THE FILM SOCIETY OF LINCOLN CENTER JOURNEYS WITH WERNER HERZOG: PARABLES OF FOLLY AND MADNESS FOR A WEEK IN AUGUST

NEW YORK, NY (July 12, 2013) – The Film Society of Lincoln Center will journey with Werner Herzog (and Klaus Kinski) through the amazing first phase of the great German maverick’s career in Werner Herzog: Parables of Folly and Madness, August 16-22. A fearless maestro of impossible feats, anarchic follies and bleak visions, Herzog has dazzled the film world with his idiosyncratic and absurd take on the human condition. The weeklong series will showcase eight films not to be missed—in 35mm!

When asked to remark on the series Werner Herzog commented via email, “Looking at old production stills, I am astonished how young I was when I made these films. Even more astonishing for me is the notion that the films have not aged a bit.”

Film Comment Magazine Editor-in-Chief Gavin Smith added, “This collection of films were what put Werner Herzog on the map internationally, establishing him as the New German Cinema’s so-called Mad Visionary, the filmmaker who went to the furtherest extremes to depict a truly unique and idiosyncratic vision of the human condition at the limits of experience and on the edges of civilization at the brink of anarchy. Anchored by his celebrated pairings with Klaus Kinski and Bruno S., the series reminds us why Herzog is one of world cinema’s most daring and uncompromising and yet deeply eccentric film artists.”

The weeklong series will showcase eight films from the 1960’s and 1970’s including Klaus Kinski’s first collaboration with Herzog on Aguirre, The Wrath of God and then again when they reunited for Fitzcarraldo, in which Kinski plays an opera aficionado intent on building an opera house in the Peruvian jungle. Signs of Life, Herzog’s feature debut will also be presented as well as two films in which he collaborated with outsider musical artist Bruno S., The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser (Every Man for Himself and God Against All) and Stroszek, Herzog’s indelible vision of American despair in which an accordion player is released from prison and sets up house with a prostitute before emigrating to America.

Tickets for Werner Herzog: Parables of Folly and Madness are now on sale. Single screening tickets are $13; $9 for students and seniors (62+); and $8 for Film Society members. A three-film package is $30; $24 for students and seniors (62+); and $21 for Film Society members. Discount prices apply with the purchase of tickets to three films or more. Visit www.FilmLinc.com for complete film festival information.

FILMS, SCHEDULES & DESCRIPTIONS

AGUIRRE, THE WRATH OF GOD
Werner Herzog, West Germany, 1972, 35mm; 93m
Klaus Kinski in the house! In his first collaboration with Herzog, he’s a Spanish conquistador leading a doomed, increasingly surreal Amazon expedition in search of gold but finding only death and… madness.
August 16 at 6:30pm
August 18 at 1:30pm

THE ENIGMA OF KASPAR HAUSER (EVERY MAN FOR HIMSELF AND GOD AGAINST ALL)
Werner Herzog, West Germany, 1974, 35mm; 110m
Released in 1828 after having been kept in captivity since infancy, Kaspar (unforgettably played by Bruno S.), learns to speak and struggles to adapt to society’s conventions and logic. A truly weird portrait of a stranger in a strange land.
August 16 at 8:45pm
August 18 at 3:45pm

EVEN DWARFS STARTED SMALL
Werner Herzog, West Germany, 1970, 35mm; 96m
The lunatics take over the asylum and anarchy reigns in this deranged parody of human society, performed by a cast consisting entirely of dwarfs. Watch out for the crucified monkey!
August 17 at 4:15pm
August 20 at 8:30pm
August 21 at 6:30pm

FITZCARRALDO
Werner Herzog, West Germany, 1982, 35mm; 158m
Herzog’s most legendary feat of filmmaking folly: Kinski is an opera aficionado intent on building an opera house in the Peruvian jungle. To get there, he enlists a tribe of Indians with their own agenda to haul his riverboat by hand over a mountain. To fulfill his vision, Herzog does likewise.
August 18 at 8:00pm
August 22 at 8:30pm

HEART OF GLASS
Werner Herzog, West Germany, 1976, 35mm; 94m
Herzog placed his entire cast in a hypnotic trance state for this fable of a herdsman’s visions of the future and a village going insane after its glass factory loses the formula for its fabulous, much-prized ruby glass.
August 17 at 6:30pm
August 21 at 9:00pm

SIGNS OF LIFE
Werner Herzog, West Germany, 1968, 35mm; 91m
Herzog’s feature debut about three bored German soldiers guarding an isolated outpost in occupied Greece contains two of the director’s key motifs: landscape and… madness.
August 17 at 2:00pm
August 20 at 6:30pm

STROSZEK
Werner Herzog, West Germany, 1977, 35mm; 115m
Outsider musical artist Bruno S. reteams with Herzog for this indelible vision of American despair: released from prison, an accordion player sets up house with a prostitute. When the going gets tough, they emigrate and wind up in a Wisconsin wasteland of modern entropy.
August 17 at 8:45pm
August 21 at 6:30pm

WOYZECK
Werner Herzog, West Germany, 1978, 35mm; 82m
Kinski plays another of Herzog’s pathetically absurd heroes: a continually persecuted soldier haunted by voices prophesying doom who desperately struggles to support a wife who cuckolded him. When the truth comes out, he buys a knife…
August 18 at 6:00pm
August 22 at 6:30pm

FILM SOCIETY OF LINCOLN CENTER
Founded in 1969 to celebrate American and international cinema, the Film Society of Lincoln Center works to recognize and support new directors, and to enhance the awareness, accessibility and understanding of film. Among its yearly programming of film festivals, film series and special events, the Film Society presents two film festivals in particular that annually attract global attention: the New York Film Festival, which will soon present its 51st edition, and New Directors/New Films which, since its founding in 1972, has been produced in collaboration with MoMA. The Film Society also publishes the award-winning Film Comment Magazine, and for over three decades has given an annual award—now named “The Chaplin Award”—to a major figure in world cinema. Past recipients of this award include Charlie Chaplin, Alfred Hitchcock, Martin Scorsese, Meryl Streep, Tom Hanks, Sidney Poitier, and most recently – Barbra Streisand. FSLC presents its year-round calendar of programming, panels, lectures, educational and transmedia programs and specialty film releases at the famous Walter Reade Theater and the state-of-the-art Elinor Bunin Munroe Film Center.

The Film Society receives generous, year-round support from Royal Bank of Canada, Jaeger-LeCoultre, American Airlines, The New York Times, Stonehenge Partners, Stella Artois, the Kobal Collection, the National Endowment for the Arts and New York State Council on the Arts. For more information, visit www.filmlinc.com and follow #filmlinc on Twitter.

For Media specific inquiries, please contact:
John Wildman, (212) 875-5419
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David Ninh, (212) 875-5423
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