide shot shows the penguin lose it's journeymen, and head off back to the mountains, which Herzog tells us are thousands of km's away. It is an absurd and poignant point in the film, showing the randomness of nature and it's inability to conform to human expectation.

The stories and rumours surrounding Herzog have been circulated to death, but Kermode's interview managed to steer well clear of cliches. Herzog was gracious and very eloquent. The interview began with three clips from his most famous works Aguirre, Fitzcarraldo and Grizzly Man. It was quite a striking image to see Herzog's silhouette standing legs astride in front of his most revered works, and his old friend Klaus Kinski. You get a different impression of Herzog to other filmmakers. While most stay comfortably in studio lots in Hollywood crafting their films, Herzog has trawled through jungles and across rivers, been imprisoned and harrassed. He is as worldly and fearless a filmmaker as you will find.

He was humorous and not afraid to appear like a seasoned intellectual, on being questioned about recent films that have inspired him, he answered that he didn't get to see very many, but said that he thought 'The Real Cancun' was 'delightful'. He called himself 'prudent' in the face of his accusations of recklessness. One of the main themes he talked about was climate change and the direction of the planet. Of course, much of what was said has been said before, but through Herzog's words the sentiments seemed more powerful.

Encounters at the end of the world- 8/10