A follow up to the "Bears" article

I want to digress for a moment and talk about Werner Herzog, the director of Grizzly Man (the documentary about Timothy Treadwell of whom I commented previously on). He, along with Martin Scorsese, is the best director working in movies today. He is ostensibly less well known by moviegoing audiences than his American counterpart. But in the film community, he is legend. He is known as a true visionary, who will venture to any clime, go to any length, to get a film made. He has nearly died during several of his productions, either by tribal threats, curses, or a severe case of dysentery. His films are thoroughly German in their aesthetic. They are contemplative, metaphysical, visually sumptuous ,and the characters have a Faustian madness about them (what German, in any artistic field, has not to tried to emulate Goethe?). Firstly,I urge you to watch his film, Aguirre: The Wrath of God about Pizarro's expedition. Klaus Kinski, an actor even more maniacal than Herzog, plays the titular character brilliantly. Roger Ebert has counted this film as one of the ten best of all time- better praise is not warranted. Other Herzog masterpieces include Stroscek, Nosferatu (his brillaint remake of the Murnau original with Kinski), Woyzeck, Fitzcarraldo, and the Enigma of Kaspar Hauser. The latter is an especially poignant film about a true-life outcast, a wild-child, who was adopted, rather too zealously, into "modern" society and the disastrous consequences it has on him. Any one of these films is a true litmus test for any self-proclaimed film enthusiast. His films are truly transcendent and can leave an indelible mark upon you if you open yourself up to the experience. Yes, they are that powerful.