Werner Herzog Ranked
Not yet seen:
Film Lesson (TV Mini-Series documentary) (4 episodes) (1991-1992)
The Transformation of the World Into Music (TV Movie documentary) (1996)
Christ and Demons in New Spain (2000 Years of Christianity) (TV Episode) (1999)
Ode to the Dawn of Man (Documentary short) (2011)
Theatre of Thought (Documentary) (2022)
Film Lesson (TV Mini-Series documentary) (4 episodes) (1991-1992)
The Transformation of the World Into Music (TV Movie documentary) (1996)
Christ and Demons in New Spain (2000 Years of Christianity) (TV Episode) (1999)
Ode to the Dawn of Man (Documentary short) (2011)
Theatre of Thought (Documentary) (2022)
List activity
554 views
• 5 this weekCreate a new list
List your movie, TV & celebrity picks.
66 titles
- DirectorWerner HerzogStarsJosef BierbichlerStefan GüttlerClemens ScheitzThe foreman of a small village glassworks dies without revealing the secret to the famous "Ruby Glass".Perhaps my favourite movie of all time. I love every absurd line of dialogue, every bizarre gesture by the actors, and every beautiful frame and haunting piece of music in this perfect, perfect movie – which I'll readily admit, most people probably won't like.
- 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.A socially dysfunctional former prisoner leaves Germany along with a prostitute and a senile old man to pursue the American dream in a mobile home in Wisconsin. It’s somehow both Herzog’s bleakest, and funniest film. Bruno S. is phenomenal, and the ending is probably the best I’ve ever seen.
- 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.An absurd trek through the jungle characterized by slow descent into madness and fever dreams. Magnificent, beautiful, haunting, hilarious, and filmmaking at its finest. Rightly considered, a masterpiece.
- 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 story of a man who spent the first 17 years of his life chained in a cellar, devoid of human contact. The way this character is written and portrayed, is phenomenal; an incredibly, beautifully-made film. And you have to laugh at the way the scribe character joyously reduces it all to bureaucratic procedure – best minor character ever.
- 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.Probably my favourite documentary ever.
- 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 Nicolas Cage are a match made in heaven and this movie has both of them at their best – it's a tour-de-force of impressionistic acting and filmmaking, and absurdist humour. It has a lot in common with Stroszek.
- 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.My first Herzog movie, and still one of his most stunning and beautiful documentaries, about Antarctica, but focussing on the people living there.
- 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.Easily one of Herzog’s very best documentaries, and Dieter Dengler is one of Herzog’s most fascinating subjects.
- 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.Herzog’s remake of the Murnau film. A beautiful audio-visual experience – seriously atmospheric, and infused with a little bit of Herzog’s humour to boot. Easily trumps the original, in my opinion; an excellent film.
- 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.Herzog’s most ambitious film, and his most chaotic production. Sometimes the details of the production start to overshadow the film itself, but it’s still a special experience, watching that boat go up the mountain.
- DirectorWerner HerzogStarsHarry GlickenWerner HerzogKatia KrafftMaurice and Katia Krafft dedicated their lives to exploring the world's volcanoes. Their legacy consists of groundbreaking footage of eruptions and their aftermath, composed in this visual stunning collage.Though he would balk at the notion that his film shoots are dangerous, Herzog concedes that when he went to shoot an active volcano for La Soufrière in 1977, that was one time he and his cameraman really decided to "roll the dice" for a film. The Fire Within is about a volcanologist couple who risked their lives to film volcanoes like that for a living, and ended up paying the ultimate price. It is another Herzog documentary compiled from other peoples' footage in the style of "Happy People", "The Wild Blue Yonder", or "Grizzly Man", but none of the "found footage" in those films compares to the stunning beauty and artistry of the Kraffts' incredible 16mm celluloid photography, which Herzog effortlessly combines with his typical style of music choices to create some of his career-best montage work. The film is not just a mesmerizing celebration of the Kraffts' imagery, but of lives lived close to the edge – la "pura vida" – the Kraffts somehow representing the idealisation of Herzog's own filmmaking ethos. Essential.
- 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.A highly underrated Herzog film! There’s a very funny dichotomy he presents throughout the film, between the culture and customs of the native Australian Aborigines and the ‘white people’, that’s also very interesting.
- 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.On my first viewing I found this movie very strange and discomforting; I wasn't sure what to think about it. By my third viewing I found it flat-out hilarious. This movie is a gem of uncomfortable absurdist humour.
- 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.Herzog's most visually stunning film. It’s documentary footage of the Kuwait oil fires repurposed as a science fiction movie because, as Herzog says, nothing in that footage looks to have anything in common with our planet. It’s very similar in form to Fata Morgana and Into the Wild Blue Yonder, two of my least favourite Herzog films, but in this case I find the style simply sublime.
- 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.A great, very funny look at the whole Kinski/Herzog rivalry, a must-see for those who've seen their five previous collaborations.
- 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.A feature adaptation of his own documentary Little Dieter Needs to Fly, this movie's only flaw is it's showed up by his own documentary version. Still, this movie, filmed on location in the jungle, carries the same spirit as the movies he was making in the 70s.
- 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.Another truly beautiful and remarkable documentary from the same period as Grizzly Man and Encounters at the End of the World.
- 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.This documentary about superstitious rituals in Russia, Herzog confessed, he totally made up. What an audacious, absurdly funny, and underrated movie this is!
- 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.In its combination of unbelievably beautiful images and music by Popul Vuh, this short-form documentary is reminiscent of some of Herzog's best work of the 70s, and its subject is quintessential Herzog.
- 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.One of the best and most famous Herzog short films, known as being the one in which Herzog travelled to an abandoned city next to an active volcano that was expected to go off at any moment, and even scaled the volcano (dodging clouds of poisonous fumes on the way up).
- 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.Kinski in Africa. I find this film odd and kind of weak in terms of story not to mention dubbing, but it’s as visionary and epic a film as Herzog’s ever made, and full of his winning trademarks. It’s grown on me quite a bit.
- DirectorWerner HerzogStarsYuichi IshiiMahiro TanimotoMiki FujimakiA man is hired to impersonate the missing father of a young girl.My love of Herzog, and of Japanese cinema converge, and the result is something special, a film I couldn't imagine being made by any domestic Japanese filmmaker, yet which touches on a lot of really interesting and universal themes, through uniquely Japanese cultural novelties. Filmed by Herzog himself as cinematographer, with a handheld camera, guerilla-style in locations where most Japanese directors would lament the difficulty in obtaining shooting permits, and using a lot of non-actors, essentially being themselves in a fictionalized story, there's a lot that's impressive about this production, and here Herzog's blurring of the line between fiction and reality really gets to the heart of what the story is actually about. About a rental family service. And fish at a robot hotel.
- 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.What fascinates Herzog never fails to fascinate me, and that is most true of the kinds of subjects and rituals he documents in this excellent film.
- 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.A plane – which Herzog very nearly was on – crashed in the jungle in the 1970s, and eleven days after the crash, one woman emerged from the jungle as the sole survivor. Like Little Dieter Needs to Fly, this documentary retraces her journey through the jungle, and like that film it is one of Herzog's best and most beautiful documentaries.
- DirectorWerner HerzogStarsVeronica FerresMichael ShannonGael García BernalA scientist blames the head of a large company for an ecological disaster in South America. But when a volcano begins to show signs of erupting, they must unite to avoid a disaster.This is definitely one for the fans... I have no idea what I'd think of this movie if it was my introduction to Herzog, but as someone who's seen so many of his films, who's a massive admirer of Herzog and is so intimately familiar with his style and in tune with his interests and preoccupations... I kind of loved this movie. If you try to take the story at face value, yes, it's nonsense. I get what Herzog was going for, with his ridiculous fiction about expanding salt flats (remember Lessons of Darkness, or the mutant crocodiles at the end of Cave of Forgotten Dreams), but the real draw of this movie is all the little strange, beautiful, and often humourous moments along the way.