Werner Herzog on Skateboarding
April 13, 2021 1:52 PM   Subscribe

Jenkem: On behalf of us skaters, we consider you a skateboarder.
Herzog: I accept
posted by Uncle (28 comments total) 67 users marked this as a favorite
 
"Well my first thought is Russian Orthodox church choirs..."
posted by East Manitoba Regional Junior Kabaddi Champion '94 at 2:12 PM on April 13, 2021 [19 favorites]


This is so much fun, thank you Uncle!
posted by Bella Donna at 2:13 PM on April 13, 2021 [2 favorites]


Church choirs. Yes. It works. Sometimes it pays to ask someone totally outside your realm concerning your realm. And he appears to understand and respect the skaters. Good for them.
posted by njohnson23 at 3:04 PM on April 13, 2021 [6 favorites]


I never expected Herzog to become the oddly... wholesome...? and relatively approachable character he appears to have become in the last few years (but maybe I just hadn't been paying attention all along).
posted by treepour at 3:08 PM on April 13, 2021 [7 favorites]


Sometimes it pays to ask someone totally outside your realm concerning your realm.

And if that person happens to be Ultimate Bleak Renaissance Man Werner Herzog that's a bonus
posted by East Manitoba Regional Junior Kabaddi Champion '94 at 3:17 PM on April 13, 2021 [11 favorites]


That was a fun little vid, thanks!
posted by turbid dahlia at 3:26 PM on April 13, 2021


Delightful!

And yes, the Russian Orthodox Choir Music as background definitely does lend a sense of sacred space to the endeavor!
posted by darkstar at 3:43 PM on April 13, 2021 [2 favorites]


I never expected Herzog to become the oddly... wholesome...? and relatively approachable character he appears to have become in the last few years (but maybe I just hadn't been paying attention all along)

Intense empathy is apparent in his work and in his life from the beginning, but it does seem as though there has been a change in him, doesn't it? Early Herzog seems to me to have been absolutely ruthless in pursuit of his vision, particularly in the way he treated cast and crew. Contrast Grizzly Man, where he had in his possession a horrid recording of the sounds of a bear attack which he refused to put on screen. There's a mercy and a gentleness to him now which he seems to have grown into.
posted by justsomebodythatyouusedtoknow at 3:45 PM on April 13, 2021 [24 favorites]


That was good. So, so good.

I loved that he saw and spoke of skaters on a quest through failure to a victory that may be seen only to themselves and a few friends.

Watching randos at the skatepark genuinely celebrate when my 11-year-old son nailed a trick after a long summer dusk of failures...I loved that so much.

I think he surprised the interviewer with his answer about the skater in the museum, as well as his thoughts on cameras.

Also, Herzog saying "I know that David Blaine shouldn't be trusted in this kind of quest"? That is the most Herzog.
posted by Caxton1476 at 4:13 PM on April 13, 2021 [13 favorites]


Werner Herzong [paraphrased]: "David Blaine is a fucking poseur sell-out."
posted by kaibutsu at 4:24 PM on April 13, 2021 [8 favorites]


Is there a German word for "unreasonably likeable fellow"?
posted by Room 101 at 4:38 PM on April 13, 2021 [3 favorites]


I wish he spent more time with my kids.
posted by Mr. Yuck at 4:54 PM on April 13, 2021 [2 favorites]


This was really fun and I was impressed with the interviewer's questions. I thought if I had the opportunity to interview Werner Herzog about my special skill/field would I come up with questions as great as these, and I am not sure I'd be the right one for the job. (New nightmare scenario: You're about to get on a call with Werner Herzog about the thing you care most about in the world and you have not prepared)
posted by bleep at 5:07 PM on April 13, 2021 [13 favorites]


"It's good that you don't accept failure and you don't give up, and finally you land the right jump and you keep sliding and screeching down a handrail."

- Werner Herzog, 2021
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 5:10 PM on April 13, 2021 [19 favorites]


Well, as allegories of life go, that quote isn't the worst I've seen.
posted by darkstar at 5:27 PM on April 13, 2021 [2 favorites]


I want it on a t-shirt!
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 5:29 PM on April 13, 2021 [1 favorite]


Evocative of this, perhaps the greatest Metafilter comment of all time.

"Please light us on fire now, so we have the poetry."
posted by ryanshepard at 6:05 PM on April 13, 2021 [28 favorites]


That was such a lovely exchange. Both the questions and the answers were thoughtful and unexpected.
posted by umbú at 6:19 PM on April 13, 2021 [2 favorites]


Yes this was lovely! Thank you for sharing it here. I do love listening to and watching people who are enthusiastic, who care deeply and can articulate that.
posted by Zumbador at 9:48 PM on April 13, 2021 [2 favorites]


Is there a German word for "unreasonably likeable fellow"?

Technically not German, but: “Mensch”.
posted by progosk at 11:24 PM on April 13, 2021 [5 favorites]


Seeing this, you may be moved to go back and rewatch Werner Herzog in The Boondocks, interviewing the Freeman family on Obama being elected: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=90OrQIpF60o

("It's a Black President, Huey Freeman" from the 3rd season)
posted by johnabbe at 12:03 AM on April 14, 2021 [6 favorites]


What a lovely, sweet man.
posted by james33 at 3:39 AM on April 14, 2021


Isn't this the same guy who put out the contract on that sweet little green baby? Because fuck that guy.
posted by seanmpuckett at 5:11 AM on April 14, 2021 [8 favorites]


When I see a Werner Herzog interview I always think of this: Werner Herzog's Yelp Review for Trader Joe's on Hyperion.
posted by Pendragon at 10:10 AM on April 14, 2021 [3 favorites]


With that, embarrassed, I told Herzog how much I admired him, and how thankful I was that he had agreed to see me. Herzog seemed neither surprised nor pleased by my effulgence. Instead he looked at me for a disarmingly long time--so long, in fact, I began to feel like a character in a Werner Herzog film. Finally, he said: "There is a dormant brother inside of you, and I awaken him, I make him speak, and you are not alone anymore." We shook hands and he was gone. I walked outside, through a curtain of Los Angeles sunshine, to the street's edge, where I stood for a long time, ecstatic and not quite alone. -Tom Bissell (2006), The Secret Mainstream, Harper's Magazine
posted by belarius at 12:47 PM on April 14, 2021 [9 favorites]


What I love about it that he accepts something which cannot really be granted. He is willing imbue a silly interaction with a solemn ritual significance. I feel like life can only be magnificent when you treat things like this.
posted by srboisvert at 5:48 PM on April 14, 2021 [6 favorites]


That Harper's essay on Herzog is amazing and contains one perfect anecdote after another. This will live in my imagination, forever:
Kinski, who died in 1991, wrote in his autobiography that "I absolutely despise this murderous Herzog.... Huge red ants should piss into his lying eyes, gobble up his balls, penetrate his asshole, and Heat his guts!"
posted by Caxton1476 at 8:35 AM on April 15, 2021 [4 favorites]


If anyone cares, the piano music is Chopin's Andante Spianato.
posted by Billy Rubin at 8:22 PM on April 15, 2021 [1 favorite]


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