Guido Vitiello

Continually blurring the line between fiction and reality, Werner Herzog has made a career of crossing boundaries and reinventing himself. Since his early emergence as a leader in the New German cinema, Herzog is now widely recognized as one of the most acclaimed and innovative filmmakers of the modern era—as well as one of its most controversial and enigmatic figures. A Companion to Werner Herzog presents more than two dozen original scholarly essays that probe deeply into various aspects of Herzog’s career and eclectic body of cinematic work. Contributions from internationally recognized film scholars and Herzog experts offer fresh perspectives on such topics as Herzog’s engagement with music and the arts, his self-stylization as a global filmmaker, the director’s Bavarian origins, and even his visionary collaboration—and love-hate relationship—with the late actor Klaus Kinski. Filled with illuminating insights, A Companion to Werner Herzog offers a long-overdue exploration of the life and artistic contributions of one of the true giants of international cinema.

A Companion to Werner Herzog, a cura di Brad Prager, Wiley-Blackwell, 2012, 630 pagine. Il mio capitolo si intitola Portrait of the Chimpanzee as a Metaphysician: Parody and Dehumanization in Echoes from a Somber Empire (pp. 547-565).