Werner Herzog filmography

Herzog—pictured at the 1991 Venice International Film Festival—is well known for his distinctive voice (recording below).

Werner Herzog (born 1942)^[1] is a German filmmaker whose films often feature ambitious or deranged protagonists with impossible dreams.^[2][3] Herzog's works span myriad genres and mediums, but he is particularly well known for his documentary films, which he typically narrates.^[4]

In 1962, Herzog made his directorial debut with the German-language short Herakles. His feature film debut—Signs of Life (1968)—garnered him the Silver Bear at Berlinale.^[5] Six years later, Herzog's The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser (1974) won the Grand Prix at the Cannes Film Festival.^[6] Starting in this period, Herzog collaborated with actor Klaus Kinski on five films, Aguirre, the Wrath of God (1972), Nosferatu the Vampyre (1979), Woyzeck (1979), Fitzcarraldo (1982), and Cobra Verde (1987).^[2] Fitzcarraldo won Herzog the Best Director Award at Cannes.^[7] His tumultuous relationship with Kinski was the subject of Herzog's 1999 documentary My Best Fiend.^[8] Herzog directed two films in 2009, My Son, My Son, What Have Ye Done and the Nicolas Cage-starring Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans,^[9] both of which were nominated for a Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival.^[10] He has directed a number of other fictional feature films as well as shorts.

Herzog made his documentorial debut with 1969's The Flying Doctors of East Africa. In his documentaries, Herzog often explores the "moral or existential abyss", commonly in nature.^[11] His first documentary to screen at Cannes, Fata Morgana (1971), for instance, pairs footage of barren African desert landscapes with a recitation of the Mayan creation myth, the Popol Vuh.^[12][13] Similarly, Herzog's film Lessons of Darkness (1992) matches Richard Wagner overtures with documentation of the Gulf War's wake of chaos and destruction in Kuwait.^[14][15] Lessons of Darkness was criticized for its supposed "aestheticizing" of war.^[16] As with his fictional works, Herzog's documentaries also examine nonconformists outside conventional society,^[17] such as Timothy Treadwell in his 2005 documentary Grizzly Man.^[17][18] Herzog studied the pilot Dieter Dengler in his 1997 documentary Little Dieter Needs to Fly, which he later remade into the 2006 feature film Rescue Dawn starring Christian Bale.^[11] The following year, his exploration of the lives of scientists in Antarctica—2007's Encounters at the End of the World—garnered him an Oscar nomination for Best Documentary.^[19][20] For his 2018 documentary Meeting Gorbachev, Herzog had extensive interviews with the Soviet leader.^[21] He has directed dozens of other documentaries, including shorts and television segments.

In addition to his own works, Herzog has appeared in other projects, including as the narrator or subject of documentaries and mockumentaries. He has appeared in two Les Blank documentaries, including Werner Herzog Eats His Shoe (1980), in which he eats his shoe after losing a bet to then-college student Errol Morris,^[22] and Burden of Dreams, shot during and about the chaotic filming of Herzog's Fitzcarraldo.^[23] Herzog has also appeared in commercial films and television series, often portraying villains,^[24] such as in the 2012 Tom Cruise film Jack Reacher,^[25] or, in 2019, The Mandalorian.^[26] He has made cameo appearances in The Simpsons, Parks and Recreation, and other television series.