Werner Herzog Documentary Collection
Many
of us wondered as children, and sometimes as adults, what it would be
like to be the last person left on earth, and the notion has captivated
writers and filmmakers for much of the preceding century.
German
director Werner Herzog was able to experience just such a phenomenon in
1977 when he travelled to the Caribbean island of Guadeloupe, which had
recently been evacuated in the face of the impending eruption of the
island’s volcano La Soufričre. As recounted in his 30 minute
documentary of the same name, Herzog was impelled to visit the island
after reading a newspaper account of how one peasant had refused to
leave his island home, making his mind to perish with the inevitable
explosion.
Armed
with a camera and his steadfast German crew, Herzog travels to an island
devoid of people. The impression is eerie, otherworldly. Dogs and farm
animals roam the streets and gardens at will, storefronts sit bereft of
their goods, and though the streets are universally still the dutiful
traffic lights blink unheeded (the town was abandoned in such frantic
haste the townspeople simply forgot to turn them off).
The
end result is one of several early masterpieces of Herzog’s inimitable
career, and such is the strength of the material collated in this
excellent little box set that La Soufričre, as remarkable as it
is, has been included as a bonus feature.
The
real stars of the show are Herzog’s 2007 standout Encounters at the
End of the World, which was nominated for an Academy Award and which
contains some of the most stunning footage of Antarctica ever committed
to celluloid, and 2004’s The White Diamond, a 2004 film which
explores the efforts of an eccentric (and frequently plain dangerous)
English scientist to pilot his homemade dirigible across the rainforest
canopies of Guyana.
Rounding out this collection are Herzog’s first documentary, the 1969
made-for-television outing The Flying Doctors of East Africa.
One of the director’s more conventional outings (in fact quite possibly
his only conventional outing) the film doesn’t feature quite the same
instinct for celebrating idiosyncrasy as his later efforts, most of
which focused on engaging outsider’s liked Timothy Treadwell, the doomed
antihero of his renowned Grizzly Man (2005). But like all the
documentaries gathered here it is nonetheless an accomplished and
intriguing outing from the man quite rightly celebrated by Roger Ebert
as ‘one of the most inquisitive filmmaker’s alive.’
Bonus Features on ‘Encounters at the End of the World’:
-
Commentary with Werner Herzog, Producer Henry Kaiser and Cinematographer
Peter Zeitlinger
- Five
Behind the Scenes Featurettes
-
Jonathan Demme Interview with Werner Herzog
-
Theatrical Trailer
