Forgotten Dreams: Revisiting Romanticism in the Cinema of Werner Herzog

314 Pages·2016·139.79 MB·English

by  Laurie Ruth Johnson

Laurie ruth Johnson
Fo r g o t t e n
D r eams
Revisiting
Romanticism in
the Cinema of
Werner Herzog
Forgotten Dreams
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Screen Cultures: German Film and the Visual
Series Editors:
Gerd Gemünden (Dartmouth College)
Johannes von Moltke (University of Michigan)
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Forgotten Dreams
Revisiting Romanticism in the
Cinema of Werner Herzog
Laurie Ruth Johnson
Rochester, New York
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Copyright © 2016 Laurie Ruth Johnson
All Rights Reserved. Except as permitted under current legislation,
no part of this work may be photocopied, stored in a retrieval system,
published, performed in public, adapted, broadcast, transmitted,
recorded, or reproduced in any form or by any means,
without the prior permission of the copyright owner.
First published 2016
by Camden House
Camden House is an imprint of Boydell & Brewer Inc.
668 Mt. Hope Avenue, Rochester, NY 14620, USA
www.camden-house.com
and of Boydell & Brewer Limited
PO Box 9, Woodbridge, Suffolk IP12 3DF, UK
www.boydellandbrewer.com
ISBN-13: 978-1-57113-911-5
ISBN-10: 1-57113-911-7
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Johnson, Laurie Ruth, author.
Title: Forgotten dreams : revisiting romanticism in the cinema of Werner Herzog /
Laurie Ruth Johnson.
Description: Rochester, New York : Camden House, [2016] | Series: Screen cultures:
German film and the visual | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2015039476 | ISBN 9781571139115 (hardcover : alk. paper) |
ISBN 1571139117 (hardcover : alk. paper)
Subjects: LCSH: Herzog, Werner, 1942– —Criticism and interpretation.
Classification: LCC PN1998.3.H477 J64 2016 | DDC 791.4302/33092—dc23 LC
6
record available at http://lccn.loc.gov/201503947
This publication is printed on acid-free paper.
Printed in the United States of America.
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For Vicky and Nancy
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Contents
List of Illustrations ix
Acknowledgments xi
List of Abbreviations xiv
Introduction: Werner Herzog’s Films and the Other
Discourse of Romanticism 1
1: Image and Knowledge 12
Ironic Self-Consciousness in Cave of Forgotten
Dreams (2010) 20
Romantic Melancholy in The Wild Blue Yonder (2005) 31
Aesthetic Others in Fitzcarraldo (1982) 41
Traces of the Magical in Invincible (2000) 59
Conclusion 70
2: Surface and Depth 72
The Arabesque and the Secret in Encounters at the
End of the World (2007) 81
Surface and Depth, Secret and Memory in
The White Diamond (2004) 93
Trauma as Adventure in Little Dieter Needs to Fly (1997) 97
Walking as Remembering in Wings of Hope (1999) 107
Conclusion 114
3: Beauty and Sublimity 117
Sublime Spaces in The Dark Glow of the Mountains (1984) 124
Human Wrath and Sublime Nature in Aguirre,
the Wrath of God (1972) 134
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viii  CONTENTS
Endless Approximation in The Great Ecstasy of
Wood-Carver Steiner (1973) 139
Sublime Risk in La Soufrière (1977) 143
Conclusion 148
4: Man and Animal 152
Aesthetic Vision Deferred in Grizzly Man (2005) 160
Man and Chicken in Stroszek (1976) 167
Monstrous Belief in Nosferatu (1978) 173
Conclusion 178
5: Sound and Silence 180
Listening in the Silence in Land of Silence and Darkness (1971)
and Heart of Glass (1976) 189
Sound and Nostalgia in Happy People: A Year in the
Taiga (2010) 192
The Critical Potential of Romantic Melancholy in Into the
Abyss: A Tale of Death, A Tale of Life (2011) 194
Conclusion 205
Conclusion: Herzog’s Romantic Cinema 208
Notes 219
Bibliography 259
Index 285
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Illustrations
Fig. 1.1. Jacob van Ruisdael, The Waterfall (1665–70) 13
Fig. 1.2. Caspar David Friedrich, Chalk Cliffs on Rügen
(1818–19) 16
Fig. 1.3. Hercules Segers, Imaginary Landscape—Untitled
(early seventeenth century) 18
Fig. 1.4. Bison painting from Cave of Forgotten Dreams 24
Fig. 1.5. Fred Astaire’s shadow dance in Cave of Forgotten Dreams 27
Fig. 1.6. The alien surveys the landscape of wind turbines in
The Wild Blue Yonder 32
Fig. 1.7. Caspar David Friedrich’s The Monk By the Sea (1808–10) 34
Fig. 2.1. Libor Zicha and his backpack in Encounters at the
End of the World 82
Fig. 2.2. Diver films ice in Encounters at the End of the World 84
Fig. 2.3. Depressed penguin in Encounters at the End of the World 87
Fig. 2.4. Dieter Dengler surveys fog and model plane from his
home in Little Dieter Needs to Fly 99
Fig. 3.1. Climbers on Gasherbrum in The Dark Glow
of the Mountains 125
Fig. 3.2. Reinhold Messner in the tent in The Dark Glow of
the Mountains 125
Fig. 3.3. The Spanish expedition descends into the jungle in
Aguirre, the Wrath of God 135
Fig. 3.4. The animals rule the streets in La Soufrière 146
Fig. 3.5. The volcano in La Soufrière 148
Fig. 4.1. Timothy Treadwell in the tent in Grizzly Man 162
Fig. 4.2. Herzog listens to the audiotape of Treadwell’s
death in Grizzly Man 166
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