Werner Herzog

Filmmakers

Werner Herzog (born September 5, 1942) is a German film director, screenwriter, author, actor, and opera director. Herzog is a figure of the New German Cinema. His films often feature ambitious protagonists with impossible dreams, people with unique talents in obscure fields, or individuals who are in conflict with nature.

Werner Herzog made his first film in 1961 at the age of 19. Since then he has produced, written, and directed more than sixty feature films and documentaries, such as Aguirre, the Wrath of God (1972), Heart of Glass (1976), Nosferatu the Vampyre (1978), Fitzcarraldo (1982), Lessons of Darkness (1992), Little Dieter Needs to Fly (1997), My Best Fiend (1999), about his shaky relationship with actor Klaus Kinski; Invincible (2000), Grizzly Man (2005), Encounters at the End of the World (2007), Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans (2009), with Nicolas Cage; and Cave of Forgotten Dreams (2010). He has published more than a dozen books of prose, and directed as many operas.

French filmmaker François Truffaut once called Herzog “the most important film director alive.” American film critic Roger Ebert said that Herzog “has never created a single film that is compromised, shameful, made for pragmatic reasons, or uninteresting. Even his failures are spectacular.” He was named one of the world’s 100 most influential people by Time magazine in 2009.

Each review will be linked to the title below.

(*seen originally in theaters)

(**seen rereleased in theaters)

Director/Writer

• Herakles (1962) – short
• Game in the Sand (1964) – short
• The Unprecedented Defense of the Fortress Deutschkreuz (1967) – short
• Last Words (1968) – short
• Signs of Life (1968)
• Precautions Against Fanatics (1969) – short
• The Flying Doctors of East Africa (1970) – TV documentary
• Even Dwarves Started Small (1970)
• Fata Morgana (1971) – documentary
• Land of Silence and Darkness (1971) – documentary
• Handicapped Future (1971) – TV documentary
• Aguirre, the Wrath of God (1972)
• The Great Ecstasy of Woodcarver Steiner (1974) – documentary
• The Enigma of Kasper Hauser (1974)
• How Much Wood Would a Woodchuck Chuck… (1976) – TV documentary
• Heart of Glass (1976)
• No One Will Play with Me (1976) – short
• Stroszek (1977)
• La Soufrière (1977) – documentary short
• Nosferatu the Vampyre (1979)
• Woyzeck (1979)
• Werner Herzog Eats His Shoe (1980) – directed by Les Blank – documentary short – writer
• God’s Angry Men (1981) – TV documentary
• Huie’s Sermon (1981) – TV documentary
• Fitzcarraldo (1982)
• Where Green Ants Dream (1984)
• Ballad of the Little Soldier (1984) – TV documentary
• The Dark Glow of the Mountains (1985) – TV documentary
• Portrait Werner Herzog (1986) – documentary short
• Cobra Verde (1987)
• Les Gaulois (1988) – short
• Herdsmen of the Sun (1989) – TV documentary
• Echoes From a Somber Empire (1990) – documentary
• Scream of Stone (1991)
• Jag Mandir (1991) – TV documentary
• Lessons of Darkness (1992) – documentary
• Bells from the Deep: Faith and Superstition in Russia (1993) – documentary
• Gesualdo: Death for Five Voices (1995) – TV documentary
• The Transformation of the World Into Music (1996) – TV documentary
• Little Dieter Needs to Fly (1997) – documentary
• My Best Fiend (1999) – documentary
• Julianes Sturz in den Dschungel (1999) – TV documentary
• Invincible (2001)
• Pilgrimage (2001) – documentary short
• Ten Minutes Older: The Trumpet (2002) – directed with Aki Kaurismäki, Victor Erice, Jim Jarmusch, Wim Wnders, Spike Lee, & Chen Kaige – anthology
• Wheel of Time (2003) – documentary
• The White Diamond (2004) – documentary
• Incident at Loch Ness (2004) – directed by Zack Penn – co-writer, actor
• Grizzly Man (2005) – documentary
• The Wild Blue Yonder (2005)
• Rescue Dawn (2006)
• Encounters at the End of the World (2007) – documentary
• Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans (2009)
• La Bohème (2009) – documentary short
• My Son, My Son, What Have Ye Done? (2009)
• Happy People: A Year in the Taiga (2010) – documentary
• Cave of Forgotten Dreams (2010) – documentary
• Into the Abyss (2011) – documentary
• Ode to the Dawn of Man (2011) – short
• On Death Row (2012 – 2013) – documentary miniseries
• From One Second to the Next (2013) – documentary short
• Queen of the Desert (2015)
• Lo and Behold: Reveries of the Connected World (2016) – documentary
• Salt and Fire (2016)
• Into the Inferno (2016) – documentary
• Meeting Gorbachev (2018) – co-directed with André Singer – documentary
• Nomad: In the Footsteps of Bruce Chatwin (2019) – documentary
• Family Romance, LLC. (2019)
• Fireball: Visitors from Darker Worlds (2020) – documentary
• The Fire Within: A Requiem for Katia and Maurice Krafft (2022) – documentary

Actor/Self

• Tales of the Dumpster Kid (1971) – directed by Edgar Reitz & Ula Stöckl
• Garlic Is as Good as Ten Mothers (1980) – directed by Les Blank – self – documentary
• Room 666 (1982) – directed by Wim Wenders – self – documentary
• Burden of Dreams (1982) – directed by Les Blank – self – documentary
• Man of Flowers (1983) – directed by Paul Cox
• Tokyo-Ga (1985) – directed by Wim Wenders – self – documentary
• Bride of the Orient (1989) – directed by Urs Odermatt
• Hard to Be a God (1990) – directed by Peter Fleischmann
• Tales from the Opera (1994) –
• Burning Heart (1995)
• What Dreams May Come (1998) – directed by Vincent Ward
• Julien Donkey-Boy (1999) – directed by Harmony Korine
• Mister Lonely (2007) – directed by Harmony Korine
• The Grand (2007) – directed by Zak Penn
• Plastic Bag (2009) – directed by Ramin Bahrani – short
• Jack Reacher (2012) – directed by Christopher McQuarrie
• Home from Home (2013) – directed by Edgar Reitz
• The Wind Rises (2013)** – directed by Hayao Miyazaki – English dub
• Lemonade War (2014) – directed by Ramin Bahrani – short
• Penguins of Madagascar (2014) – directed by Eric Darnell & Simon J. Smith
• Freaks of Nature (2015) – directed by Robbie Pickering