MovieChat Forums > Little Dieter Needs to Fly (1998) Discussion > Herzog's The Man

Herzog's The Man

posted 18 years ago by trollkillah
7 replies | jump to latest

After the premier of "Little Dieter Needs To Fly", in San Francisco's Roxie Theater, Herzog held court on the street for over 3 hours, until almost 3:00 in the morning. The theater manager, after closing up shop, handed us a garbage bag full of leftover popcorn and myself and couple of other people, hung out with Herzog, while he bummed cigarettes and discussed life, the universe, and everything. After tiring of eating popcorn, we gave the remainder to some nearby street people. It was absolutely epic! How many other directors of his stature, indys included, would have done the same? Not many, I don't think, especially on the streets of some funky neighborhood like the Mission. Herzog and Dieter Dengler had both been there, for a Q&A after the show. He's truly the man!

[–] 18 years ago

[deleted]

[–] 42ndStreetMemories 18 years ago

I had the honor to see this film last evening at a local film festival. The film was introduced by Herzog who did an hour Q&A afterwards. I'm jealous that you had 3 hours since the one hour went by in a heartbeat. Herzog is a great story teller with a keen sense of humor. He entertained all questions with charm and poise, no matter how trivial they might have been.

He had planned to show a clip from Rescue Dawn which is a narrative version of this documentary that he just completed, but there was some hang up in getting the clip. I'm just as glad since it'd rather have more time listening to the gent.

Jerry Kovar, 42nd Street Memories

[–] FatKid8Me 18 years ago

Damn iam very jealous 42nd , i wanted to make it to the q&a on Wed or was it Thursday i forget which. Anyways at least i got to see it tonight and i LOVED it. I really wish i would have gotten to have a q&a with him. Especially a 3 hour one thats crazy.

any ways can you tell me some of the q's and a's?

thanks!

http://www.dvdaficionado.com/dvds.html?cat=1&id=fatkid8me

[–] 42ndStreetMemories 18 years ago

The Q&A was one hour. The other poster had the 3 hour version. Anyway, he was great and I wished it could have gone 3.

Some of the Q's were:

"Do you look for subjects or do they come to you?"
In the case of Dieter, he mentioned that he had heard of the story via German TV and he had a hunch that Dieter may live in CAL, so he started searching the phone book, county by county until he found him

At the mention of his documentaries, he discussed how he staged some of it and improvised in order to get more spontanaity and more truth. He mentioned the opening and closing of doors at the beginning of Dieter as something he staged. However, he emphasized that he would only represent his subjects in a completely honest way.

He went on that he admired Dieter as a soldier because he did not suffer from post-war battle fatigue syndrome ( i forget the official name). I found this disturbing as if the many soldiers who returned with "issues" were not as good or as complete a soldier as Dieter.

He was asked if he "ever considered re-doing some of his earlier work because he felt he could improve upon them".

He answered that these films were his children and one would never consider re-doing their children as they aged to make them better. I don't know if everyone with children agreed, but I get his point.

Surprisingly there was no mention of Kinski. He did speak very highly of Brad Dourif who he called a genius. As was visibly pleased we someone mentioned The Wild Blue Yonder, which I haven't seen.

As I think of others, I'll post more.

Jerry Kovar, 42nd Street Memories

[–] FatKid8Me 18 years ago

Awesome thanks!

http://www.dvdaficionado.com/dvds.html?cat=1&id=fatkid8me

[–] jujungo 18 years ago

yes this movie, like so much of herzog's stuff, is brilliant. i've never had the honour of listening or speaking to him live but if he's half of the human i see in his movies he must be incredible. His attitude to reality documentary (i forget the exact phrase he uses) , that he 'adds to' the truth, makes more emotionally honest films than cinema verite. txs to the above posts and to Werner...

[–] Pontus_Kjallman 16 years ago

That was a really interesting and nice story!