Ferocious Reality

Documentary according to Werner Herzog

Nonfiction, Art & Architecture, General Art, Art Technique, Entertainment, Performing Arts, Film
Cover of the book Ferocious Reality by Eric Ames, University of Minnesota Press
View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart
Author: Eric Ames ISBN: 9781452933634
Publisher: University of Minnesota Press Publication: October 17, 2012
Imprint: Univ Of Minnesota Press Language: English
Author: Eric Ames
ISBN: 9781452933634
Publisher: University of Minnesota Press
Publication: October 17, 2012
Imprint: Univ Of Minnesota Press
Language: English

Over the course of his career Werner Herzog, known for such visionary masterpieces as Aguirre: The Wrath of God (1972) and The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser (1974), has directed almost sixty films, roughly half of which are documentaries. And yet, in a statement delivered during a public appearance in 1999, the filmmaker declared: “There are deeper strata of truth in cinema, and there is such a thing as poetic, ecstatic truth. It is mysterious and elusive, and can be reached only through fabrication and imagination and stylization.” Ferocious Reality is the first book to ask how this conviction, so hostile to the traditional tenets of documentary, can inform the work of one of the world’s most provocative documentarians.

Herzog, whose Cave of Forgotten Dreams was perhaps the most celebrated documentary of 2010, may be the most influential filmmaker missing from major studies and histories of documentary. Examining such notable films as Lessons of Darkness (1992) and Grizzly Man (2005), Eric Ames shows how Herzog dismisses documentary as a mode of filmmaking in order to creatively intervene and participate in it. In close, contextualized analysis of more than twenty-five films spanning Herzog’s career, Ames makes a case for exploring documentary films in terms of performance and explains what it means to do so. Thus his book expands the field of cinema studies even as it offers an invaluable new perspective on a little studied but integral part of Werner Herzog’s extraordinary oeuvre.

View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart

Over the course of his career Werner Herzog, known for such visionary masterpieces as Aguirre: The Wrath of God (1972) and The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser (1974), has directed almost sixty films, roughly half of which are documentaries. And yet, in a statement delivered during a public appearance in 1999, the filmmaker declared: “There are deeper strata of truth in cinema, and there is such a thing as poetic, ecstatic truth. It is mysterious and elusive, and can be reached only through fabrication and imagination and stylization.” Ferocious Reality is the first book to ask how this conviction, so hostile to the traditional tenets of documentary, can inform the work of one of the world’s most provocative documentarians.

Herzog, whose Cave of Forgotten Dreams was perhaps the most celebrated documentary of 2010, may be the most influential filmmaker missing from major studies and histories of documentary. Examining such notable films as Lessons of Darkness (1992) and Grizzly Man (2005), Eric Ames shows how Herzog dismisses documentary as a mode of filmmaking in order to creatively intervene and participate in it. In close, contextualized analysis of more than twenty-five films spanning Herzog’s career, Ames makes a case for exploring documentary films in terms of performance and explains what it means to do so. Thus his book expands the field of cinema studies even as it offers an invaluable new perspective on a little studied but integral part of Werner Herzog’s extraordinary oeuvre.

More books from University of Minnesota Press

Cover of the book The Urban Revolution by Eric Ames
Cover of the book Police in the Hallways by Eric Ames
Cover of the book Players and Their Pets by Eric Ames
Cover of the book A House of Prayer for All People by Eric Ames
Cover of the book Tactical Media by Eric Ames
Cover of the book Chains of Babylon by Eric Ames
Cover of the book Scenarios II by Eric Ames
Cover of the book Post-History by Eric Ames
Cover of the book Stomping the Blues by Eric Ames
Cover of the book The Age of Lovecraft by Eric Ames
Cover of the book Elements of a Philosophy of Technology by Eric Ames
Cover of the book Dialogues on the Human Ape by Eric Ames
Cover of the book The Anime Machine by Eric Ames
Cover of the book Artist Animal by Eric Ames
Cover of the book Dead Labor by Eric Ames
We use our own "cookies" and third party cookies to improve services and to see statistical information. By using this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy