View image David Bordwell (who needs no introduction to readers of Scanners), Michael Barker of Sony Pictures Classics, and Werner Herzog discuss Herzog's "Stroszek."
"Stupidity is the devil. Look in the eye of a chicken and you'll know. It's the most horrifying, cannibalistic, and nightmarish creature in this world."
-- Werner Herzog
I could listen to Werner Herzog talk all night. And I have. (See this transcript from Ebertfest 2005, for example.) Watching the marvelous "Stroszek" (I think of it as Herzog's Fassbinder movie), with Werner, as everyone calls him, seated in the audience two rows behind me, the famous dancing chicken at the end reminded of the quote above. ("Stroszek" has one of the great final lines in movies: "We have a 10-80 out here, a truck on fire, we have a man on the lift. We are unable to find the switch to turn the lift off and we can't stop the dancing chicken. Send an electrician. We're standing by..." Those of us who are not waiting for Godot are indeed waiting for the electrician, or someone like him...)
View image The vibe you get from this picture perfectly captures what Ebertfest feels like. Here, David Bordwell shows off his midnight-hour chocolate-banana shake at the Steak 'n Shake (yes, there's only one apostrophe in that). Somehow, when he began drinking it, he got the banana and the chocolate to stay separate on either side of the plastic straw, too. These are the things that make life worth living. (You see, the chocolate represents the movies and the banana represents the people and Roger is the glass and Chaz is the whipped cream and cherry on top and...)
Later I asked Herzog if he had changed his mind about chickens, dancing or otherwise. "I only like eating them," he said. In response, I naturally quoted a great exchange from "Chinatown":
Noah Cross (John Huston), peering at a fish on J.J. Gittes's plate: I hope you don't mind. I believe they should be served with the head.J..J. Gittes (Jack Nicholson): As long as you don't serve the chicken that way.
View image Writer Anna Thomas ("El Norte") interviews Prof. Samba Gadjigo (director of "The Making of Moolade"), actress Fatoumata Coulibaly, and actress/activist Marcia McBroom-Small ("Beyond the Valley of the Dolls") for "Moolade."
I also asked Herzog if he'd seen Michael Winterbottom's fantastic bio-comedy about the Manchester music scene, "24 Hour Party People" (perhaps second only to "The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada" among my favorite films of the new millennium -- and the one I've enjoyed re-watching the most), in which the lead singer of Joy Division commits suicide with the last scene of "Stroszek" playing on television in the background. Herzog said he'd heard about it, but hadn't seen the movie. Well, he has something to look forward to.
View image Filmmaker Eric Byler ("charlotte sometimes") and actor Scott Wilson ("Come Early Morning") -- both Eberfest vets.
If you'd like to listen to part of the discussion between Herzog, David Bordwell and Michael Barker (a low-fi MP3 recording made on my Treo 680 -- have I mentioned how much I love my Treo 680, the life-changing "TiVo" of handheld gadgets?), click here.
It was remarkable to see how the Angry Young Herzog I remember from the '70s and '80s (in Seattle and especially Telluride) has evolved into such a congenial elder statesman. As his friend Paul Cox (who cast Herzog to play the father in "Man of Flowers," a film he described as being about "male loneliness") lamented technology (Cox is irrationally terrified of computers and cell phones), and proclaimed the imminent end of mankind's time on Earth, Herzog was more genial and philosophical. Yes, he said, it may be our turn to become extinct, like many species before us, but that's no reason to be "gloomy" in the time we have left: "Let's keep making films and treasuring friendships and drinking beers."
(When Cox, who spoke of women almost as if they were another species -- claiming they were "closer to the soil" in a way that made them sound almost bovine -- said that he couldn't think of any films about "female loneliness," Kristin Thompson came up with three masterpieces off the top of her head: Krzysztof Kieslowski's "Three Colors: Blue," Chantal Akerman's "Jeanne Dielman," and Carl Theodor Dreyer's "Gertrud.")
OK, now a few more pictures from Ebertfest 2007, after the jump...
View image Moderator and festival blogger Lisa Rosman joins Eric Byler, Joey Lauren Adams and Scott Wilson to talk about Adams' directorial debut, "Come Early Morning."
P.S. As for the dancing chicken, Herzog told the audience he doesn't know what it means, but that's not the point. You have to decide what it means to you, in the context of the film.
View image Michael Barker of Sony Pictures Classics delivers a rousing introduction for one of Roger Ebert's favorite films, Federico Fellini's "La Dolce Vita."
View image Kim Voynar of Cinematical visits Roger in his comfy recliner at the back of the Virginia Theater.
View image Even dwarves started small: David Bordwell, Michael Barker and Werner Herzog are dwarfed by the mammoth curtain and cavernous (but warm and inviting) interior of the Virgina Theater.
Great post and pics, Jim. What program are you using to record with the Treo?
The P.S. reminds me of what Robert Frost said about repeating And miles to go before I sleep twice at the end of his poem - he couldn't think of a last line.
Thanks for the update.
Herzog is an amazing man and filmmaker. Can't wait for his newest film with Bale.
And you sir, Jim Emerson, are truly a film nerd.
Yeah, Jim, you film nerd! And thank God for it. Wow, how I've enjoyed these updates. Even more than your exceptional coverage of the Toronto Film Festival last fall, these posts have made me hanker more than ever to get out there and mix it up with the kinds of geniuses and other fun-loving folk you've depicted so well here. The posts also make me realize how cloistered I feel in not being able to attend happenings like this one, or Toronto, and wish that somehow, magically, that situation would change. And maybe someday it will (though without the influence of the black arts, most likely). Until then, I will continue, as I do so much now, to appreciate all you're able to bring back to those of us who are stuck in front of our computers, keeping the experience of film alive in our own way, and itching to be able to one day take it all in, and know at heart the value of what's being taken in the way you obviously do when you're in the thick of a wonderful gathering like Ebertfest. I'm envious as hell, but I really do thank you for your insights, experiences and photos.
Derek: The Treo 680 (which uses the Palm OS) comes with a voice memo app pre-installed and I used that.
Dennis & Phillip: Film nerd? Movie geek? Moi? I threw in Beckett and Firesign Theatre references, too.
You know what? You're right. I was even wowed by that Firesign Theater reference, and yet I didn't make note of it in my crushing assessment! Does this mean that everything I know is wrong?
We lost Vonnegut. Thank God we still have Herzog.