Werner Herzog Eats His Shoe 1980 + Burden of Dreams 1982 1980 M
When
2.45pm, Sat 1 Jul 2017 (115 mins)Where
Gallery of Modern Art & Cinema A
About
Werner Herzog Eats His Shoe 1980 (20 mins) Ages 12+
These days you hear about things like shoe-eating out of context and it sounds ridiculous, but to me it made perfect sense. I did it as an encouragement for anyone who doesn't have the guts to make films. And anyway, a man should eat his shoes every once in a while.
Werner Herzog Eats His Shoe will screen from an archival 16mm film print.
When a young Errol Morris complained to Werner Herzog that he was struggling to fund his first film, Herzog dismissed these concerns and told the future Academy Award winning documentarian to forget the money and simply start filming. As an incentive, Herzog claims to have promised "I'll eat the shoes I'm wearing the day I see your film for the first time." Morris would go on to release his beloved documentary Gates of Heaven in 1978 and so the short Werner Herzog Eats His Shoe 1980 was born.
This 20-minute film, directed by Herzog's friend Les Blank, shows the eponymous filmmaker preparing, cooking, and eating his leather boot in front of a crowd at the Berkley restaurant Chez Panisse. Whether it was an inspired moment of madcap determination or simply an absurd publicity stunt, it is yet another testament to the single-minded fortitude of one of cinema's eccentrics.
Burden of Dreams 1982 (95 mins) M
Les always had the final say; I never asked him to change things, even I knew they might be damaging to me … Sometimes it's better not to have all the facts, though 'Burden of Dreams' remains the best "making of" film ever made.
Burden of Dreams will screen from an archival 16mm film print.
One of the greatest behind-the-scenes documentaries ever filmed, Burden of Dreams is the story of the incredible production of Werner Herzog's Fitzcarraldo. The documentary was shot by Herzog's friend and fellow filmmaker Les Blank, whose inquisitive camera captures the gruelling work that went into Fitzcarraldo's creation: from a wildly unpredictable lead actor in Klaus Kinski, to the hundreds of extras, to the hauling of the 320 tonne ship over a mountain. Burden of Dreams is an amazing document of one of the most legendary productions in cinema history. Much like the relationship between Apocalypse Now 1979 and Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker's Apocalypse 1991, the documentary only expands the mystique of the feature film it covers and remains in many ways just as grand of an artistic achievement.
Production Credits
- Director/Cinematographer: Les Blank
- Script: Werner Herzog, Michael Goodwin
- Editor: Maureen Gosling
- Print Source: National Film and Sound Archive of Australia, Canberra
- Rights: Les Blank Films
- Screening Format: 16mm, 16mm m
- Production Company: Flower Films
- Year: 1980
- Runtime: 115 minutes
- Country: USA
- Sound: Mono
- Colour: Colour