Werner Herzog: Movies Won’t Change the World

Wern­er Her­zog does­n’t work under any illu­sions. In this Stu­dio Q inter­view, the film­mak­er tells Jian Ghome­shi that “movies don’t change things.” “Even influ­en­tial doc­u­men­taries like Inside Job “do not real­ly change the course of our lives.” And that applies to his lat­est film, Into the Abyss, which takes a Dos­toyevskian look at a triple mur­der com­mit­ted in Texas. (See trail­er below.) Into the Abyss prob­a­bly won’t change the U.S. penal sys­tem, or how the death penal­ty gets met­ed out. But that was nev­er the point of the film, and it’s not why Her­zog threw him­self, body and soul, into what he calls the most intense film­mak­ing expe­ri­ence of his life, a project that left him feel­ing each day like he had been “hit by a truck.” The con­ver­sa­tion runs 25 min­utes. h/t @webacion

Relat­ed Con­tent:

Wern­er Her­zog Reads “Go the F**k to Sleep” in NYC (NSFW)

Wern­er Her­zog Los­es a Bet to Errol Mor­ris, and Eats His Shoe (Lit­er­al­ly)

Wern­er Her­zog and Cor­mac McCarthy Talk Sci­ence and Cul­ture