avshalom-mane

Apparently it took $ 370,000, two and half days of Herzog's screen writing, One Camera, One Klaus Kinski, and an incredible amount of courage to make this timeless masterpiece. One of the things that makes "Aguirre: the Wrath of God" unique is that the story about the making of the film deals with essentially the same subject as the film: Achieving the impossible. But there is one big difference: the protagonist of Aguirre, with his Captain Ahab like determination sets out to achieve the impossible and fails; Herzog, as director, succeeds. Let us remove our distorted postmodernist goggles for a moment and say it plainly: Herzog is a Hero! This film is a must see for anyone who has ever dreamed of making a great film but shied away due to the frightening machinery of the movie industry. With the ubiquity of digital cameras we should expect that there will and endless amount of low budget films that will be made in the future. One should watch "Aguirre" and remember the lesson: a low budget film does not have to be mediocre at best: it can be incredible.

This is not a spoiler as it reveals little more than what is included in the original trailer.

As "Beautiful a murder as you could hope for," remarks the Policeman in the final scene of Herzog's Woyzeck . And he is right. Herzog adaptation of Buchner's play is a triumph of cinema. While most "murder films" focus on plot and atmosphere rather than character (i.e. Hitchcock's Psycho), Woyzeck takes us slowly and elegantly into the protagonist's psyche in such a way that the final murder scene is an explosion of cinematic poetry. Herzog's rather faithful rendition of Buchner's play benefits from its adaptation the screen and gives up nearly nothing of the original theatrical performance. For example, in remaining faithful to the original text, the prolific amount of monologues gives us insight into the characters' internal state and makes every action more meaningful. The long speeches are refreshing after being overexposed the choppy interchange of half sentences that are characteristic of most contemporary screenplays. And yet Herzog's adaptation is not merely a filmed play.

The acting, directing and cinematography are beautifully coordinated. Kinsky's brilliant performance as Woyzeck makes us believe that there is no other actor that could pull off the role with such vigor and passion, and of course, in such a frighteningly convincing way. And of course Herzog's direction is strongly felt. And last but not least, most of the cinematography is gorgeous and beautifully framed. To be sure it is not a perfect film, there are some almost clumsy panning shots, and the film's rushed production is evident in the editing. This is why I give the film an 8. And yet this film will forever change the way you look at cinema.