It may be strange to conclude that this film by Werner Herzog is an outsider in his imposing oeuvre, because is not every Herzog film unique? But Herz aus Glas (1976) is really very special – Herzog himself has stated that he also doesn’t exactly know how to describe this work, which is filled with sombre images borrowed from German Romanticism. He shot his variation on the genre of the German Heimatfilm on location in Bavaria, a few miles from his birthplace. The story concerns a village community where the chief glass-blower dies at the end of the nineteenth century and takes a secret to the grave: how to make ruby-red glass. The clairvoyant Hias has to find out the secret. When this seer announces the Apocalypse, the inhabitants panic. Herzog hypnotised most of his actors – with the exception of Josef Bierbichler (Hias) – before he shot their scenes.
Film details
- Country of production
- West Germany
- Year
- 1976
- Festival edition
- IFFR 2011
- Length
- 94'
- Medium/Format
- 35mm
