Kurzbeschreibung
"4 Shorts by Werner Herzog" Werner Herzog is one of the best know brand names in world cinema and is dubbed one of the most ecentric characters in the New German Cinema, considered the 'romantic visionary' of the movement. His principal trademark is almost certainly confronting danger in the making of his films; his production difficulties are notorious, but his films are legendary for their awe-inspiring landscapes, haunting music, astounding images and enigmatic heroes, and even his documentaries conform to this structure. The four shorts have never before been released as a collection. HOW MUCH WOOD WOULD A WOODCHUCK CHUCK An off-beat documentary on the annual World Championship of Livestock Auctioneers set in the Amish region of Pennsylvania's Lancaster County. Woodchuck is a filmed record of the mystique and education of the professional auctioneer. A series of hilarious interviews shows the complex tongue-twisters, breathing exercises an secret signals used by the colourful, lively contestants. LA SOUFRIERE A record of an ardent an unfulfilled journey to the island of Guadaloupe by the director, where the population have fled before poison gas and tremors, to see the eruption of volcano La Soufriere, an impulsive and dedicated mission upon which the dispassionate camera work never disguises the romantic ecstasy of Herzog. The volcano subsides and Herzog withdraws unrequited - a piece of film as revealing as AGUIRRE, WRATH OF GOD or THE ENIGMA OF KASPAR HAUSER. THE GREAT ECSTASY OF WOODCARVER STEINER The film studies Walter Steiner, a woodcarver who explores the shapes, knots, grain and forces in a piece of wood and sculpts it in a way to release the hidden tensions an energy. He is also one of the leading championship ski jumpers in the world, and Herzog follows his preparations for the Championship in Yugoslavia, setting up cameras on the giant ramp to slow down the action by ten to twenty times. The film is a splendid exuberant Herzog examination of eccentricity and achievment, one man's liberation from normality captured stunningly on film. THE FLYING DOCTORS OF EAST AFRICA An absorbing documentary on the work of an independent group of physicians in remote areas of East Africa. The beautifully shot film concentrates on the difficulty in treating the African patients, used to local remedies and unsophisticated methods of treatment, who have to accept being approached by the doctors and their Western medicine with an entirely new way of thinking.
