Woyzeck

1979 Director Werner Herzog

This film is based on the haunting stage play by Georg Buchner. Klaus Kinski delivers a wild and stunning performance in a role only he could play.  Werner Herzog helmed this cinematization of an anti-military tale of depersonalisation run amok. Utilising the more grotesque elements of German expressionism, combined with his own sense of the outrageous, Herzog plunges us directly into the middle of his story of a soldier who is conditioned to be an unthinking machine. His one vestige of humanity is his love for the beautiful wife, but even this is corrupted.

Franz Woyzeck is a hapless, hopeless soldier, alone and powerless in society, assaulted from all sides by forces he cannot control.  Abused both physically and psychologically by commanding officers, doctors and his unfaithful wife, Woyzeck struggles to hold on to his humanity and his fragile sanity.  In the film's shattering climax, he is finally driven over the brink into madness and murder.

Filmed in the stunningly atmospheric town of Telc, in the Czech republic, its 16th century architecture makes for a visual feast of a backdrop for this rather depressing tale. Kinski's manic energy carries the film and although the ending is at odds with the rest it is still a good example of Herzog at the peak of his career.

Cobra Verde

1987 Director Werner Herzog

In their final collaboration, Werner Herzog directs Klaus Kinski in the remarkable tale of Francisco Manoel da Silva, the flamboyant 19th century Brazilian bandit known as "Cobra Verde." Filmed on location with a cast of hundreds, Cobra Verde is a tale of adventure, greed and betrayal. It's the story of two worlds in collision, and of the man who was trapped between them.

When the owner of a sugar plantation unknowingly hires the barefoot, gun-toting thief to keep his slaves in check, he gets more than he bargained for as Cobra Verde, in short order, impregnates all of his boss's daughters. In revenge, he is sent on an impossible and deadly mission to sail to the west coast of Africa and re-open the slave trade. Not only does Cobra Verde succeed at this, he goes on to lead an unstoppable army of women in a savage war against the local king.

In this film Herzog has finally managed to reign in the mania that he unleashed in Kinski in the previous films. He shows a committed but compassionate man driven more by events than controlling them. This is a complex film, beautifully shot against the African backdrop with very unique and memorable locations.

Fata Morgana

1971 Director Werner Herzog

The film's title, Fata Morgana, refers to mirages or optical illusions brought on by heat, and is an apt title for this storyless, hallucinatory work shot in the deserts of North Africa. It is a rhythmic, musical succession of images and short scenes.

One of the images is a pianist and drummer who play tiredly, surrounded by endless tracts of desert. This is an image that has been adapted and re-used in countless music videos and is a small piece of evidence suggesting that this is a very influential film. The narration, in English, comes from a Guatemalan creation myth, and the accompanying music ranges from Couperin to Cash, with significant contributions by Leonard Cohen.

Fata Morgana is one of Herzog's early features. His crew encountered many problems during the filming, most notably being imprisoned because cameraman Schmidt-Reitwein's name was similar to the name of a German mercenary who was hiding from the authorities and had recently been sentenced to death in absentia.

Herz aus Glas

1976 Director Werner Herzog

This is Herzog's treatise on the power and importance of art.

It is the story of an 18th-century Bavarian glassblower who by virtue of his delicate work casts a spell over his neighbours. He is the principle employer in the town and his wares are the stuff of legend. So when he dies without revealing the secret to the famous "Ruby Glass", the townsfolk will do literally anything to find the answer.

Herzog was known to put his actors through the wringer to get the results he wanted. In this film he decided that the best way to get his people to dance to the crack of his whip was to actually put them under hypnosis. The dazed, zombie-like performances certainly fit the subject matter.  The word usually used to describe Heart of Glass is "haunting". Some viewers have gone beyond haunted and into "possessed." Watch carefully and spot director Herzog in a bit as a glass carrier.

Stroszek

1977 Director Werner Herzog

This is Herzog's most poignant film, and sadly, Bruno Schleinstein's last film. Written specially for Bruno because of Herzog's preference of Kinski in the lead role of Woyzeck, this is a wry vision of the "B" side of the American dream.

Bruno Schleinstein plays a dysfunctional street busker who, having just been released from prison, finds it difficult to pick up a life outside. Having been attacked and humiliated by his girlfriend's pimp they decide to throw in their lot and emigrate with their elderly neighbour to Wyoming, USA. The great American dream soon turns to disillusionment and despair.

This is a keenly observed study of the American way of life with all its anachronisms and has one of the most surreal endings of any film ever made.

Fitzcarraldo

1982 Director Werner Herzog

This film is made more remarkable by the fact that the deed was actually accomplished rather than staged. It was a herculean undertaking.

This is the story of Brian Sweeney Fitzgerald, an extremely determined man and his obsession to build an opera house in the middle of the Peruvian jungle. The highlight of the story is Fizcarraldo's mind numbing effort to haul a 300 ton steamship over the mountains.

Never known to do anything by halves Herzog tackled Fitzcarraldo by boldly embarking on the same journey.  No trickery was used in filming this grueling sequence, and stories still persist of disgruntled South American film technicians awaiting the opportunity to strangle Herzog if he ever sets foot on their land again. In the end, Herzog proved to be as driven and single minded as his protagonist, and it is the audience's knowledge of this that adds to the excitement of Fitzcarraldo. His relationship with the his leading man, Kinski, became strained beyond breaking point and Kinski's savage outbursts so shocked the reserved and mild mannered natives that it is rumoured they offered to kill him for Herzog.

Even Dwarfs Started Small

1970 Director Werner Herzog

To call this film the German version of Tod Browning's Freaks without the romantic element, would be to do it an injustice. This is without doubt Herzog's most bizarre film and makes for uncomfortable viewing.

I have heard it said that the film is set in a dismal mental institution, wherein dwell several midgets, dwarfs and other "oddities", but since there is a complete absence of any traditionally shaped humans including the Head of the asylum and a passing motorist, I am inclined to think that this is set in a world of misfits. The inmates stage a coup, taking over the asylum and utterly reversing the status quo. Their newly found freedom rapidly spirals into cruel anarchy.

There are several scenes of taboo content that one almost never sees and won't forget once seen. This is a very brave voyage for Herzog considering the substantial ban that Freaks had to endure.

The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser

1974 Director Werner Herzog

Herzog's film is based upon the true and mysterious story of Kaspar Hauser, a young man who suddenly appeared in Nuremberg in 1828. This was Herzog's "breakthrough" film. Kaspar Hauser is played by Bruno Schleinstein an equally enigmatic figure of Herzog's finding.

Hauser shows up unannounced in the middle of a village square, intriguing the people with his bizarre behavior. He cannot talk, nor is there any indication of his parentage, thus Kaspar is immediately the object of close scrutiny by the authorities. When he finally does develop the power of speech, he reveals a highly advanced state of intelligence. His child like innocence and questioning mind cause consternation to the more conservative members of the community.

This is a charming film full of irony and subtle comic wit in a tragic setting.  Bruno plays the part with insightful sympathy that marks him as an outstanding actor. Unfortunately this genius came with a tragic amount of mental illness and this was only one of two films he took part in, the other being another Herzog production, Stroszek in 1977. Kaspar Hauser was the winner of the 1975 Grand Jury prize at the Cannes Film Festival.

Aguirre, the Wrath of God

1972 Director Werner Herzog

Based on the real-life journals of a priest, Brother Gaspar de Carvajal, this film is the most famed collaboration between Werner Herzog and Klaus Kinski. Shot entirely on location in the Peruvian mountainous jungle it presents the viewer with stunning vistas of this most hostile environment.

Exhausted and near to admitting failure in its quest for riches, the 1650-51 expedition of Spanish conquistador Gonzalo Pizarro becomes bogged down in the impenetrable jungles of Peru. As a last-ditch effort to locate treasure, Pizarro orders a party to scout ahead for signs of El Dorado, the fabled seven cities of gold. In command are a trio of nobles. Traveling by river raft, the explorers are besieged by hostile natives, disease, starvation and treacherous waters. Crazed with greed and mad with power, Aguirre takes over the enterprise, slaughtering any that oppose him. Nature and Aguirre's own unquenchable thirst for glory ultimately render him insane, in charge of nothing but a raft of corpses and chattering monkeys.

Kinski delivers an inspirational performance as the power crazed Aguirre. This coupled with the breath taking scenery that he finds himself in makes this a powerful and evocative film.

Nosferatu: Phantom der Nacht

1979 Director Werner Herzog

This is a remake of F.W. Murnau's classic 1922 silent horror-fest Nosferatu and stars Klaus Kinski. A great deal of homage is paid to the original including the makeup style used by Murnau's leading man Max Schreck.

Essentially this is a retelling of Bram Stoker's Dracula that misses the mark on a number of levels. Kinski fails to deliver the menace and madness that he managed so well in "Aquirre, the wrath of God", and Herzog fails to imbue the atmosphere with anything resembling tension or foreboding.

I can't fathom why Herzog embarked on this film. It does his other work a great disservice. Stick with the Murnau original.