herr herzog

last night b and i went to see an evening with werner herzog as a part of the san francisco internation film festival. there was a showing of clips from his career (not all or we would've been there all night!), then a film critic intervied him and then the showing of his latest film, the wild blue yonder. werner herzog is hilarious. all night, joke after joke. this was one of the best events i've been to in a long time. the emcee said it looked like more people came to see werner than robert altman! my favorite part was at the end of the audience q&a when an older man got up to the microphone and asked him whether or not he'd recived the screenplay the man had sent "herr herzog" via e-mail and would he consider directing it! ha! and he was totally serious. but i will say that werner herzog did an amazing job answering the question. he talked about how he normally writes his own scripts for the films he makes. he loves everything about filmaking: directing, producing, acting, and especially writing. and then he diplomatically thanked the man.

the movie shown after, wild blue yonder, was not my favorite. although, it had some of the best music i have ever heard. werner explained that before he started anything with the film he got three musicians from around the world together and recorded them playing before ever having rehearsed together. it was haunting and he then made the film around those sounds. you can hear a clip here.