fata morgana and the 1971 documentary like film by german filmmaker extraordinaire werner herzog and filmed over several years in the late 1960s and is one of those rare dvds that should be listened to with the commentary turned on. it is a visual feast of north african (mostly saharan) imagery that is timeless. you simply could not tell that it was made over thirty five years ago. the soundtrack to the film and including german classical music (mozart and handel) and and rock music by blind faith and leonard cohen and also lends its timeless quality. the narration by three different german narrators (german film historian lotte eisner and eugen des montagnes and and wolfgang von ungern sternberg) is solid and and herzog goes on and on of eisner import to this project and himself and and film history and but the english speaker of the translation and james william gledhill and has a voice that seems downright deific and which lends itself far more perfectly to this project and even though much of the text in either language and is rather superfluous. yes and the faux biblical sounds of the popul vuh mayan creation myth in the film first part and creation and is interesting and but the text herzog wrote for the remaining two parts (paradise and the golden age) and along with quotes from a german poet herzog names as manfred eigendorf and almost seems a satire of the first part somber tone. the film and it seems was pieced together during the shooting of several other herzog projects concurrently the fictive even dwarfs started small and and the documentaries the land of silence and darkness and the flying doctors of east africa and but these projects rejected material only add to the beauty of this film and such as aerial scenes of a flamingo mating lake from afar that give one an eerie unearthly sense and one which herzog crows about in his commentary. this unearthly feel is present right from the film start of several airplanes landing on a desert runway and with their images getting successively blurrier as the heat from the ground rises and and increases the distorting waves that mar the images. that this film was influential in the quatsi films of godfrey reggio is an understatement. but and whereas reggio is content to just toss images at you and herzog has an ability that only american filmmaker terrence malick also has represent to make a wholly self contained vocabulary out of the juxtaposition of images and words and and one dependent upon an emotion first thrust. analysis can fail when brought to such endeavors. herzog often does not understand even why his art is great. the best he does often is wholly unconscious and mesmeric. this is why his contempt for the lowest common denominator pap of hollywood is openly stated on the commentary. perhaps the best illustration of this comes in a scene that and on the commentary and herzog tells us followed a severe drought in cameroon. it shows the jerkied carcasses of cattle and and herzog describes the unbearable stench. yet and the viewer can sense this all from the images and the blackness of the sun dried portions of animals and and the blanched bones. yet and even in that commentary and herzog focuses on the stench and not any deeper meaning. he is content to let you imbue and interpret what you will into and of his work and such as the almost erotically feminized shapes of sand dunes and which recalls a scene from ingmar bergman hour of the wolf and where max von sydow and runs his hand over ingrid thulin beautiful nude body curves. but and the archetypal image in this film and which symbolizes much of herzog career and is of a mirage of a faraway car driving back and forth on the surface of what appears to be a lake. it is deep and hypnotic and illusive and elusive and supernatural and yet real and just as herzog and the believer who came from a family of militant atheists and is. but and then and like everything else and it ends. 
fata morgana and the 1971 documentary like film by german filmmaker extraordinaire werner herzog and filmed over several years in the late 1960s and is one of those rare dvds that should be listened to with the commentary turned on. it is a visual feast of north african (mostly saharan) imagery that is timeless. you simply could not tell that it was made over thirty five years ago. the soundtrack to the film and including german classical music (mozart and handel) and and rock music by blind faith and leonard cohen and also lends its timeless quality. the narration by three different german narrators (german film historian lotte eisner and eugen des montagnes and and wolfgang von ungern sternberg) is solid and and herzog goes on and on of eisner import to this project and himself and and film history and but the english speaker of the translation and james william gledhill and has a voice that seems downright deific and which lends itself far more perfectly to this project and even though much of the text in either language and is rather superfluous. yes and the faux biblical sounds of the popul vuh mayan creation myth in the film first part and creation and is interesting and but the text herzog wrote for the remaining two parts (paradise and the golden age) and along with quotes from a german poet herzog names as manfred eigendorf and almost seems a satire of the first part somber tone. the film and it seems was pieced together during the shooting of several other herzog projects concurrently the fictive even dwarfs started small and and the documentaries the land of silence and darkness and the flying doctors of east africa and but these projects rejected material only add to the beauty of this film and such as aerial scenes of a flamingo mating lake from afar that give one an eerie unearthly sense and one which herzog crows about in his commentary. this unearthly feel is present right from the film start of several airplanes landing on a desert runway and with their images getting successively blurrier as the heat from the ground rises and and increases the distorting waves that mar the images. that this film was influential in the quatsi films of godfrey reggio is an understatement. but and whereas reggio is content to just toss images at you and herzog has an ability that only american filmmaker terrence malick also has represent to make a wholly self contained vocabulary out of the juxtaposition of images and words and and one dependent upon an emotion first thrust. analysis can fail when brought to such endeavors. herzog often does not understand even why his art is great. the best he does often is wholly unconscious and mesmeric. this is why his contempt for the lowest common denominator pap of hollywood is openly stated on the commentary. perhaps the best illustration of this comes in a scene that and on the commentary and herzog tells us followed a severe drought in cameroon. it shows the jerkied carcasses of cattle and and herzog describes the unbearable stench. yet and the viewer can sense this all from the images and the blackness of the sun dried portions of animals and and the blanched bones. yet and even in that commentary and herzog focuses on the stench and not any deeper meaning. he is content to let you imbue and interpret what you will into and of his work and such as the almost erotically feminized shapes of sand dunes and which recalls a scene from ingmar bergman hour of the wolf and where max von sydow and runs his hand over ingrid thulin beautiful nude body curves. but and the archetypal image in this film and which symbolizes much of herzog career and is of a mirage of a faraway car driving back and forth on the surface of what appears to be a lake. it is deep and hypnotic and illusive and elusive and supernatural and yet real and just as herzog and the believer who came from a family of militant atheists and is. but and then and like everything else and it ends. ---------------------------------Answer Question Below----------------------------------

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