Derniers mots

Documentary style story of a man who is rescued from an island that once housed a leper colony and how he's better for it even if he won't talk to anyone as a result.

Surreal and often very funny, thanks to the constant repetition of the lines of dialog. This is the place where you really can see the Herzog style coming into being. There is wonderful local music, portrait like shots of the characters and haunting images of the landscape. Like the rest of the early Werner Herzog films I watched in this sitting its more a sketch than a real film, but at the same time its a pretty good sketch.

Worth a look

Last Words is a short film a young Werner Herzog shot and edited in three days, while he worked on his first feature film. Filmed in black and white this is a very early example of the pseudo-documentary with a format that takes the form of the talking heads style. In all honesty, when it began I wasn't too sure if it was fiction or fact, which sort of ties in with Herzog's later approach to film-making, where he never fully recognised the dividing line between documentary and fiction meaning that his documentaries often wilfully included fictional elements and the fiction movies often included documentary realism and non-actors. It has to be said though that Last Words increasingly reveals itself as an absurdist piece, with characters spouting dialogue repetitively for reasons that frankly eluded me. Whatever the case, this is the story of a man who is saved from a Greek island which once was host to a leper colony. He was the last survivor and now lives on the mainland working as a musician in a bar, while refusing to speak to anyone (although ironically he goes to great lengths to tell us that he is going to say nothing).

In fairness, this one is virtually plot-less. The short running time means that it is always going to be no more than a snap-shot of something rather than a fully-fledged story. It does have to be said though that, with its focus on a possibly insane outsider living on the fringes of society, this is a subject that Herzog would return to again and again throughout his career. So this is a very interesting early example of one of his major interests. While it has to be said that this is understandably a fairly limited film, it does have some interesting imagery, especially the scenes shot in the ghost town on the island. It also has some very lively musical interludes showcasing traditional Greek folk music played vigorously on lyre and bouzouki. So, while this one ultimately is pretty slight, it is interestingly bizarre enough to ensure it is pretty compelling for a short film.

Last Words (1967)

** (out of 4)

Another Werner Herzog short, this one I'm guessing was meant to be some sort of spoof about people and their last words but none of it is all that funny.

Herakles (1960)

** (out of 4)

Werner Herzog's first film is about a young man who works out hoping to become very muscular one day. Nothing too interesting here.

Unprecedented Defence of the Fortress Deutschkreutz, The (1966)

** (out of 4)

Herzog spoof of war and soldiers and the thoughts that creep into ones mind. There are a few funny jokes but again, nothing too interesting.

Precautions About Fanatics (1969)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

Herzog short is just one running gag about a fanatic at a race horse. A few laughs.

'Last Words' is Herzog's short film which he made during filming his first feature 'Signs of Life'. It is a story about solitary man who was forced to leave from small island where he had remain as sole occupant. Filmed like documentary the story is told through witnesses who don't have much to say, but repeating their only lines. It is a sad story that is told through absurd and peculiar humor in a way only Werner Herzog could manage. Funny, but sad. Few words, but much is said. Minimalistic, but interestingly touching.

Already at the age of 25 or 26, at the same time as he was crafting his first film as a writer and director, Werner Herzog had a firm grip on how his worldview could be represented on film: absurd, sad, apocalyptic to a degree, but also full of the repetition of poetry (or the poetry of repetition, you pick), plus a story that is both insane and funny and delightful. Also, musical interludes that are lively, soulful and grab your attention.

This is just a 12 minute film, but in it we get the story of a man who was the last one on an island that had been plagued by lepers. At least, that's as far as I can figure out. The information we get is in pseud-documentary (this is probably when that was only getting started so I'm sure Herzog was ahead of the curve on that), and people being 'interviewed' repeat their responses. Why do they do this? I think it can come down to sounding almost like a prayer in information form, like we are discovering this story as a call of confusion and anguish and even indifference (which is perfectly ironic for a prayer).

Or it's simply that having people repeat things puts one in a kind of trance (Herzog loved himself, maybe still does, hypnosis as can be seen in Heart of Glass and Invincible), and it may be as much or more for the actors than for the audience. These people don't seem to be 'actors' in the professional sense; he likely found these people on the island or by the coastline - certainly the musicians, who seem so authentic as to not be from anywhere else - and it lends everything a sense of 'huh, so... what's the deal with these people, and the lepers, and why is this guy describing that lepers have a "distinct sex life?"

It's all mad and off-kilter and maybe unsettling. It's a fully- formed artist at a young age knocking something off quickly while doing his first big work. What a man!