Friday, September 30, 2011

Heart of Glass (Herz aus Glas) (1977)

Director: Werner Herzog. Cast: Josef Bierbichler, Stefan Güttler, Clemens Scheitz. 94 min. West Germany. Drama.

If you thought the pace of Herzog's movies was slow, you're gonna love this one: he shot the film with the entire cast in hypnosis. An old German village whose livelihood depends on its glass factory is struck with calamity, as its only expert who knew the secret to making "ruby glass" dies. The village succumbs into superstition and the preachings of psychics, but then I had a hard time staying awake.

PS: I believe in Herzog as a great innovator, but that really didn't help here, and I don't care if Ebert categorized it as one of his Great Movies.

Mo says:

5 comments:

  1. It sounds like a great movie, I will try to see it some day but I expect you are right to give it a :(

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  2. Exactly how I felt when I read the movie description: A movie with a hypnotized cast should be incredible! But the result was a disappointment. Tell me what you think whenever you watch it.

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  3. I got lucky, my friend has it as part of a Herzog boxed set so I should get a loan of it this very weekend. Nosferatu has been criticised by many as being too slow but I loved it

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  4. Are you kidding me? "Nosferatu" is one of Herzog's best, and one of the best Dracula movies I've ever seen. Klaus Kinski's performance is absolutely hypnotic. You must see it.

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  5. I loved Nosferatu but others have described it as too slow and boring.

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