Herzog at the Castro

Last night I saw Werner Herzog at the Castro theater. He is being awarded something at the SF International Film Festival, so they did a (boring) clip retrospective of some of his works first. No Stroszek or Dwarves, so I was a bit disappointed. Also no White Diamond. Then Herzog was interviewed for about an hour. He was poignant, realistic, articulate, and in general amazing. I love his outlook on the human condition and earth, and he was able to detail it a bit more in relation to his art during the interview. He made fun of New Age music about a half a dozen times, and discussed the need to watch Wrestlemania to truly understand human nature. I learned that he isn't as anti-DVD as I thought he was, but that he still believes you have to see his movies in the theater. Only if you live in Montana, should you be viewing the DVDs. He is right, I wouldn't be able to watch the White Diamond on DVD after seeing it at the Castro. That was a religious experience. The man is a genius, and my admiration for him only expanded during his interview.

The worst part was the question and answer period, which is never good in this type of circumstance. A bunch of idiot questions: "Did you really got shot at that BBC interview" "Will you produce my screenplay about a man with a freak metabolism?" "Your movies have kept me alive for 34 years, but why in the hell did you do Incident at Loch Ness?" Man that shit is annoying. He answered the questions really well despite their nature.

Then his film, The Wild Blue Yonder, was shown. I was very tired by this point, and felt a cold coming on, so it was a bit difficult to sit through a very slow, minimally narrated film. However, the clips of underwater artic diving and of astronauts were incredible. They were set to some good, but not great, music that Herzog had made for the film. My favorite part of a Herzog film is when the movie goes into a long scene of nature or some sort of action, and no words are spoken, just music. Maybe even silence. I get lost in the film, unable to concentrate on anything else, and find absolute peace. However at the same time I become highly disturbed in many ways, which is exactly what Herzog strives for in many of these shots, a sort of tranquility with humanity that acknowledges all its awfulness.

The film wasn't my favorite of his, and isn't even near the top, but it was good. He can do little wrong in my opinion. Seeing him at the Castro was a great way to wrap up my life in San Francisco.