My Journey with Werner Herzog - an introduction

There are quite a few things I'm not particularly proud of having not seen as a film buff, but often my excuse/reason is that there are only so many hours in the day and my short attention span and frequent mood swings requires certain films at certain times.

The thing I feel most guilty about having not seen is a single work by prolific German director Werner Herzog. My reason? Well, probably for many years his films simply weren't easily available in the UK and, to be honest, I think as I got older I just forgot about him.

I can't tell you when I first heard of him, but it was most likely in my teens when my film appreciation really hit its stride and I went on a disastrous three year media studies course that included a film studies element. Why was it "disastrous", you ask? Umm, I dunno, it's a long story.

Anyway, maybe I'd seen a documentary about him on television, yes, I think that was it, and the two films that looked the most interesting were Aguirre, Wrath of God and Fitzcarraldo. I remember the way in which they were talked about made me surprised that his films weren't on TV or in the shops all the time.

Well, it's 2014 now and things are more available thanks to the internet and today all 10 discs of The Werner Herzog Collection arrived at my flat. It's obviously not a complete set, just highlights of a career that spans fifty years worth of shorts, features and documentaries. Herzog seems to be celebrated for all the categories he's worked in so clearly just putting in the feature films wouldn't be doing him justice.

So how am I going to tackle this? Chronologically? No. Well, sort of. What I've done is create a table with one column for shorts, one for features and one for documentaries (each in order of release) and each day or session (I'm not sure how frequently I'll get the chance to do this) I'll watch one short, one feature and one documentary.

I'm not sure what to expect. This man and his work has been on my mind on and off for decades and I've not seen one piece of his work as yet. My feelings of guilt and anticipation are about to be put to rest.

Will I be overjoyed at the wonder of his oeuvre and kick myself for having taken so long? Will I be disappointed and end up putting the collection on the uppermost of my top shelves to collect dust for future generations to endure?

We shall see...

NEXT UP: THE UNPRECEDENTED DEFENCE OF THE FORTRESS DEUTSCHKREUZ, FATA MORGANA and HANDICAPPED FUTURE