Werner Herzog: Filming the Abyss

Werner Herzog: Filming the Abyss

23 Mar 2011

This sold-out talk took place at Cadogan Hall on 23rd March 2011. Audio and video will be available soon.

For now you can explore our Werner Herzog micro-site, which is packed full of videos, articles, interviews, and profiles, all about Werner Herzog, and all free.

Event info:

From the prehistoric caves of Chauvet, France, to death row, Texas

Editing the third dimension

The creation of music for Cave of Forgotten Dreams

Why must filmmakers know how to trespass, pick locks, and forge documents?

Silence and loneliness in prehistoric caves: on hearing your heartbeat for the first time

Life, dreams and confessions on death row. Filming the last act in Texas

Venuses before Baywatch

Questions about the Pope and Twitter

Why do we need to declare holy war against yoga classes?

These are some of the questions and obsessions legendary film director Werner Herzog will be discussing with Paul Holdengräber, Director of LIVE from the New York Public Library, as they return by popular demand to the Intelligence² stage on March 23 for part 2 of the triumphant two-hour conversation they held at the Royal Festival Hall in October 2009 - assisted by copious images and film clips curated by Herzog himself.

Be the first to see clips from Cave of Forgotten Dreams, Herzog's about-to-be-released documentary, filmed in 3D inside the paleolithic caves of Chauvet in France where no man had set foot for 32,000 years. Just as Lascaux left Picasso in awe, the paintings at Chauvet are breathtaking in their artistry.

Be ready for a wild night of digressions and passions. Find out why Herzog is ready to immediately declare a HOLY WAR against yoga classes. Hear why Herzog wonders if the Pope uses Facebook and Twitter. According to Herzog, the Pope's opinions on social media are profound, intriguing and necessary. Herzog agrees with DeLillo: "If serious reading dwindles to near nothingness, it will probably mean that the thing we're talking about when we use the word 'identity' has reached an end." Find out why and what we can expect once we have reached the end.

Prepare to encounter Herzog's friends and sometime foes, Bruce Chatwin, Mick Jagger, Klaus Kinski and Jean-Luc Godard. Some of the fifty or more films Herzog has directed will be discussed, including his current project filming on death row in Texas. The night will be saturated with life and ideas, movies and enthusiasms, proving once again and for eternity that Herzog is right to believe that art and culture are nothing less than the "collective agitation of the mind".

Here's the trailer for Cave of Forgotten Dreams.

And here's an interview with Paul Holdengräber in the Times about bringing his New York interviewing technique to London.

Speaker

Werner Herzog

Academy Award nominated film and opera director, screenwriter and author

Chair

Paul Holdengräber

Director of LIVE from the New York Public Library where he has interviewed and hosted President Clinton, Norman Mailer, Spike Lee and Jay-Z