Lo and Behold, Reveries of the Connected World
June 13th, 2016

Courtesy of Magnolia:

Society depends on the Internet for nearly everything but rarely do we step back and recognize its endless intricacies and unsettling omnipotence. From the brilliant mind of Werner Herzog comes his newest vehicle for exploration, a playful yet chilling examination of our rapidly interconnecting online lives.

Herzog documents a treasure trove of interviews of strange and beguiling individuals—ranging from Internet pioneers to victims of wireless radiation, whose anecdotes and reflections weave together a complex portrait of our brave new world. Herzog describes the Internet as “one of the biggest revolutions we as humans are experiencing,” and yet he tempers this enthusiasm with horror stories from victims of online harassment and Internet addiction.

For all of its detailed analysis, this documentary also wrestles with profound and intangible questions regarding the Internet’s future. Will it dream, as humans do, of its own existence? Can it discover the fundamentals of morality, or perhaps one day understand the meaning of love? Or will it soon cause us—if it hasn’t already—more harm than good?

Tidbits:

• Sundance Film Festival – 2016
• BFI London Film Festival – 2016

“It is my duty to direct because the films might be the inner chronicle of what we are, and we have to articulate ourselves. Otherwise we would be cows in the field.”

courtesy of filmmakers’ website and Encyclopœdia Britannica:

Werner Herzog was born September 5, 1942, in Munich, Germany. With Rainer Werner Fassbinder and Volker Schlöndorff, Herzog led the influential postwar West German cinema movement. During his youth, Herzog studied history, literature, and music in Munich and at the University of Pittsburgh and traveled extensively in Mexico, Great Britain, Greece, and Sudan. Herakles (1962) was an early short, and Lebenszeichen (1967; Signs of Life) was his first feature film. He became known for working with small budgets and for writing and producing his own motion pictures. Herzog’s films, usually set in distinct and unfamiliar landscapes, are imbued with mysticism.

In Auch Zwerge haben klein angefangen (1970; Even Dwarfs Started Small), the microcosm of a barren island inhabited by dwarfs stands for a larger reality, and in Fata Morgana (1971), a documentary on the Sahara, the desert acquires an eerie life of its own. One of Herzog’s best-known films, Aguirre, der Zorn Gottes (1972; Aguirre, the Wrath of God), follows a band of Spanish explorers into unmapped territory, recording their gradual mental and physical self-destruction.

Jeder für sich und Gott gegen alle (1975; Every Man for Himself and God Against All or The Mystery of Kaspar Hauser) is a retelling of the Kaspar Hauser legend. Herzog’s most realistic film, Stroszek (1977), is a bittersweet tale of isolation concerning a German immigrant who, with his two misfit companions, finds the dairy lands of Wisconsin to be lonelier and bleaker than the slums of Berlin. Herzog’s other films include Herz aus Glas (1977; Heart of Glass), Nosferatu: Phantom der Nacht (1979; Nosferatu the Vampyre, a version of Bram Stoker’s Dracula that is an homage to F.W. Murnau’s film of the same name), Woyzeck (1979), Fitzcarraldo (1982), and Schrei aus Stein (1991; Scream of Stone).

Later in his career Herzog focused primarily on documentaries, including Glocken aus der Tiefe (1995; Bells from the Deep), which examines religious beliefs among Russians, and Grizzly Man (2005), an account of Timothy Treadwell, an American who studied and lived among grizzly bears in Alaska but was mauled to death along with his girlfriend. Little Dieter Needs to Fly (1997) centres on a German American pilot shot down in the jungle during the Vietnam War; the story inspired Herzog’s narrative film Rescue Dawn (2007). Among his later documentaries are Encounters at the End of the World (2007), which highlights the beauty of Antarctica; Cave of Forgotten Dreams (2010), which explores in 3-D the prehistoric paintings at the Chauvet cave in France; and Into the Abyss (2011), a sombre examination of a Texas murder case.

Herzog’s other narrative films include Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans (2009), a drama about a police officer (played by Nicolas Cage) struggling with drug and gambling addictions, My Son, My Son, what Have Ye Done (2009) and Queen of the Desert (2014) with Nicole Kidman, James Franco and Damian Lewis. Herzog’s films are characterized by a surreal and subtly exotic quality, and he is hailed as one of the most innovative contemporary directors. He often employs controversial techniques to elicit the desired performances from his actors: he ordered that the entire cast be hypnotized for Heart of Glass, forced the cast of Aguirre, the Wrath of God to endure the arduous environment of South American rainforests, and required his actors to haul a 300-ton ship over a mountain for Fitzcarraldo. Herzog’s subject matter has often led to such offbeat casting choices as dwarfs in Auch Zwerge haben klein angefangen and Bruno S., a lifelong inmate of prisons and mental institutions, in The Mystery of Kaspar Hauser and Stroszek. His volatile love-hate relationship with the brilliant but emotionally unstable actor Klaus Kinski resulted in some of the best work from both men, and both are best known for the films on which they collaborated. Herzog celebrated their partnership with the well-received documentary film Mein liebster Feind (1999; My Best Fiend). In addition, Herzog occasionally took acting jobs himself, with notable roles including a stern father in the experimental drama Julien Donkey-Boy (1999) and a criminal mastermind in the big-budget action movie Jack Reacher (2012).

Photo Credit: Robin Holland

Filmography:

• Fireball: Visitors from Darker Worlds (2020)
• Family Romance, LLC (2019)
• Nomad: In the Footsteps of Bruce Chatwin (2019)
• Meeting Gorbachev (2018)
• Salt and Fire (2016)
• Lo and Behold, Reveries of the Connected World (2016)
• Into the Inferno (2016)
• Queen of the Desert (2015)
• Into the Abyss (2011)
• Cave of Forgotten Dreams (2010)
• Happy People: A Year in the Taiga (2010)
• My Son, My Son, What Have Ye Done (2009)
• Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans (2009)
• Encounters at the End of the World (2007)
• Rescue Dawn (2006)
• The Wild Blue Yonder (2005)
• Grizzly Man (2005)
• The White Diamond (2004)
• Wheel of Time (2003)
• Invincible (2001)
• My Best Fiend (1999)
• Wings of Hope (1998)
• Little Dieter Needs to Fly (1997)
• Gesualdo: Death for Five Voices (1995)
• The Transformation of the World into Music (1994)
• Bells from the Deep (1993)
• Lessons of Darkness (1992)
• Scream of Stone (1991)
• Jag Mandir (1991)
• Echoes from a Sombre Empire (1990)
• Herdsmen of the Sun (1989)
• Cobra Verde (1987)
• The Dark Glow of the Mountains (1985)
• Where the Green Ants Dream (1984)
• Ballad of the Little Soldier (1984)
• Fitzcarraldo (1982)
• Huie’s Sermon (1981)
• God’s Angry Man (1981)
• Woyzeck (1979)
• Nosferatu the Vampyre (1979)
• Stroszek (1977)
• Heart of Glass (1976)
• How Much Wood Would a Woodchuck Chuck (1976)
• The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser (1974)
• The Great Ecstasy of Woodcarver Steiner (1974)
• Aguirre, the Wrath of God (1972)
• Handicapped Future (1971)
• Land of Silence and Darkness (1971)
• Fata Morgana (1971)
• Even Dwarfs Started Small (1970)
• The Flying Doctors of East Africa (1969)
• Signs of Life (1968)

Here is a curated selection of links shared on our Facebook page for additional insight/information:

• 5/22/16 – It turns out that despite Herzog’s aversion to new technology, the legendary filmmaker has signed on to teach a 20 lesson online class on every aspect of filmmaking. Enroll at the link.
• 6/4/16 – “The CCC turns one year old this month with a lineup highlighted by the great Werner Herzog. The Fitzcarraldo and Aguirre, the Wrath of God director is also a fascinating documentary filmmaker, and his latest looks to be no exception. Lo and Behold, Reveries of the Connected World by Werner Herzog, a study of our interconnecting online lives, has its Buffalo premiere at 7 p.m. on June 13 at the North Park Theatre (1428 Hertel Ave.). The month also includes Mark Cousins’ Atomic: Living in Dread and Promise – Free Film Screening, a documentary about the nuclear age, at 8 p.m. on June 8 at Burning Books (420 Connecticut St.). And Jan Ole Gerster’s charming narrative feature A Coffee In Berlin screens at 1 p.m. on June 25 at the Mason O. Damon Auditorium at the Buffalo & Erie Central Library (1 Lafayette Sq.).” Christopher Schobert, Buffalo Spree magazine – link
• 6/13/16 – Werner Herzog on “The Ecstatic Truth” he seeks within his own filmmaking:

• 7/12/16 – Magnolia Pictures has released a monolithic new poster for Herzog’s Lo and Behold, Reveries of the Connected World – link