List Price: $89.98 Our Price: $80.98YOU SAVE $9!
Buy it
DVD Herzog/Kinski Collection
The six-film Herzog/Kinski boxed set is a sleek compilation of a visionary cinematic collaboration. The history of cinema is dotted with great directors who have found an actor whose face, voice, and style capture that director's point of view: Josef Von Sternberg and Marlene Dietrich; John Ford and John Wayne; Martin Scorsese and Robert DeNiro. In 1972, the German director Werner Herzog cast Polish actor Klaus Kinski in Aguirre, the Wrath of God--the result was perhaps the definitive film for both. Kinski had previously made almost 100 films, but his malevolent role--as a Spanish conquistador obsessed with finding gold--shot him into international stardom. Though Herzog and the volatile Kinski were at each other's throats through much of the filming, seven years later the director cast Kinski as the tortured vampire of Nosferatu, Phantom of the Night (a color remake of the silent horror classic) and the title character of Woyzeck, based on the classic expressionistic German play about a jealous, unstable soldier who murders his lover. Both films continued the Herzog-Kinski trademark of intense unflinching emotion and the palpable presence of the raw physical world.
In 1982, Fitzcarraldo carried this ethos to new heights as Kinski portrayed a man who, in order to bring grand opera to the depths of Peru, has a huge steamship hauled over a mountainside using ropes, pulleys, and human endurance. The mad ambition of the film matched that of its hero as Herzog repeatedly placed crew and actors at risk of their lives. Nonetheless, the love-hate relationship between the director and his star carried them into one last film, the uneven but still remarkable Cobra Verde, about a Brazilian bandit sent to Africa to reopen the slave trade. After Kinski's death in 1991, Herzog made a documentary, My Best Fiend, about their decades of collaboration; the result rivals their previous work as a testament to human extremity. --Bret Fetzer
It is said that all drama stems from conflict and there was certainly no shortage of it between Werner Herzog and Klaus Kinski. Their relationship reminds me of a troubled romance that is doomed to eventually fall apart, but ignites with such passion when the two are together that it's more than worth the grief. One would expect an arrangement of this nature to result in one or two films before the rift became so great between director and actor that they could no longer tolerate one another. Yet, there exists an undeniable sense of brotherhood between these cinematic legends that underlies their artistic struggle.
I can't tell you how pleased I am to have this set after all these years. Including "My Best Fiend" in this set is absolutely essential for a complete appreciation of the unique relationship Herzog and Kinski shared. As has been mentioned before regarding the documentary, there is a sense of one-sided storytelling as Herzog lays out Kinski's many flaws. And, yes, one has to wonder just which man had the larger ego after hearing some of Herzog's rather polished explanations. While it would have been nice to have Kinski there to argue his side of the story, it's still a unique and fascinating look into the creative lives of two very different sort of men.
Of the films themselves, I'm most fond of Nosferatu and Woyzeck, but Aguirre, the Wrath of God and Fitzcarraldo are truly magnificent epics. I just have to find myself in a particular mood to watch the latter, where the former always hold my attention. In my opinion, Woyzeck is the most overlooked of the Herzog/Kinski collaborations. Certainly Cobra Verde is an inferior film, but it at least has a reputation. Considering Woyzeck was finished in just 18 days with only 27 cuts, I like to think of it as a little miracle.
I've seen Kinski in other films and I've seen works by Herzog without Kinski and it's clear to me that, with a few exceptions, their best work came when they worked together. So, do yourself a favor and pick up this set, then settle in for some intense viewing. And, whatever you do, don't pass on the documentary!
worth every penny you'll spend on it!
...as aguirre & fitzcarraldo are undoubtedly two of the greatest films in cinematic history & worth having in any dvd collection & if you are thus possibly considering adding them to your dvd collection, why not then spring for a few bucks more & get the whole of these two brilliant men's collaborations? the remake of nosferatu is very nearly on the level of the murnau original & while some reviewers have the tendency to slight both woyzeck & cobra verde as wholes, kinski's performances in both are certainly spectacular, with his performance in woyzeck being very nearly (as kinski himself might have said) epochal. an excellent set that also includes herzog's documentary/memoir of his professional relationship with kinski, my best fiend, this collection should be required viewing for most of the so-called directors whose unfortunate dreck/garbage/schmaltz graces the big screen everywhere these days...
Buy this while you can!
Anchor Bay have rereleased this collection (originally released in 2002 and later withdrawn) for a limited time. If you have any interest in it, you should grab it before it goes. The folks at Anchor Bay (bless 'em) have one major fault: they let some of their most interesting titles (Ipcress File, Sleuth, Wicker Man LE) go out of print.
At least three of the Herzog-Kinski collaborations are must-have masterpieces: Aguirre, Nosferatu, and Fitzcarraldo. Since you can get the whole collection for the same price as those three films individually, you'd be silly not to. My Best Fiend comes off well as a sort of "extra" to the whole collection.
As other reviewers have said, the transfers and extras do the films justice. I have only 3 minor complaints: (1) By buying the collection, you don't get the English-language version of Nosferatu. I prefer the German version, but I'm also a completist, so it annoys me. (2) For some reason, Herzog didn't supply commentary for Woyzek. Since he did for the other four features, this is a glaring omission. (3) Why didn't Anchor Bay invest in adding Les Blank's docu Burden of Dreams (about the making of Fitzcarraldo)? It would have made a wonderful extra for this set and could have fit alongside My Best Fiend.
None of these complaints should stop you from getting this collection. Overall, this collection offers fantastic value!
Has anyone else had a problem with 'Lessons of Darkness/Fata Morgana'? I've tried two different copies of this box set and the same few minutes at the end of Fata Morgana won't play. It skips and goes back to the DVD menu.
Regardless of that, the box set is worth it. An amazing collection of films, well put together. I want to see the end of 'Fata Morgana', but the other six movies are spectacular. More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Werner Herzog DVD Release Date: Released the 03 August 2004 Usually ships in 24 hours
List Price: $89.98 Your Price: $80.98YOU SAVE $9!
Buy it
At three brief hours, La Dolce Vita, a piece of cynical, engrossing social commentary, stands as Federico Fellini's timeless masterpiece. A rich, detailed panorama of Rome's modern decadence and sophisticated immorality, the film is episodic in structure but held tightly in focus by the wandering protagonist through whom we witness the sordid action. Marcello Rubini (extraordinarily played by Marcello Mastroianni) is a tabloid reporter trapped in a shallow high-society existence. A man of paradoxical emotional juxtapositions (cool but tortured, sexy but impotent), he dreams about writing something important but remains seduced by the money and prestige that accompany his shallow position. He romanticizes finding true love but acts unfazed upon finding that his girlfriend has taken... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Marcello Mastroianni - Anita Ekberg Director(s): Federico Fellini DVD Release Date: Released the 21 September 2004 Usually ships in 24 hours
List Price: $39.98 Your Price: $31.98YOU SAVE $8!
Buy it
"There are angels over the streets of Berlin," quotes the movie poster, but these are like no angels you've ever seen. Bundled in dark overcoats, they watch over the city with ears open to the heartbeat of the human soul, listening to the internal musings and yearnings of earthbound humans like existential detectives. In these delicate, astounding scenes we float through the thoughts of dozens Berlin citizens, from the weary and worn to the hopeful and young, as the angels record the magic moments for some heavenly record. But when Damiel (the empathic and sensitive Bruno Ganz) falls in love with an angel of another sort, the lonely trapeze artist Marion (willowy, sad-eyed Solveig Dommartin), he gives up the contemplation and observation of life to experience it himself.
In his widely acclaimed attempt to fathom The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser, director Werner Herzog probes a real-life mystery that has puzzled German society for nearly two centuries. In the title role, Herzog ingeniously cast the equally mysterious street musician Bruno S., whose mesmerizing performance is unique in the history of film. Isolated since infancy in a dank cellar, the now-adult Kaspar is abandoned in 1820s Nuremburg by his unknown custodian; townsfolk futilely speculate on his origins, and he's shaped by a bourgeois villager who places rigid, conflicting restraints on his new and peculiar perspective on the world around him. It's telling that Herzog's preferred title is Every Man for Himself and God Against All, for this is an eerily effective cautionary tale about... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Bruno S. - Walter Ladengast - Brigitte Mira Director(s): Werner Herzog DVD Release Date: Released the 08 January 2002 Usually ships in 24 hours
List Price: $29.98 Your Price: $26.98YOU SAVE $3!
Buy it
