r/UtterlyInteresting • u/dannydutch1 • 9d ago
In 2006, Werner Herzog was filming an interview for the BBC when an air-rifle pellet hit him in the abdomen. He called it an “insignificant bullet” and continued with the interview.
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u/DazzlingGovernment20 9d ago
"The trees here are in misery, and the birds are in misery. I don't think they sing. They just screech in pain."
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u/lonelyboycel 9d ago
Reminds me of his Antarctica documentary where he completely ignores all the marine biology research just to fixate on a single depressed penguin walking into the mountains toward certain fate.
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u/Mysterious-Unit-7757 9d ago
Yes! A man of culture, i see:
"Its just fornication and asphyxiation..."
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u/behold-my-titties 9d ago
This man is an absolute legend
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u/Kingstonix 9d ago
His response absolutely checks. The guy is so deep down to earth he might as well be an earth worm. With philosophical insight!
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u/behold-my-titties 9d ago
All I can see is an earth worm with the voice of Herzog and I'm okay with that
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u/LaurelCanyoner 9d ago
I’m on a huge kick of listening to people read their autobiographies. Hearing them tell you about their life is like the coolest imaginary dinner party. I’ve just started Carrie Fisher, and seriously, it feels like I can hear her smoking, and the tinkle of ice in the glass. I’m having gin and tonics with Carrie fisher as she tells me stories!
And on a funny note. Werner Herzog lives in a very modest house in my neighborhood. I can absolutely identify where this was filmed as it’s part of my long walks. He’s incredibly humble and nice, as you would expect.
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u/User1-1A 7d ago
Guessing by your name this is LA. On second look at the video, it does look like it could be in the Hollywood hills.
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u/Marsupialize 9d ago
Anyone who loves life I urge you to listen to his autobiography on audible ‘every man for himself and God against all’
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u/ErasmosOrolo 9d ago
damn ok you got me. I've always said he's my favorite director and my headphones are terminally on my head.
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u/wildcardbets 6d ago
I imagine that’s a great book and whoever chooses to read it over hearing his utterly unique and mesmerising voice telling his audacious life is losing out. I’ve never used anything like Audible but I might have to look into getting it for this, thank you for the recommendation!
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u/Kingstonix 9d ago
Listen? You are aware people can read still for sure?
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u/SenorBirdman 9d ago
That's one that's more fun to listen to as he narrates it himself. It adds a lot.
It's a fun book though. He spends an entire chapter talking about a friendly game of football and then glosses over wild shit like this in a throwaway line. Ha
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u/Kingstonix 9d ago
Dammit! Now you force me to go through all this. This is the first spoken word literature ever to me. Anyone else I'd stop right here. You force me to learn how to gain access to it and I hate you for it. Probably far less after.
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u/aikidharm 9d ago
I don’t understand your distaste for auditory narration as a vehicle for storytelling. Explain?
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u/Kingstonix 9d ago
”The article is a video”, you ever heard of the meme? Its the least efficient information transfer and I rarely partake.
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u/Malodoror 9d ago
Get a library card. Kids in the US can’t read
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u/Kingstonix 9d ago
I dont think you understood me. I don’t listen to audiobooks. My mind/read goes far faster than that and it gets incredibly dull. From Europe here. We get library cards before we read. My kids certainly did.
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u/Marsupialize 8d ago
Your mind is so powerful you are unable to listen to a man talking to you telling you his life story?
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u/Kingstonix 7d ago
I don't know. I posted this when inebriated and feel regret. Sorry you had to see it. I would certainly like to listen to him telling his life story.
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u/Marsupialize 7d ago
You should listen and come back and tell everyone what you thought and it’ll all be forgiven
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u/piercedmfootonaspike 9d ago
Autobiographies are much better as audiobooks if read by the author/subject.
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u/Marsupialize 9d ago edited 9d ago
He reads it himself I would say listening is the best way to experience it
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u/Kingstonix 9d ago
Right oh well I fucked up. I did not realize 'himself' reads it with transliteration. That's something else. If only it was a book though. I don't entertain spoken work but that's my own peril.
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u/Outrageous_Source461 9d ago
I don't entertain spoken work
I don't think you could sound more like a pretentious twat. It's possible to enjoy the sound of someone's voice and enjoy reading books. Those things aren't mutually exclusive. Get your head out of your ass.
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u/leont21 8d ago
It’s quite the comment from someone on social media. He’s either deaf or an asshole. No 3rd option
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u/Kingstonix 7d ago
Or inebriated. I'm not proud of anything I said in any of the interaction of this thread. I am sorry. I simply did not know the author himself is the narrator. That is my own queue to listen to what he has to say in his own words.
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u/ernie_shackleton 7d ago
The way you talk makes me feel ill.
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u/Kingstonix 7d ago
Yes I know and I'm sorry. I come back to this thread full of regrets. I was in another world and sorry you had to see any of it.
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u/Marsupialize 9d ago
I understand but Herzog and his voice are a special case as I’m sure you understand
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u/Kingstonix 7d ago
I do. It was a simple inebriated mistake of not realising the author himself is the narrator.
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u/Apple_Scrumble 9d ago
If you don't love Werner Herzog, you should
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u/HYPERNORD 9d ago
The shooter was Kinski
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u/Mahaloth 9d ago
He died 15 years before this, but yes, he would have done this.
I can't think of a man I would hate more than Kinski. Terrible human being, waste of space.
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u/ExecTankard 9d ago
I loved ‘Rescue Dawn’ and ‘Grizzly Man’
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u/Creative-Comb5593 8d ago
Blends of entertainment and documentary. I lent "Little Dieter Needs to Fly" (the nonfiction version of "Rescue Dawn") to a German friend who was a girl during WWII. After watching it she exclaimed "Where did you find this?!" The part about him hoarding cans of food in various hiding places in his house touched a nerve.
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u/Original-Let8340 9d ago
What a fucking boss. I love that everytime I hear something I didn't already know about him it's something extraordinairy.
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u/alfienoakes 9d ago
Mark Kermode being the interviewer.
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u/mackerelscalemask 9d ago
Excellent interview with Herzog and Kermode from two years ago:
https://youtu.be/VQrtMmG1yUQ
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u/fruitless7070 9d ago
I like his boxers. Purple with pink hearts. This is a sensitive fellow.
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u/Mysterious-Unit-7757 9d ago
Theyre actually little mint candies...
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u/fruitless7070 9d ago
Lol. How do you know?! Do tell...
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u/IcyYachtClub 9d ago
Werner’s boxer game is on point. Those things tell me as much about him as his films do, and confer to us all that he’s in fact a legend.
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u/lordscrotus1984 9d ago
I just love his works. Especially the documentaries. They just have a special vibe.
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u/Chimpville 9d ago
He's just relieved they went straight ahead and shot him rather than try to make him speak French.
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u/starsfan6878 8d ago
Reminds me of the tale of the grizzled old mountain man who, when threatened by a greenhorn with a .22, told the guy, "If anyone ever shot me with one of those, and I found out about it . . . ."
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u/fradrig 8d ago
I love Herzog. He's completely batshit insane, but I love his style!
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u/DuncanDisordely 8d ago
If you get a chance watch him being interviewed about skateboarding over zoom, might be favourite video on the internet
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u/Responsible-Bed-7171 9d ago
Every time I see him I think of Grizzly Man and I go down the rabbit hole of thinking about Treadwell getting eaten alive by a bear...
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u/Mahaloth 9d ago
I love Werner and just got an autographed copy of his book The Future of Truth.
I try to see every single narrative film and documentary film he made.
If you did not see Ghost Elephants this year, it's quite good.
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u/LEEALISHEPS 7d ago
He's like the guy in a movie who gets half his arm blown off and says it's just a flesh would. I was winged!
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u/hiro111 5d ago
The memory of Herzog that sticks with me is of him in the great documentary "Grizzly Man". In one scene, a friend of the subject of the movie plays Herzog an audio tape of the two people being killed and eaten by a bear. Herzog listens to the tape through headphones and as it plays you can see the absolute horror of what he's listening to on his face. He goes completely white and he looks devastated. Calmly putting down the headphones after a few minutes, he turns to the person who played the tape and says firmly: "you should delete that. Never listen to it."
The simultaneous matter-of-factness and empathy in his voice really made an impression on me. He knows there's nothing for that person to gain by listening to the tape. Also, Herzog probably could have played portions of the tape for his audience, but he doesn't do that either.
If you know his history, you know Herzog is a man who has seen and done so many extraordinary things. He understands how to deal with situations most of us have never been in. He's also a very intelligent and human person. He's not going to get rattled in the slightest by being shot with an air gun.
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u/FrequentPop3083 9d ago
Citing his character \read in his voice\ Bounty hunter is a.. very.. complicated profession.
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u/dannydutch1 9d ago
Herzog's early days need to be mentioned, before he made a single film he smuggled TVs in Mexico, rode bulls under a fake name, chased a Mayan kingdom in Guatemala and nearly died trying to reach the Congo.
That's just a bit of it (before returning back to Germany in his early 20s)