Herzog reveals something quite interesting about "Bells from the Deep" in this letter from Ebert - may be worth reading only after you've seen the film. It will give you an insight into Herzog's notion of "ecstatic truth" and what it means to him as a filmmaker -
http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071117/PEO PLE/71117002
Please nest your IMDB page, so you respond to the correct person.
I just watched "Encounters at the End of the World". At the end of it, I noticed the dedication to Ebert, and so I was compelled to read his review of the film. That led me to read the letter which you posted, which in turn led me to the IMDb page for "Bells of the Deep". Now here I am...
The film sounds incredible. But I must admit that I am hoping everything in it is real, despite having not seen it. Who knows what Herzog meant? I'm trying to think if I really want to know...
*My lists: http://www.imdb.com/user/ur7367234/lists
Herzog gives a clear hint in the movie himself. It's at 43:20.
Maybe there are more hints, but this one was obvious.
Roger Ebert: I remember at the Telluride Film Festival, ten or 12 years ago, when you told me you had a video of your latest documentary. We found a TV set in a hotel room and I saw "Bells from the Deep," a film in which you wandered through Russia observing strange beliefs. There were the people who lived near a deep lake, and believed that on its bottom there was a city populated by angels. To see it, they had to wait until winter when the water was crystal clear, and then creep spread-eagled onto the ice. If the ice was too thick, they could not see well enough. Too thin, and they might drown. We heard the ice creaking beneath them as they peered for their vision. Then we met a monk who looked like Rasputin. You found that there were hundreds of "Rasputins," some claiming to be Jesus Christ, walking through Russia with their prophecies and warnings. These people, and their intense focus, and the music evoking another world (as your sound tracks always do) held me in their spell, and we talked for some time about the film, and then you said, "But you know, Roger, it is all made up." I did not understand. "It is not real. I invented it." I didn't know whether to believe you about your own film. But I know you speak of "ecstatic truth," of a truth beyond the merely factual, a truth that records not the real world but the world as we dream it.
Herzog gives a clear hint in the movie himself. It's at 43:20.
Maybe there are more hints, but this one was obvious.
"But you know, Roger, it is allowed made up." I did not understand. "It is not real. I invented it."
cool thanx thats what I came here to find out