Herz aus Glas (1976)

User Rating:

7.0/10   

Director:

Werner Herzog

Writers:

Herbert Achternbusch (writer)
Werner Herzog (writer)

Release Date:

17 December 1976 (West Germany)

Genre:

Comedy | Drama

Plot:

The foreman of a small village glassworks dies without revealing the secret to the famous "Ruby Glass".

Plot Keywords:

Experimental Film | Glass Blower | Glass Making | Bizarre | Surrealism

Awards:

1 win

Cast

Josef Bierbichler	...	Hias
Stefan Güttler	...	Huttenbesitzer
Clemens Scheitz	...	Adalbert
Sonja Skiba	...	Ludmilla
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Wolf Albrecht
Thomas Binkley
Janos Fischer
Wilhelm Friedrich
Edith Gratz
Alois Hruschka
Egmont Hugel
Amad Ibn Ghassem Nadij
Sterling Jones
Karl Kaufmann
Brunhilde Klöckner
Helmut Kossick
Helmut Krüger
Wolfram Kunkel
Werner Lederle
Richard Levitt
Sepp Müller
Agnes Nuissl
Volker Prechtel
Bernhard Schabel
Karl Schwarzmayer		(as Walter Schwarzmeier)
Friedrich Steinhauer
Arno Vahrenwald
Andrea von Ramm
Detlev Weiler
Siegfried Wolf
Karl Yblagger

Also Known As:

Heart of Glass (USA)

Runtime:

Hong Kong:94 min | USA:93 min

Country:

West Germany

Language:

German

Color:

Color (Eastmancolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.66 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Filming Locations:

Alaska, USA

Company:

Werner Herzog Filmproduktion

Trivia:

The majority of the actors (with the exception of Hias and the glass blowers) were actually hypnotized by Werner Herzog and perform under hypnosis on screen.

Movie Connections:

Featured in Portrait Werner Herzog (1986)

The Smoke At The End Of The World

Hypnotized actors, in this story of how something as fragile as glass can bring on the apocalypse for a small German community. There's a character who predicts the future, and narrates in some of Herzog's most poetic dialog yet. The scenes at the end overlooking the cliffs above the Atlantic and their dream of "worlds to come", keep this from being your usual end of all things story. For Herzog there aren't ends, just junctures where one thing dies and another begins. Cycles in history (reflected in the mysterious prophets discussion of greater apocalypses to come in the future world wars 1 and 2).

The man who can see the future (and who is of course blamed for all the towns ills), at one point wishes he was out of his cell, and in the next scene he's walking in the woods talking to himself, giving the film a strange tinge of magic realism(though realism and this film don't exactly mix). Strange, difficult, but unforgettable, and a must for Herzog fans. (also it's where the Blondie song comes from)