Floodlights and Goalposts

An online commonplace book

My job as a filmmaker

is to look into the deepest recesses of the soul. When it comes to such things, I have acquired the required vision thanks to certain essential experiences. What is it like to be imprisoned? To go hungry? To raise children? To be stranded alone in the desert? To face genuine danger? To walk a thousand miles? To handle a Kalashnikov? To keep a group of youngsters entertained? To be astounded by poetry? Much of what we do as filmmakers is inexplicable, but the groundwork is done without a camera and the barrier it creates. Give me the name of the film school that teaches such things.

– Werner Herzog

Acquiring the “vision” takes living. Absorb your experiences.

Live life!

Cronin, Paul. Werner Herzog – A Guide for the Perplexed. London: Faber & Faber, 2020. pp241


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