The Twilight World: Discover the first novel from the iconic filmmaker Werner Herzog

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Ebert, Roger (2017). Awake in the Dark: The Best of Roger Ebert (2nded.). Chicago: University of Chicago Press. pp.xxiv–xxv. ISBN 978-0-226-46105-2 . Retrieved 25 January 2020. Moritz Holfelder. Werner Herzog. Die Biografie. Munich: LangenMüller, 2012. ISBN 978-3-7844-3303-5.

Herzog’s book covers the expected elements: accounts of the making of his films; descriptions of his relationships with actors such as Klaus Kinski and friendships with luminaries such as Bruce Chatwin and the mountaineer Reinhold Messner; glimpses into his personal life, including an exploration of his parents’ Nazi ties and his relationships with his several wives. Fans of his work (and perhaps fans of his persona) will find much to love here, all of it jumbled up into a kind of memoir-diary-polemic hybrid. At times so jumbled I found myself wondering: is this actually a book? But that hardly seems to matter, given the power and specificity of Herzog’s writing. In fact, what we have here is something weirder and truer than a mere autobiography. The subject of every memoir is “how I got this way” – and in the case of Werner Herzog, it’s a very specific way indeed. An important artist like Herzog doesn’t necessarily need to do the memoirist’s work of answering that question. It’s enough to get the dates down and the anecdotes told; we’re already interested. But his book does do the serious labour of letting us into his deepest compulsions and yearnings. He is able to pull the reader up short; to demand that we wonder at the tangible world, in all its mystery

I read this side by side with Elie Wiesel's memoir of the holocaust, Night, which again highlights what is necessary in a text for it to really connect author and reader. Or content and reader, rather. Con Herzog, y gracias a su pluma escueta e hipnótica, similar a los pasos que Onoda dio por Filipinas durante más de 26 años, viajé lejos de aquella sala de sillas verdes y baldosa blanca repleta de un incesante personal médico. Estuve lejísimos del televisor que, a esa hora, proyectaba una telenovela turca que nada me decía, que balbuceaba y no cesaba de hablarle al vacío, pues nadie le prestaba atención. Legendary filmmaker and celebrated author Werner Herzog tells in his inimitable voice the story of his epic artistic career in a long-awaited memoir that is as inventive and daring as anything he has done before A] stunning tale of obsession unto madness by a master of that narrow but fruitful genre . . . Recall director Herzog’s film Aguirre, The Wrath of God, (1972) and you’ll have a key to this story, whose details he calls ‘factually correct’—mostly. In Tokyo to stage a production of Chushingura in 1997, Herzog declines an opportunity to speak with the emperor and instead asks to see Hiroo Onoda, a Japanese commando who hid on a Philippine island from 1944 until 1974. Herzog tells Onoda’s tale from the beginning . . . Herzog fans will hope for a film to come. Meanwhile, this evocation of loyalty to a lost cause serves beautifully.” —Kirkus (starred review) That’s hardly a relationship of equals, Werner. That’s the master film-maker consenting to hang out with his fans.

Herzog was honored at the 49th San Francisco International Film Festival, receiving the 2006 Film Society Directing Award. [25] Four of his films have been shown at the San Francisco International Film Festival: Wodaabe – Herdsmen of the Sun in 1990, Bells from the Deep in 1993, Lessons of Darkness in 1993, and The Wild Blue Yonder in 2006. This amnesty was granted by the Philippine dictator, Ferdinand Marcos, largely because there was good publicity in it. Many pictures were taken and the surrender of Onoda’s sword was re-enacted with Marcos for the benefit of TV cameras. Marcos said that Onoda should be judged by standards of actions during wartime, so I guess everything he and his men did was okay, even though they at times shot and killed innocent villagers. Of greatest significance, however, are the memoirs that Werner Herzog has now published under the title of one of his films: Every Man for Himself and God Against All. Herzog is a magnificent, seductive narrator. He allows himself to be steered by his own associative thinking without a second of boredom.”— SWR This way, all I have is my own imagination of Herzog's comments on Onoda's life and that's not what I came for.

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Cronin, Paul (2014). Werner Herzog: A Guide for the Perplexed: Conversations with Paul Cronin. Faber and Faber. ISBN 978-0-571-25977-9. E mentre l'imperatore giapponese fece sapere a Herzog che sarebbe stato ben lieto di incontrarlo, lui, con un ardire sorprendente, dichiarò di non voler incontrare l'imperatore. A nulla valse la stretta della moglie per tappargli la bocca. Ormai la gaffe era fatta: “Poi, da quel silenzio, si alzò una voce e chiese chi, se non l’imperatore, avrei desiderato incontrare in Giappone. Senza riflettere, risposi: Onoda.

In 2011, Herzog competed with Ridley Scott to make a film based around the life of explorer Gertrude Bell. [43] In 2012, it was confirmed that Herzog would start production on his long-in-development project in March 2013 in Morocco with Naomi Watts to play Gertrude Bell along with Robert Pattinson to play T. E. Lawrence and Jude Law to play Henry Cadogan. [44] The film was completed in 2014 with a different cast: Nicole Kidman as Gertrude Bell, James Franco as Henry Cadogan, Damian Lewis as Charles Doughty-Wylie, and Robert Pattinson as a 22-year-old archaeologist T. E. Lawrence. Queen of the Desert had its world premiere at the 2015 Berlin International Film Festival. [45] Herzog in 2015 The story of Hiroo Onoda remains absolutely fascinating. I would like to call this a somewhat nuanced take on his character, though not entirely. Both the film and this book have clearly alluded to his messed-up mental state, but I've seen very few honest discussions of his actions. Chitwood, Adam. "Jude Law Joins Robert Pattinson and Naomi Watts in Werner Herzog's QUEEN OF THE DESERT". Collider . Retrieved 25 November 2012.Werner Herzog Makes Trump-Era Addition to His Minnesota Declaration". Walker Art Center. 19 June 2017 . Retrieved 8 August 2017.

In 1997, Werner Herzog was in Tokyo to direct an opera. His hosts asked him, Whom would you like to meet? He replied instantly: Hiroo Onoda. Onoda was a former solider famous for having quixotically defended an island in the Philippines for decades after World War II, unaware the fighting was over. Herzog and Onoda developed an instant rapport and would meet many times, talking for hours and together unraveling the story of Onoda's long war. Dieses Buch ist ein Gedicht, eine Oper ohne Musik, ein Film ohne Bilder. Es verkündet eine Tatsache des menschlichen Herzens und lädt uns ein, uns sie zu überlegen, ohne Kommentar oder Urteil. Nur um sie klar zu sehen. Es ist unerklärlich, genauso wie Menschen unerklärlich sind.

Herzog is internationally acclaimed as a maker of films peopled by obsessive characters struggling in wild, uncontrollable settings. . . . [His] first novel is no different. . . . Through spare language and minimal detail that recall Herzog’s screenwriting technique, together with great leaps through time, the novel spans the full 29 years of Onoda’s remarkable story while keeping the focus on him. . . . A brief but powerful and noteworthy addition to the résumé of a master storyteller; fans of Herzog’s films will see the filmmaker’s cinematic fingerprints all over this absurdist, if absorbing, story.”― Library Journal Así, la historia de Onoda es fascinante tanto en cuanto no deja de ser la de un hombre que, más que por apego a un ideal férreo autoinducido (como tantas y tantas veces en la filmografía de Herzog), queda entregado a una causa mayor dictada por su inmediato superior en una estructura de mando jerarquizada, la del estamento militar. Onoda es un hombre que, por circunstancias, vive en un mundo paralelo al que discurre siguiendo el calendario cristiano, un soldado que queda suspendido en un momento eterno pero no estanco del mundo real ni mucho menos despojado de pensamiento lógico y capacidad de raciocinio (a ese respecto es excepcional cuan Bissell, Tom. "The Secret Mainstream: Contemplating the mirages of Werner Herzog", Harper's, December 2006 Renowned filmmaker Werner Herzog has published his first novel, and the story behind it starts in 1997. Herzog was in Tokyo to direct an opera, and his hosts informed him that the Japanese emperor might be open to meeting him.