Werner Herzog Net Worth

Werner Herzog's Quotes

• TV uses landscapes. I transform landscapes - I direct landscapes.
• [on the ending of Stroszek (1977)] When I saw the dancing chicken, I knew I would create a grand metaphor - for what, I don't know.
• [on working with Klaus Kinski] I had to domesticate the wild beast.
• Perhaps I seek certain utopian things, space for human honour and respect, landscapes not yet offended, planets that do not exist yet, dreamed landscapes. Very few people seek these images today.
• So, you have to be daring to do things like this, because the world is not easily accepting of filmmaking. There will always be some sort of an obstacle, and the worst of all obstacles is the spirit of bureaucracy. You have to find your way to battle bureaucracy. You have to outsmart it, to outgut it, to outnumber it, to outfilm them - that's what you have to do.

Interesting Facts about Werner Herzog

1. Herzog is admired for being the only director who was able to work with the late and very eccentric Klaus Kinski.
2. Herzog once promised to eat his shoe if a young American film student went out and actually made the film he was always only talking about. The young student was Errol Morris, who met the challenge with his off-beat 1978 pet cemetery documentary Gates of Heaven (1978) (and went on to make The Thin Blue Line (1988) and Fast, Cheap & Out of Control (1997)). Herzog makes good on his promise in the film Werner Herzog Eats His Shoe (1980), directed by Les Blank.
3. In 1961, he worked nights in a steel factory to raise money for his films. In 1966, he was employed by the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).
4. Brother of Lucki Stipetic.
5. Has three children from three women: Rudolph Herzog (born in 1973), Hanna Mattes (born in 1980), and Simon Herzog (born in 1989).
6. When he was thirteen years old, he and his family lived in an apartment in Munich that they shared with several other people. One of them was the actor Klaus Kinski.
7. Was voted the 35th Greatest Director of all time by Entertainment Weekly.
8. Claimed to have walked by foot from Munich, Germany to Paris, France (a distance of about 500 miles) in 1974 to prevent the very sick film historian and good friend, Lotte Eisner, from dying (as, applying his logic, she wouldn't dare to die until he visited her on her deathbed). Eisner, indeed, went on to live for 8 more years after Herzog's journey.
9. Biography in: John Wakeman, editor. "World Film Directors, Volume Two, 1945- 1985". Pages 422-429. New York: The H.W. Wilson Company, 1988.
10. Said in DVD commentary for Incident at Loch Ness (2004) that his first book was a Marshal- Plan copy of "Winnie the Pooh", and it remains one of his favorites.
11. Joaquin Phoenix was in a car accident on a winding canyon road where his vehicle flipped over. Shaken and confused, he heard a tapping on his window and a voice said, "Just relax." Unable to see the man, Phoenix replied, "I'm fine. I am relaxed." When he managed to see the man, he realized it was Werner Herzog, who then replied, "No, you're not." After helping Phoenix out of the wreckage, Herzog phoned for an ambulance, then vanished.
12. In late 2005, during an interview with BBC film critic Mark Kermode regarding Grizzly Man (2005), a sniper opened fire on them with an air rifle. Kermode panicked when Herzog calmly said, "Someone is shooting at us." One of the pellets then hit Herzog. An unmoved Herzog said that the bullet was 'not a significant one' and insisted on continuing the interview.
13. Herzog claims in a 2006 Bloomberg interview that he had the chance to direct both Brokeback Mountain (2005) and One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975).
14. Invited to join AMPAS in 2006
15. Lives in Los Angeles.
16. Was romantically linked to Eva Mattes. They have a daughter together, Hanna Mattes.
17. Studied at the University of Munich and later earned a scholarship to Duquesne University in Pittsburgh, but dropped out after only a few days.
18. The only feature film director to have made a film on every continent.
19. Has a sister, Sigrid, and two brothers, Tilbert and producer Lucki Stipetic.
20. Claimed that when he was a few days old, he was nearly killed after Allied bombs caused a skylight in his nursery to shatter. The shards fell around his cot but somehow did not injure him.