I like strange films so strange is nothing new to me but this was way out there. Even Herzog says in the commentary that he did not know what this film meant. He just had to make it.
I have seen it twice now and I still can't rate it. Talk about something completely different!!
- No animal was hurt during the making of this burger -
When there's no more room in hell, The dead will walk the earth...
Perhaps the Master is an allegory for Hitler.
He was definitely an allegory for the type of destructive leader that people blindly follow.
The furnaces and burning of the glassworks, perhaps an allegory for the Holocaust, definately an allegory for humankind destroying all that it touches and itself; that which we create we destroy.
The literal zombie-sleepwalking ("hypnosis") into destruction perhaps an allegory for the Holocaust.
Did anyone notice that each frame was strongly reminiscent of Baroque and [Baroque, early Renaissance] Flemish paintings? Strong chiaroscuro (Caravaggio) and use of warm yellow divine aural light (Baroque-Christ paintings: Caravaggio again) and triangular spacing, and strong use of village depictions that represent biblical themes (Bruegel).
I kept thinking, and laughing, that Herzog was giving us the real story behind all those Baroque and early Renaissance village paintings:"these are the events that led to the people posing at triangular angles near windows streaming with a straight shaft of light..."
Huttenbesitzer (the Master) - Hutt means mill, huttenbesitzer means copper-smelter, yet Huttenbesitzer - was he a bit vampiric? reminded me of Udo Keir in Andy Warhol's Dracula - did not know the secret of making ruby glass.
Muhlbeck - perhaps an allegory for Moses/Jesus/perhaps Duke Franz Ferdinand - he led the people to the brink and possessed all the secrets, and when he died, the people fell apart and placed all their faith onto the wrong person (Huttenbesitzer, Hitler) who led them to their destruction. His thirst for destruction is a thirst for death, which is also a thirst to become fused with an unforgiving obstinate Nature that humankind ultimately failed to control (good!).
I felt Herzog clearly depicted the destructive nature of humankind's natural obsession with materialism, industry, capitalism, with wanting more.
The Master, and some of the villagers, have been tainted by the material benefits of the glassworks factory. The Master embarks on a path of destruction when his material benefits are threatened, and the people blindly follow him.
There is rebellion, derangement, futility, which are some of his directorial trademarks, which dominate practically all of his films and docufilms.
There are glorious suspended static wide-angle shots of the landscape, Herzog gives you the opportunity to deeply stare into the landscape, and the landscape stares back and speaks, "you cannot conquer me, I am unmoving, I will destroy you", and that message ironically mirrors the innermost self-preservationist drive of humankind.
Now if only Nature would wipe out humankind and return this planet to its original Eden.
Only because this film is German you interpret HITLER in? Wow...
That's... white.
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SEUL CONTRE TOUS
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I gave several reasons for why I observed this, and the film being German was not one of those reasons.
He was definitely an allegory for the type of destructive leader that people blindly follow.
The furnaces and burning of the glassworks, perhaps an allegory for the Holocaust, definately an allegory for humankind destroying all that it touches and itself; that which we create we destroy.
The literal zombie-sleepwalking ("hypnosis") into destruction perhaps an allegory for the Holocaust.
Do I feel Herzog was intentionally creating a Hitlerian parallel?
Not at all, but that does not mean Hitlerian elements did not exist.
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It's all very dreamlike, ambiguous, and open to interpretation. Beautiful stuff, rewarding of rewatches.
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7YZb8s7Kxa4