"cinema is most close to music. not literature, not poetry, but music...""we have to articulate ourselves. otherwise we would be cows in the field."
"stupidity is the devil." (all quotes from werner herzog)
just watched the hopeful and hellish, beautiful, embarrassing, foreboding and wonderful "grizzly man." i disliked "even dwarves started small," which i thought to be mean & pedantic (the early work of an angry young man, though), but this last one, well, you've got to see it. subject timothy treadwell, who lived in the alaskan wild with and filmed grizzlies, & ultimately was murdered (along with his poor girlfriend) by one, had in common with herzog the search for "ecstatic truth." treadwell, though, comes off like damaged goods, an alien among humans, grandiose, hapless, a tenacious and childlike dreamer, portrayed as both fool and hero... stately herzog, who admires such quixotes, i think, pulled together 100s of hours of treadwell's loopy, amazing raw footage, narrated the film in circumspect, respectful tones, and produced a tribute that bequeaths much dignity to the dead man. this is the most affecting movie i've seen in a long time. i loved the extra documentary about the creation of the movie's soundtrack, by richard thompson. it was spellbinding to watch the process, and sweet to see graven herzog light up so warmly when he talked of music.
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I was horrified to learn today that three of my tender little students had watched "Grizzly Man." One boy thought it was a children's show, but "He was cussing like crazy! It was weird!" The child was disgusted, outraged. I had to explain to him that the movie was NOT intended for children to watch alone, and that any of them who wanted to watch it should do so with parents. Where were the parents when these three watched Herzog's very adult film???
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