Werner Herzog was born in Munich, Germany in 1942. Werner Herzog mainly focuses on the story of the characters instead of the overall story of the piece. His filmography begins in the early 60’s where he dove into both fiction and non-fiction. During the 70’s and early 80’s Herzog split his attention to both fiction and nonfiction doing a similar amount of each. In the mid 80’s he turned his attention and focus more towards documentaries. 95% of the films Herzog created were documentaries. He likes to portray the human being and their interactions with nature. Herzog’s films focus on both the emotional aspect of the story and the intellectual aspect. Peppering in his own thoughts throughout the film while still allowing the subjects opinions to be prominent throughout. He likes to have his films be calm and quiet throughout most of the film. There are times where he will divert from a steady and calm pace and allow the hecticness take over. His films tend to focus more on the serious side of the story and doesn’t divert much from it. He takes the subjects and stories he is shooting very seriously and more of a personal and attached side of stories. He likes to let the camera do the talking. He doesn’t really interfere with much and just guides the camera to where it needs to be in order to capture the true emotion of the subject. He will often times use “found footage” along with footage he has shot to emphasize the stories characters and subject matter.
"Grizzly Man"
1. He focuses on the human aspect of the story instead of the story as a whole. Which is in line with his other works.
2. It reflects Herzog’s philosophy on life and other films in that he feels that humans and nature are two separate entities that exist in two separate worlds and that combining the two worlds can have an element of destruction to it, whether it is in the loss of life or loss of history.
3. The basic similarities between this film and his other films are that he focuses on the character that is Timothy Treadwell as opposed to the story of a man living with Grizzly bears in their natural habitat.
4. We get the strongest impression of Herzog’s personality in two different spots. There is a time when Herzog is listening to the audio of Treadwell’s death and tells the woman he is sitting next to, to destroy the tape and never listen to it because it is too disturbing. The other part that we see his personality coming through is when Treadwell is talking about how he is upset at the fact that there was a baby fox that was killed and that it was wrong, and that Herzog disagrees with him because Herzog feels it is the balance of nature.
5. This film is a good representation of the works of Herzog. It is the epitome of Herzog’s documentary works. It does what all his other films do, which is focuses on the characters as opposed to the story. The story in this film is about a random dude living Grizzly bears in Alaska, but the film is about the characters that were involved such as Timothy Treadwell and the people that he knew and touched through the work that he did.
"Stroszek"
1. Just as in Grizzly Man Herzog prefers to focus more on the character development as opposed to the overall story of the piece.
2. In his fiction pieces, as opposed to his non-fiction pieces, he uses a lot of camera movements along with the standard two shots that most filmmakers use.
3. He likes to use the human element a lot more prevalently than the arching storylines that you see in most films.
4. We get the strongest impression of the director’s personality showing through the most is when Bruno is in the courtyard playing his instruments.
5. The quality of this film compared to his others is very much one of his best works he has done. It shows that he has grown a lot since his earlier works.
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