Credited cast: | |||
Werner Herzog | ... | Self | |
Tom Luddy | ... | Master of Ceremonies | |
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Michael Goodwin | ... | Driver / Interviewer |
Alice Waters | ... | Assistant Cook | |
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Chris Strachwitz | ... | Dwarf Voice (voice) |
Rest of cast listed alphabetically: | |||
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Phil Harberts | ... | Self |
A passionate cook, acclaimed filmmaker Werner Herzog stuffs some culinary aromatics into his shoe and uses the laces to truss it like a chicken, before he sticks it into a pot with water and duck fat to stew it. It is so that he can bring the stewed shoe to one of the first screenings of Errol Morris' debut film Gates of Heaven (1978) to eat it. This act will fulfill his loss of a bet to Morris, who he met as a student filmmaker, that he would never be able to make a movie. The bet was not Herzog's attempt of a jab against Morris, but rather to support a struggling but gifted Morris in his quest to do whatever was required to finance a movie project. In the process of eating the shoe, Herzog wants to encourage other aspiring filmmakers, and to set an agenda of increasing what he calls adequate images as a true reflection of the world. Written by Huggo
Entertaining, funny, and oddly thought provoking 20 minute short, in which, quite literally, director Werner Herzog eats his shoe.
He does it in response to a bet he made with then budding, but procrastinating film-maker Errol Morris. He told Morris that if he ever finally got a feature finished, he'd eat his shoe. And so he does, after cooking it, in front of a live audience before the local premiere of Morris' great first feature 'Gates of Heaven'.
As enjoyably silly as it all is, Herzog also makes some real points about needing to be willing to do foolish things to encourage art and artists, and that only by risking being absurd can we have the hope of transcending.