Werner Herzog's movies ranked in order of liking
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- DirectorWerner HerzogStarsKlaus KinskiClaudia CardinaleJosé LewgoyThe story of Brian Sweeney Fitzgerald, an extremely determined man who intends to build an opera house in the middle of a jungle.Klaus Kinski stars in both of my top picks. In my opinion he is a great actor. He might have been mad but that did certainly not hurt his acting. It rather improved it (but it seems he was hard to work with). I have never seen a madman performance that lives up to his.
- DirectorWerner HerzogStarsKlaus KinskiRuy GuerraHelena RojoIn the 16th century, the ruthless and insane Don Lope de Aguirre leads a Spanish expedition in search of El Dorado.Herzog actually stole the monkeys for the last take. It improved the movie since the monkeys were awfully cute.
- DirectorWerner HerzogStarsKlaus KinskiIsabelle AdjaniBruno GanzCount Dracula moves from Transylvania to Wismar, spreading the Black Plague across the land. Only a woman pure of heart can bring an end to his reign of horror.I love the original and while this is not as good it's certainly one of the few remakes that actually does justice to it's surce material.
- DirectorWerner HerzogStarsWerner HerzogThis film surveys the disaster of the Kuwaiti oil fields in flames, with little narration and scarcely any interviews. Hell on Earth is presented in such transcendent visions and music that one can only be fascinated by it.Pure Poetry
- DirectorWerner HerzogStarsBruno S.Walter LadengastBrigitte MiraA young man named Kaspar Hauser suddenly appears in Nuremberg in 1828, barely able to talk or walk, and bearing a strange note.The lead actor was actually retarded. It was a great choice from Herzog to star him. He did a great job here.
- DirectorWerner HerzogStarsWerner HerzogScott RowlandStefan PashovFilm-maker Werner Herzog travels to the McMurdo Station in Antarctica, looking to capture the continent's beauty and investigate the characters living there.Usually this is not ranked among Herzog's greatest movies. But in my opinion it is. I loved his take on life in this. The scene with the "mad" penguin is so extremely strong. It actually made me cry.
- DirectorWerner HerzogStarsDieter DenglerWerner HerzogEugene DeatrickGerman-American Dieter Dengler discusses his service as a U.S. naval pilot in the Vietnam War. Dengler also revisits the sites of his capture and eventual escape from the hands of the Viet Cong, recreating many events for the camera.
- DirectorWerner HerzogStarsNicolas CageEva MendesRussell M. HaeuserTerence McDonagh is a drug- and gambling-addled detective in post-Katrina New Orleans investigating the killing of five Senegalese immigrants.Herzog and Cage work brilliantly together.
- DirectorWerner HerzogStarsWerner HerzogRichard LopezMichael PerryConversations with death row inmate Michael Perry and those affected by his crime serve as an examination of why people - and the state - kill.I've never seen a stronger film on hate and love. I cried 5 times I think.
- DirectorWerner HerzogStarsWerner HerzogKlaus KinskiClaudia CardinaleThe love-hate relationship between Werner Herzog and Klaus Kinski, the deep trust between the director and the actor, and their independently and simultaneously hatched plans to murder one another.This movie is incredibly interesting. Some say Herzog wanted to make himself look good. I don't think thats true. I don't think Herzog cares about looking good. He rather offers an insight in what madness is and our perception of it. In fact some may define Herzog himself as mad because of all the things he went through to make his movies (for example endangering his entire crew while making Aguirre). Some (most) people would not do this. He did because to him the movie was more important than other things. Was Kinski actually mad? I have still got no clue.
- DirectorWerner HerzogStarsElon MuskLawrence KraussLucianne WalkowiczWerner Herzog's exploration of the Internet and the connected world.
- DirectorWerner HerzogStarsFini StraubingerM. BaaskeElsa FehrerThrough examining Fini Straubinger, an old woman who has been deaf and blind since adolescence, and her work on behalf of other deaf and blind people, this film shows how the deaf and blind struggle to understand and accept a world from which they are almost wholly isolated.This documentary really gets under your skin.
- DirectorWerner HerzogStarsWerner HerzogJean ClottesJulien MonneyWerner Herzog gains exclusive access to film inside the Chauvet caves of Southern France and captures the oldest known pictorial creations of humanity.
- DirectorWerner HerzogStarsReinhold MessnerHans KammerlanderWerner HerzogFilm-maker Werner Herzog follows mountaineers Reinhold Messner and Hans Kammerlander as they attempt to climb the high altitude peaks of Gasherbrum II and Gasherbrum I all in one expedition, seeking to reveal their inner motivation.
- DirectorWerner HerzogStarsWalter SteinerWerner HerzogA study of the psychology of a champion ski-jumper, whose full-time occupation is carpentry.
- DirectorWerner HerzogStarsTimothy TreadwellAmie HuguenardWerner HerzogA devastating and heart-rending take on grizzly bear activists Timothy Treadwell and Amie Huguenard, who were killed in October of 2003 while living among grizzly bears in Alaska.
- DirectorWerner HerzogStarsKlaus KinskiEva MattesWolfgang ReichmannFranz Woyzeck is a hapless, hopeless soldier, alone and powerless in society, assaulted from all sides by forces he can not control.
- DirectorWerner HerzogStarsLotte EisnerWolfgang BüttnerManfred EigendorfFootage shot in and around the Sahara Desert, accompanied only by a spoken creation myth and the songs of Leonard Cohen.
- DirectorWerner HerzogStarsKlaus KinskiKing AmpawJosé LewgoyDuring the 1800s, paroled Brazilian bandit Cobra Verde is sent to West Africa with a few troops to man an old Portuguese fort and to convince the local African ruler to resume the slave trade with Brazil.
- DirectorWerner HerzogStarsWerner HerzogKatia KrafftMaurice KrafftAn exploration of active volcanoes around the world.
- DirectorWerner HerzogStarsWerner HerzogJörg Schmidt-ReitweinEdward LachmanHerzog takes a film crew to the island of Guadeloupe when he hears that the volcano on the island is going to erupt. Everyone has left, except for one old man who refuses to leave. Herzog catches the eeriness of an abandoned city, with stop lights cycling over an empty intersection.
- DirectorWerner HerzogStarsWerner HerzogGraham DorringtonDieter PlageEngineers attempt daring journey above Guyanese rainforest canopy with airship prototype. Adventure fraught with risks, as previous expedition ended tragically. This is a unique story of exploring uncharted jungle from the air.
- DirectorWerner HerzogStarsPeter BrogleWolfgang ReichmannAthina ZacharopoulouThree wounded soldiers are removed from battle and given the task of looking after a fortress in a small coastal town. However, the pressures of isolation begin to take their toll on the men.
- DirectorWerner HerzogStarsJouko AholaTim RothAnna GourariA Jewish strongman performs in Berlin as the blond Aryan hero Siegfried.
- DirectorWerner HerzogStarsBruno S.Eva MattesClemens ScheitzIn Berlin, an alcoholic man, recently released from prison, joins his elderly friend and a prostitute in a determined dream to leave Germany and seek a better life in Wisconsin.
- DirectorWerner HerzogStarsBruce SpenceWandjuk MarikaRoy MarikaA geologist employed by an Australian mining company finds himself disputing the rights of some aborigines who believe their land to be sacred.
- DirectorWerner HerzogDmitry VasyukovStarsWerner HerzogGennady SolovievAnatoly BlumeiA documentary depicting the life and work of the trappers of Bakhtia, a village in the heart of the Siberian Taiga, where daily life has changed little in over a century.
- DirectorWerner HerzogStarsJosef BierbichlerStefan GüttlerClemens ScheitzThe foreman of a small village glassworks dies without revealing the secret to the famous "Ruby Glass".The ending might still be the best scene he ever filmed.
- DirectorWerner HerzogStarsHelmut DöringPaul GlauerGisela HertwigA group of dwarfs at a correctional facility erupt in anarchy.
- DirectorWerner HerzogStarsWerner HerzogReinhold MessnerLotte EisnerA self portrait documentary by Werner Herzog.
- DirectorWerner HerzogStarsWerner HerzogJuliane KoepckeJuan Zaplana RamirezWerner Herzog returns to the South American jungle with Juliane Koepcke, the German woman who was the sole survivor of a plane crash there in 1971. They find the remains of the plane and recreate her journey out of the jungle.
- DirectorWerner HerzogStarsPasquale D'OnofrioSalvatore CatoranoAngelo CarrabsWorks, legend and murders of Carlo Gesualdo, a notorious Italian composer and murderer from the 16th century.
- DirectorWerner HerzogStarsChristian BaleSteve ZahnJeremy DaviesA U.S. fighter pilot's epic struggle of survival after being shot down on a mission over Laos during the Vietnam War.
- DirectorWerner HerzogStarsMichael ShannonWillem DafoeChloë SevignyInspired by a true crime, a man begins to experience mystifying events that lead him to slay his mother with a sword.
- DirectorWerner HerzogStarsWerner HerzogHerzog's documentary of the Wodaabe people of the Sahara/Sahel region. Particular attention is given to the tribe's spectacular courtship rituals and 'beauty pageants', where eligible young men strive to outshine each other and attract mates by means of lavish makeup, posturing and facial movements.
- DirectorWerner HerzogStarsNicole KidmanJames FrancoRobert PattinsonA chronicle of Gertrude Bell's life, a traveler, writer, archaeologist, explorer, cartographer, and political attaché for the British Empire at the dawn of the twentieth century.
- DirectorWerner HerzogStarsValetta BradfordXzavier Davis-BilboAurie ParrisStories of serious traffic accidents caused by texting and driving are told by the perpetrators and surviving victims.
- DirectorWerner HerzogStarsWerner HerzogAnna HitchVissarionWhat is faith and religion to Russians after the fall of communism? We get the insight into the Russian Orthodox church as well as different folk and shamanic beliefs.
- DirectorWerner HerzogStarsThe Dalai LamaLama Lhundup WoeserTakna Jigme SangpoWheel of Time is Werner Herzog's photographed look at the largest Buddhist ritual in Bodh Gaya, India.
- DirectorWerner HerzogA children with domestic issues and despised by his classmates develops a bond with one of them thanks to his speaking crow.
- DirectorWerner HerzogStarsPetar RadenkovicMario AdorfHans TiedemannThe film features several horse trainers and other track workers talking about their roles at the track, always eventually interrupted by an older man who claims to be the true authority, and demands that they be thrown out. One recurring young man, the first to appear, claims that he protects the horses from enthusiastic racing fans. He does not appear to be employed by the track, but seems to provide his services voluntarily. His protection from "fanatics" gives the film its title. The film is shot in a documentary style, but the sheer implausibility of the dialogue leaves the exact nature of the film ambiguous.
- DirectorWerner HerzogDocumentary film accompanied only by music, it alternates between shots of pilgrims near the tomb of Saint Sergei in Sergiyev Posad, Russia and pilgrims at the Basilica of Guadalupe in Mexico.
- DirectorWerner HerzogStarsPeter BrummGeorg EskaKarl-Heinz SteffelFour guys break into an old castle and find uniforms and military equipment. They then prepare to defend it from an imaginary enemy.
- DirectorWerner HerzogStarsPeter AutyMary PlazasPart of a series of opera shorts by different directors. Herzog combines O Soave Fanciulla ("Oh you vision of beauty" from Puccini's La Boheme) with images of harsh life in Africa.
- DirectorWerner HerzogStarsLefteris DaskalakisAntonis PapadakisThe story of a solitary man who refuses to leave a Greek island (at one time a leper colony) is told by a strange variety of characters who don't have much to say except to repeat their tellings over and over again. But the person who has the final word on the matter, the lonely character himself, may not explain anything about his personal reasons for not abandoning the place.
- DirectorWerner HerzogStarsClaude JosseJean ClementeSlim is a the ranch foreman, almost deaf. One morning, he and two cowhands see something come down a distant hill. They grab him, tie him up, and go through his suitcase, finally figuring out that he's a Frenchman. They let him loose, and, along with an Indian who's been tracking him for ten days, celebrate with beer and, at nightfall, an outdoor dinner served by some local gals. A trio of women sing between scenes. The next morning, it's time for breakfast.
- DirectorWerner HerzogStarsReinhard LichtenbergWeight lifting men who compete to achieve individual bodily perfection through muscle building.