Werner Herzog

From the December 2006 Harpers article The Secret Mainstream: Contemplating the mirages of Werner Herzog by Tom Bissell. Just read this last paragraph.

” With that, embarrassed, I told Herzog how much I admired him, and how thankful I was that he had agreed to see me. Herzog seemed neither surprized nor pleased by my effulgence. Instead he looked at me for a disarmingly long time - so long, in fact, I began to feel like a character in a Werner Herzog film. Finally, he said; “There is a dormant brother inside of you, and I awaken him, I make him speak, and you are not alone anymore.” We shook hands and he was gone. I walked outside, through a curtain of Los Angeles sunshine, to the street’s edge, where I stood for a long time, ecstatic and not quite alone.”

This perfect inseparable mulch of absolute profundity and utter bullshit sums up so well what I find so compelling about this man. I think he is one of the few remaining authentic filmmakers. As much as I can admire some who can mimic a number of styles, I treasure more the one who cannot help but express one unadulterated and idiosyncratic vision through different narratives. He might only really be telling one story but its one that no one else seems to be telling.