Synopsis and Review of Werner Herzog's The Engima of Kasper Hauser (1974) (original) (raw)
Related papers
The Great Ecstasy of Werner Herzog: Truth, Heidegger, Apocalypse
The Philosophy of Werner Herzog, ed. M. Blake Wilson and Christopher Turner (Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2020), 135–152
For decades now, the German filmmaker Werner Herzog has been promoting the idea of ‘ecstatic truth’ as opposed to ‘cinéma vérité’ or to what he mockingly calls ‘the truth of accountants.’ Truth is illumination, revelation, an unveiling of what ordinarily lies hidden. Far from merely reproducing the visible, however, Herzog makes and moves images to disclose the invisible, to reveal truths that are literally ecstatic, standing out beyond what is otherwise accessible. Yet this revelation cannot occur unless we, as viewers, are transported beyond the everyday realm. We too must stand outside of ourselves. Herzog aims to make us ecstatic. In this paper I first analyze portions of Herzog’s rare programmatic speech “On the Absolute, the Sublime, and Ecstatic Truth” (§1). I then show how many of Herzog’s ideas are prefigured and illuminated by Martin Heidegger’s understanding of truth, especially as it relates to the work of art (§2). Next I turn to several scenes in Herzog’s films to show how he puts his theory to work. I first discuss the ethereal ski-jumps in The Great Ecstasy of Woodcarver Steiner (§3), and then examine Herzog’s use of Richard Wagner at the beginning of Lessons of Darkness and Lo and Behold (§4). I conclude with a few words on the significance of ecstatic truth in our purportedly ‘post-truth age’ (§5).
Inner and deeper: Motifs of fiction in Werner Herzog's films
CINEJ Cinema Journal, 2019
The emphasis on the mix of facts and inventions has prevailed in the studies about Bavarian director Werner Herzog's treatment of fiction, leading to the same result again and again: for Herzog, poetic truth is more important than factual truth. But how can we go beyond this conclusion? This paper will try to open an alternative path of analysis more adequate to his philosophy of filmmaking, one that works through the detection of visual and narrative motifs in his films, thus searching the impact of Herzog's idea of fiction into his poetics.
Analysis of KASPER HAUSER or EVERYMAN FOR HIMSELF AND GOD AGAINST ALL (1974) in terms of its precedents in German expressionist cinema.
"Locked in History": Werner Herzog between Past and Future [with full text]
Colloque international Cinéma & Philosophie "Mais je vois quelque chose que les autres ne voient pas", 2019
Werner Herzog has been a great fictionalizer of past eras and searcher of ancient traditions as much as a fascinated observer of the new possibilities that technology announces for the future. The aim of this paper will be to explore how these two antagonistic interests co-habit his filmic world and try to elucidate on a possible meaning for this apparent contradiction. Presented at the Goethe Institut Paris on 6th November 2019. Part of the Colloque International Cinéma & Philosophie "Mais je vois quelque chose que les autres ne voient pas" about Werner Herzog, organized by Université Paris 8, Université de Liège, Universidade Nova de Lisboa and Goethe Institut Paris.