Cheap Heart of Glass (DVD) (Werner Herzog) Price

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Customer Reviews of Heart of Glass

Young Werner's Excellent Adventure
An excellent commentary with Werner Herzog is included in this DVD, and unravels the mysteries of the film to some degree. On initial viewing the acting style appears stylised to the point of bafflement, but then Herzog explains that most of the cast were hypnotised prior to their scenes. Why do this, one might ask, and here Herzog demurs, simply offering the obscure comment that 'the story' suggested that this would be an effective idea; he also admits to knowing little about hypnotism prior to shooting, and that once the idea occurred to him then he researched the topic! For all his intellect, this is one instinctual film-maker.
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Herzog also gives some autobiographical information that is fascinating: he was raised in the Bavarian countryside, near the Austrian border, and lived in a house with no modern facilities whatsoever - it was unheated, there was no television, and not even a telephone - in fact he made his first telephone call at the age of seventeen - even today he says he has 'trouble' communicating over the phone. He saw his first movie around this age, and not long after started to make his own. He praises the circumstances of his childhood as conducive to the development of an imagination - the children had to invent their own stories and their own games. I'm not sure how 'explanatory' this is, after all he was the only one of his community to become a reknowned film-maker as far as I'm aware.
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The story is simple and timeless. A secret is lost, in this case the process by which glass is made ruby red, and grave consequences follow. Herzog would not be drawn on the question of what else this could represent, but clearly was sympathetic to it being allegorical - what was lost could also be faith, or innocence, or purpose.
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He travelled far and wide to obtain the particular landscapes featured, and he hopes these will evoke deep, archetypal, feelings in viewers. His journeys ranged to Alaska, Yellowstone Park, and Ireland, and yet he considers all these landscapes as 'Bavarian' in terms of their abstract spirit. He also, rather casually, mentions spending hours waiting for the right light to film certain scenes, and days capturing the stop-motion photography of clouds. No effort appeared too great to fulfill his vision (hardly a surprise if you've seen his South American films, 'Aguirre' and 'Fitzcarraldo').
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For mine, one element of discord is the music, by Popul Vuh - Herzog obviously has a soft spot for this but it does sound terribly dated and is incongruous with the eighteenth century setting (think very bad imitation of Mahavishnu Orchestra).
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The pacing of the film is slow, in keeping with the trance-affected acting. Unsurprisingly, the film did well in Scandanavia, while in America audiences reportedly found it difficult. Herzog himself seems intrigued by how time flows, or fails to, upon the screen. The cast features enough misshapen physiognomies to warm the cockles of Fellini or David Lynch. The lighting and cinematography are superb, as is the DVD transfer.
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Herzog considers himself primarily a story-teller. He wants to tell his stories in ways previously untried. He is an adventurer in life and on film. He is a visionary, in many senses of the term. Personally, this is not my favourite of his films, and I think the experiment with hypnotism is something of a failure dramatically, but nevertheless he has created a work of art that is unique and endlessly open to interpretation. Five stars in the context of the world of film as a whole, but if you have not seen one of his films before then I think 'Stroszek', 'The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser', or 'Aguirre, Wrath of God' are more representative of his work.

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Brilliant and Uncanny
There is only one word to describe this movie: Uncanny. The director has hypnotized the actors. They meander through the movie,lost and not quite at home, their blank stares leaving imprints on the consciousness of the viewer. Not a gimmick. Much too complex to be a gimmick. The intense visual imagery, characteristic of all herzog movies, is in this movie the most haunting and unnerving. It may not be as sound in plot, or as epic as Fitzcarraldo or Kaspar Hauser, but for people who don't need something substantial to happen every 5 seconds in a film (and so those who don't suffer from television or hollywood induced Attention Deficit Disorder)Heart of Glass no doubt will be a force of visual fury, done subtly but surely, evoking the uncanny upon each viewing.

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Still baffled, still coming down...
For once I am (almost) speechless. I just don't know how I feel about this film yet. I am a fan of Herzog, but this exists in its own universe and aside from pacing seems unlike other films of his I have seen. Bear in mind that I only saw this last night and have not viewed it with the commentary yet.

I must say that at first I found it almost laughable-- a sort of stereotypical excersize in Germanic avant-garde, cynical, impenetrable arthouse schtick. I thought it would make excellent fodder for a spoof ala Saturday Night Live's "Schprockets" skits. However, I could never once take my eyes from the screen and as it progressed I felt surrounded by the images and characters. As another reviewer said, they disliked the film at first but found later that they were haunted my scenes from the film. It is a lot like that. It is a lot like being hypnotized, which appears to have been an aim of Herzog's. Upon reflection, the only thing that really bothered me about the film is that the Popol Vuh music during some segments seemed out of place. I tend to like it when period pieces retain period music.

This is not a movie that many in America would find enjoyable, where there must be explicit sex or a shootout or car chase within the first five minutes for it to be acceptable to the popular palette. But for those oh-so-pretentious "aht" types, this is drool fuel, and for those more reasoned and critical lovers of film and admirers of Herzog, this simply must be seen. Perhaps the most enigmatic film I have ever watched. It is beyond loving it or hating it, thus the 3 stars. The film is here. It exists, and now is lodged in my subconscious forever. I don't know how to feel about that.