_{Jaap Guldemond}

As EYE Filmmuseum underlines in its publicity for the upcoming exhibition on the works of German auteur Werner Herzog, “he seeks out those places on our planet that seem most other-worldly. From the rim of an active volcano to the world beneath the polar ice; from the jungle to burning oil fields; from the Sahara to death row.” But Herzog also journeys deep into the human psyche in search of fundamental answers, more so than most other 20th and 21st Century filmmakers. “He asks questions about existence, about death, about the relationship between Man and Nature,” says Eye’s Director of Exhibitions Jaap Guldemond. “On a meta level, Herzog wants to answer the question, ‘what is life on Earth?’”

The Herzog exhibition, running June 18 to October 1 and housed within the space age EYE building across the water from Amsterdam Central, is vast and constructed around a selection of key scenes from Herzog’s fantastic oeuvre, with iconic images from such films as Nosferatu: Phantom der Nacht (1979), Fitzcarraldo (1982), Little Dieter Needs to Fly (1997) and Grizzly Man (2004). Originally conceived and organised in co-operation with Deutsche Kinemathek, Berlin, which manages the Herzog Archive, the exhibition also includes cinematic ephemera in the form of myriad documents and props.

Additionally, EYE will screen a programme of 28 films by Herzog, and two films about him (Burden of Dreams by Les Blank, 1982, and Radical Dreamer by Thomas von Steinaecker, 2022). What’s more, four films will be released and screened nationwide by EYE. These are Aguirre, Wrath of God (1972), Kaspar Hauser (1974), Fitzcarraldo (1982) and Radical Dreamer by Thomas von Steinaecker.

EYE’s Guldemond has been an avowed fan of Herzog since the late 1970s, a decade when makers at the vanguard of the Neuer Deutscher Film movement, such as Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Wim Wenders and Herzog himself, were going toe to toe with fellow European auteurs (Tarkovsky, Ackermann, Bertolucci, Loach et al) and US counterparts like Coppola, Cimino and Spielberg. “I saw so many of Herzog’s films at this time, and they were very challenging,” says Guldemond.

For the EYE Director of Exhibitions it is the works and their qualities - not the figure of Herzog himself - which are the focus of the exhibition, as well as the distinct themes that emerge from the German filmmaker’s oeuvre. “Themes such as the creation myth or the Apocalypse, or this very short episode that Mankind will experience here on Earth. These kind of meta narratives are most interesting to me. I selected the films from this point of view,” says Guldemond.

A peculiar connection between Herzog and The Netherlands is his 1979 masterpiece Nosferatu, much of which was shot in Delft. Anyone who knows the work will remember the plague of rats that were notoriously let loose onto the cobbled streets of the city. “I remember when it was filmed that was in all the newspapers, and the townspeople of course were getting very nervous about thousands of rats being released in the middle of the old historical centre,” recalls Guldemond. “So it was a sort of funny story. I actually have no idea how he dealt with it all, if he just let them go, or if they were tame.”

Inevitably, the late Klaus Kinski will feature prominently in the exhibition (although Guldemond once again stresses that it is about the works, not the personalities). Nevertheless the two men are inextricably linked, with the irrepressible Kinski dominating just about every scene in Nosferatu: Phantom der Nacht, Fitzcarraldo and Aguirre, Wrath of God. Another of the films featured in the retrospective is Herzog’s 1999 documentary about his relationship with Kinski, Mein liebster Feind (My Best Fiend).

Guldemond underlines how the exhibition exemplifies how the German master, both a supreme stylist and a visionary, is seeking an idealized form of truth using means that are, in equal part, poetic, philosophical and highly cinematic. As the filmmaker himself said: “I’m modifying facts [to] such a degree that they resemble truth more than reality.”

“The title of the exhibition is The Ecstatic Truth (a phrase coined by Herzog himself),” Guldemond reminds. “He is always trying to find something that is beyond what you normally see, that is beyond what people normally think. He is always trying to find something beyond what is feasible or beyond what people know or what people can imagine even. That is, for me, the main interest, and  that's what I try to translate into the exhibition that I've been making.”

For a full overview on everything from the Netherlands at Cannes, click here.
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