This Cultural Life - 75. Werner Herzog

THIS CULTURAL LIFE - 75. WERNER HERZOG (320kbs-m4a/99mb/43mins)
BBC Radio 4 broadcast: 28th October 2023

Werner Herzog is one of the most idiosyncratic, original and prolific filmmakers of modern times, having made nearly 80 films over six decades. His features include Fitzcarraldo, Aguirre Wrath of God and Rescue Dawn, and his documentaries include the multi award-winning Grizzly Man, Cave Of Forgotten Dreams and Into the Abyss. Werner Herzog productions are the stuff of cinema legend, with stories of audacious shoots in inaccessible locations. He's also written several books, including a newly published memoir called Every Man For Himself And God Against All.

Speaking to John Wilson from Los Angeles where he lives, Werner Herzog recalls his impoverished childhood in a remote Bavarian valley at the end of the Second World War. He says that, as a teenager, his discovery of a book about the Lascaux cave paintings was ‘like a bolt of lightning' to his creative imagination, and led to him making a documentary film about prehistoric cave art many years later. He describes how his films often start with a vivid or unusual image, and how he seeks to capture a sense of awe at the power of the natural world. Werner Herzog discusses the extremely arduous and dangerous conditions in which he made some of his best known films, including Fitzcarraldo and four other films starring the temperamentally volatile lead actor Klaus Kinski. Known for his deadpan, Bavarian-accented narration of his own documentary films, Herzog also reflects on how his distinctive voice has led to him being cast in menacing roles in Hollywood films, including Jack Reacher alongside Tom Cruise, and even a cameo in The Simpsons.

Producer: Edwina Pitman