Herz aus Glas

Each of Herzog's films is an experiment in one way or another. Heart of Glass is one of the most overtly experimental of the lot. Like almost all of Herzog's films, Heart of Glass makes the most of spectacular landscapes and visual context - every scene is, in its own way, a beautiful still-life. However, in Heart of Glass, the effect of the visual context is compounded by the fact that almost every member of the cast - throughout the entire film - is in a state of hypnosis. Predictably, the acting is, to say the least, avant-garde. Nevertheless, characterization is strong, and more importantly, this bizarre, somewhat jarring method of execution creates the film's time and place just as much as the gorgeous landscape shots.

Heart of Glass takes place in 19th century Bavaria. The Director's comments (always worth hearing after viewing a Herzog film) indicate that Herzog grew up in a place very much like this. This doesn't stop Herzog from turning his keen analysis of the human condition and modal personalities to attack the central problems of life in this time and place. The story involves a small town in crisis. The one person who holds the secret that is the key to the town's prosperity has taken that secret to his grave, and the master of the glass factory in which he worked is losing his mind looking for a solution. Meanwhile, one of the film's more sympathetic character's, a deeply insightful prophet/lunatic shepherd (with no sheep), Hias, predicts an even greater crisis.

Herzog's most consistent theme - his view of human nature - is powerfully illustrated in Heart of Glass. As the great director has often done, Herzog universalizes his view by giving us an essentially alien, dream-like setting and atmosphere. The effect of the cast's hypnotic state is even more jarring than the sheer intensity of Klaus Kinski's performances in many of Herzog's films from this period, and Heart of Glass is as avant-garde as some of his later efforts (such as The Great Blue Yonder). In other words, the average cinema-goer will have a difficult time with this one.

Recommended for Herzog, avant-garde and art-film fans. Not recommended for anybody else.

Hypnotized actors, in this story of how something as fragile as glass can bring on the apocalypse for a small German community. There's a character who predicts the future, and narrates in some of Herzog's most poetic dialog yet. The scenes at the end overlooking the cliffs above the Atlantic and their dream of "worlds to come", keep this from being your usual end of all things story. For Herzog there aren't ends, just junctures where one thing dies and another begins. Cycles in history (reflected in the mysterious prophets discussion of greater apocalypses to come in the future world wars 1 and 2).

The man who can see the future (and who is of course blamed for all the towns ills), at one point wishes he was out of his cell, and in the next scene he's walking in the woods talking to himself, giving the film a strange tinge of magic realism(though realism and this film don't exactly mix). Strange, difficult, but unforgettable, and a must for Herzog fans. (also it's where the Blondie song comes from)

Unlike Herzog's other movies, with their super-realistic substrate on which he paints our miserable human condition, Heart of Glass is an allegory, a fable told to peasants as a cautionary tale: the human heart is precious... and the peasants are us, and we violate that warning everyday, in a thousand little ways, with our stupidity and our pettiness...

Is the movie slow? perhaps... Do I still remember scenes vividly from the movie as if I saw it yesterday, though it's been more than 20 years? oh yes... this movie haunts me, unlike any other movie I've ever seen

It's impossible to love this film, and it is as impossible to hate it. The plot is slight and silly, and the dialogue and acting are unintentionally hilarious. Heart of Glass could stand as the archetype of the so-called "pretentious European cinema," you know, the kind you would have seen Mike Meyers make fun of in his "Sprockets" sketches on SNL. In fact, I don't know of anything that comes even close to Heart of Glass in its pretentions. The film is as shallow as could be. Perhaps those with overactive imaginations could "figure it out," but I don't want to waste that time.

However, Herzog is an amazingly skilled director. The script may suck, but the visuals, the cinematography and the mise-en-scene, represent some of the greatest moments in all cinema. It's not a non-stop beauty festival, but there are many individual scenes of outrageous splendor. If only Herzog had planned the script as intricately as he searched out locations for the shoot. What this film really reminds me of an Andrei Tarkovsky or Michelangelo Antonioni film with no substance whatsoever. I can't give Heart of Glass more than a 7/10, but, in many ways, it's a must see. If you've never seen a Herzog film before, though, avoid this one. Start with Aguirre the Wrath of God or, my favorite so far, Fitzcarraldo.

The foreman of a small village glassworks dies without revealing the secret to the famous "Ruby Glass".

This is very much a Werner Herzog film. Although the plot itself is interesting, and allows us to see a small village collapse in on itself because f its failure to diversify its economy, it really is not about the plot at all. It is a collection of unusual characters -- and sometimes just strange faces -- that make up Herzog's world. Not having been to Germany, I can't say, but I suspect his view and the real world are very much in opposition! What lessons are we to draw from this film? I have no idea. I mean, you know, besides the idea that it's important to write things down in case of our untimely demise!