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DVD Wheel of Time
As filmmaker and cultural anthropologist, Werner Herzog brings his unique powers of observation to Buddhist rituals in Wheel of Time. The documentary's title refers to the central symbol that forms the physical and spiritual hub of an intricately detailed sand mandala that is the centerpiece of the Kalachakra initiation, a Buddhist ceremony that attracts several hundred thousand monks and pilgrims to Bodh Gaya, India (the original site of the Buddha's enlightenment) in 2002. Through well-chosen images and his own sparse but effective narration, Herzog chronicles this spiritual conclave, incorporating brief interview clips with His Holiness, the Dalai Lama, a lively debate between high-level monks at the gathering, an interview with a Tibetan political prisoner who'd spent 37 years in jail, and a visit to the sacred Mount Kailash in Tibet, where the faithful endure a high-altitude 52-kilometer trek to worship on holy ground. Having recovered from illness that prevented his full participation in the Bodh Gaya ceremony, the Dalai Lama appears at another Buddhist ceremony in Graz, Austria, where another sand mandala symbolizes the deep significance of Buddhist inner peace. Herzog's fascination with these rituals is infectious, and with a powerful soundtrack of Tibetan music and Buddhist monks' chanting, Wheel of Time achieves its own quiet quality of grace. --Jeff Shannon
Werner Herzog's first feature-length film, Signs of Life is the work of a confident 24-year old filmmaker who knew exactly what he was doing. Many of the stylistic and thematic concerns that would inform Herzog's later films are fully evident here, from his mixture of documentary-like realism and strange, dream-like passages to the bold use of location as character. Set on a remote Greek island during World War II, the slowly paced story unfolds as an injured, recuperating soldier named Stroszek (Peter Brogle) and his new wife Nora (Athina Zacharopoulou) grow accustomed to their slow and quiet life of seclusion. Herzog captures a palpable sense of boredom, but his film is anything but tedious for those who are seduced by its peculiar rhythms and exotic locale. As Stroszek (a name... More Info about this DVD Director(s): Werner Herzog DVD Release Date: Released the 05 July 2005 Usually ships in 24 hours
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It's virtually impossible to approach No Direction Home without a cluster of fixed ideas. Who doesn't have their own private Dylan? The true excellence of Martin Scorsese's achievement lies in how his documentary shakes us free of our comfortable assumptions. In the process, it plays out on several levels at once, each taking shape as an unfailingly fascinating narrative. There is, of course, the central story of an individual genius staking out his artistic identity. But along with this Bildungsroman come other threads and contexts: most notably, the role of popular culture in postwar America, art's self-reliance versus its social responsibilities, and fans' complicity with the publicity machine in sustaining myths. All of these threads reinforce each other, together... More Info about this DVD DVD Release Date: Released the 20 September 2005 Usually ships in 24 hours
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