Werner Herzog's unorthodox film school, The Rogue Film School has 12 rules or guidelines. The first one should be "Do Not Talk About Fight Club" because really that's what he's setting up, either that or a cult, not a film school, however the last five are not only pretty amusing but they also contain Herzog's reading list:8.Related, but more practical subjects, will be the art of lockpicking. Traveling on foot. The exhilaration of being shot at unsuccessfully. The athletic side of filmmaking. The creation of your own shooting permits. The neutralization of bureaucracy. Guerrilla tactics. Self reliance.
9.Censorship will be enforced. There will be no talk of shamans, of yoga classes, nutritional values, herbal teas, discovering your Boundaries, and Inner Growth.
10.Related, but more reflective, will be a reading list. Required reading: Virgil’s “Georgics” and Ernest Hemingway’s “The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber”. Suggested reading: The Warren Commission Report, Rabelais’ “Gargantua and Pantagruel”, “The Poetic Edda”, translated by Lee M. Hollander (in particular The Prophecy of the Seeress), Bernal Diaz del Castillo “True History of the Conquest of New Spain”.
11.Required film viewing list: The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948, dir. John Huston), Viva Zapata (1952, dir. Elia Kazan), The Battle of Algiers (1966, dir. Gillo Pontecorvo), the Apu trilogy (1955-1959, dir. Satyajit Ray), and, if available, “Where is the Friend’s Home?” (1987, dir. Abbas Kiarostami).
12.Follow your vision. Form secretive Rogue Cells everywhere. At the same time, be not afraid of solitude.
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Something struck me about the list of the books mentioned in #10. I couldn't figure it out for a while but then it came to me: The Conquest of New Spain, Hemingway's Short Stories, Virgil's Georgics and The Icelandic Eddas were the books that Michael Forsythe was reading in my novel Dead I Well May Be. Does this mean that Werner and I are on some kind of wavelength or are these merely the books that you read before you turn you into a borderline sociopath? Perhaps these are the texts that all young men should read and then subsequently grow out of. I'm not sure. But they certainly are all of a piece. I'd add Christopher Logue's War Music and maybe Kinsella's translation of the Tain Bo Cuailnge.
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Incidentally, if I were forming a cult like Werner Herzog (and I'm ruling nothing out at this stage) I'd only have one book on my reading list and that would be The Collected Poems of Philip Larkin. I'd have my acolytes cultivate disenchantment and pessimism not ecstatic truth and Aristotlean virtue. I'd probably get a lot of goths.
43 comments:
You (and Chuck Palahniuk) form a cult, I'll form the army, and together our forces will bring our own brand of hyper-intelligence to the world. Or we can just have a really big party.
For my money, Werner's Rule #8 is applicable in nearly every one of life's situations. Everyone should learn those things!
Greg
You've probably seen this already. But here's Werner getting shot at unsuccessfully.
And here's a little story he tells about hating to speak French, but why he had to do it once, otherwise he would have been shot by significant bullets.
I wonder what he has against French.
Seana
I have no idea. Maybe it's their high fallutin' attitude towards film?
I actually have a copy of Larkin's Collected Poems on your rec. So I guess that makes me an acolyte.
Though not enough of one to have read many of the poems yet, remember enough about Michael Forsythe's reading list in DIWMB to know if you're kidding or not, or to shed the vast majority of my wardrobe in favor of black. So maybe not.
By the way, if anyone reading here is a budding filmmaker, it does look like there are still a few more days to apply for Werner's June New Jersey Rogue Film School workshop. Of course it's pricey if you do get in, but I suspect well worth it. Wouldn't it be cool if someone here did go and reported back on it?
Seana
That would be very cool!
Yeah Forsythe really was reading those books. I remember my editor wanting me to cut the mention of the Georgics because he thought it would alienate readers. I fought for it and kept it in, but of course had to compromise on other things elsewhere. Back then I didnt have the courage to tell my editor that "alienating readers" actually sounds like a good thing to my ears. I've always liked Kafka's idea that books should shake us up a bit whereas the approach of most editors especially genre editors is don't make waves, Safety First.
Well, I'm glad you held on to the idea. I did think I remembered Bernal Diaz because of the Mexico portion and I did like the fact that he was a real reader. I found it a factor in making him not alienating actually. I think one of the things a reader thinks about Michael Forsythe is that, with just a little twist of fate here and there, it could all have gone quite another way for him.
I think the bottleneck with interesting novels that try to stretch genre conventions a bit is not the overcautiousness of readers but the overcautiousness of marketers. There are of course tons of readers who are quite happy not to stray too far beyond the challenges of a James Patterson novel, but I talk to a lot of mystery and crime fiction readers, and I think that there's actually quite a large audience who want really intelligent writing as a primary consideration.
Both Herzog and Ray Bradbury are quite refreshing in their approach to all this stuff. Although I haven't heard that Bradbury has a big problem with French.
Seana
I cant speak for Herzog but I'll bet his problem is more with French the language than with the French.
He did seem to pronounce the few words he mimicked in a way that sounded actually painful.
Seana
I dont think Werner really expects you to pay. Thats all part of the test. You show up with a forged check or you give them a dummy bank account # or a dead guy's SS details. If any squares dare show up with the actual money they will be ceremoniously tossed into the street.
I know this isnt really his intent, but I'll bet his NJ film seminar will be packed with precious East Village hipsters - the sort of people WH would normally run a thousand miles from.
In fact its a bit of a paradox: the people who would really benefit from Herzog's film course are the sort of people who wouldn't go to something like that in a million years.
What he really should do is a book a stand at an NRA convention or at a gathering of survivalists or something.
Well, it's going to be interesting, because you pay $25, not too much but nonrefundable just to see if you are worth letting into the seminar,and supposedly he scrutinizes the applications himself. We have different takes on it, because I am absolutely sure that if I had a film to submit and went through all the hoops, I would not be hip enough to get into that seminar. My only saving grace would be that I don't speak French, though due to a job I had a long time ago, I can say the names of French cheeses pretty well.
If it were me, I'd show up with a stripey shirt, a beret and a string of onions around my neck and start talking in an outrageous French accent about the glories of the nouvelle vague.
I'd probably just show up with a gun and see if he regretted his previous lapse into French as much as he said he did.
Onions, huh? Well, at least they don't eat garlic in bed like the Italians and the Greeks.
I absolutely loved the Michael Forsythe trilogy. Is there any possibility that he may make a return at some point or is that series truly over?
The coincidence is too great, Adrian. The only solution is one you, modestly, haven't put forward, namely that Herzog cribbed his list from you.
You're right, Girish. There really isn't any other explanation. Except that the uncomfortable conclusion is that Herzog is aiming to create rogue cells of borderline sociopaths around the globe. And if he's read the book, why hasn't he stepped forward with an offer to film it?
Werner, if you're lurking here, I was kidding about the gun.
Marco
Are you kidding? The Greeks cant afford garlic anymore.
Anon
Michael isnt dead but there will be no more MF books.
Girish
I suspect that a man who speaks 8 languages and spends his off time in Antarctica and Papua New Guinea has got better things to do than read Irish crime novels.
Seana
All these lock picking rogue cells will be a boon to lock replacement industry. Maybe thats his real agenda.
I don't know. I would think that a man hanging around in Antarctica or Papua New Guinea would have a lot of time on his hands to read.
Lockpicking would be a good skill to have if, like me, you're prone to leaving your keys lying around. With our aging population, it might actually be a growth industry.
I'd have my acolytes read Gibbon cover to cover.
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Detectives Beyond Borders
"Because Murder Is More Fun Away From Home"
http://detectivesbeyondborders.blogspot.com/
Yikes! That will really cut down on the acolytes, Peter.
“ … whereas the approach of most editors especially genre editors is don't make waves, Safety First.”
And their approached has served the book trade so well.
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Detectives Beyond Borders
"Because Murder Is More Fun Away From Home"
http://detectivesbeyondborders.blogspot.com/
Seana, we will be a small but witty band.
==========================
Detectives Beyond Borders
"Because Murder Is More Fun Away From Home"
http://www.detectivesbeyondborders.blogspot.com/
This is the first I've heard that Gibbon was witty.
Speaking of the entrepeneurial genius of the publishing trade, I was going through the mass market catalog today trying to decide how many of this and that to order when I came across Lee Child's 61Hours. This latest Child thriller doesn't even hit the stores in hardback till late May, and the paperback is scheduled for October. Why even bother to publish in hardback at all if you're going to cut off your own sales four months out? I could possibly see it with some debut author that you didn't expect too much from, though actually I can't, but they really don't have much faith in sustained hardback sales if they are doing this to a big name author like this one.
Then I started getting mad all over again about the push to put big names in premiere editions, which basically means they add an inch to the height of the thing and charge you two bucks more than the non-premiere editions. They pretend it's out of consideration for all those aging readers with middle-aged eyes, but I personally don't think so.
It might come as a surprise to them that people are a little reluctant to throw down ten bucks and change for a pocket book, but that would only be because they don't listen to their accounts, their sales reps, or possibly even to each other.
"Decline and Fall"'s footnotes, especially, contain some wonderful, dry, laugh-out-loud stuff.
Don't forget that Gibbon was writing in the eighteenty century, that great age of scholars who wanted to and could write for the public.
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Detectives Beyond Borders
"Because Murder Is More Fun Away From Home"
http://www.detectivesbeyondborders.blogspot.com/
Eighteenty would be a marvelous century, but I meant eighteenth.
Sounds fun. Obviously I have never read him. All I've heard is something about the water having something to do with the declining and falling and that's probably not what he said at all.
Some time when sleep does not call, I'll try to remember to post some examples.
Seana, Peter
I'm rushing out the door to the post office, but I will certainly second Peter's endorsement of Gibbon for all potential acolytes. There's a gift on every page. What was the line about the Roman emperor who had the big library and the harem and judging from the number of his books used the former as well as the latter?
I read the one volume abridged penguin edition of Gibbon, which cut a lot of the byzantine stuff. But as they say it was all thriller and no filler. It really was a terrific read. I read it twice on the same journey.
The only person I've ever come across who has dissed Gibbon was Clive James in his Cultural Amnesia book. His complaints seem very silly and when you compare the prose styles of the two men: well..., I like CJ but this was a battle he should have avoided.
I know I'm saying this to the closing door, but you like Clive James? You surprise me.
I know I'm saying this to the closing door, but, you like Clive James? You surprise me.
Anyway, thanks for Gibbons rec guys. I'm off to slumberville myself.
Seana
I do like CJ. I dont however agree with everything he says.
Got it.
I read the one volume abridged penguin edition of Gibbon, which cut a lot of the byzantine stuff. But as they say it was all thriller and no filler.
Some of the funniest quips are about monks.
Some of Gibbon's chapters on Islam were a bit of a slog for me, though I think those chapters are celebrated in some circles.
==========================
Detectives Beyond Borders
"Because Murder Is More Fun Away From Home"
http://www.detectivesbeyondborders.blogspot.com/
Peter
Some day I'll read the whole thing, or possibly listen to it in the car...however that one volume penguin is a little gem that no one could turn their nose up at.
I read the whole thing about ten years ago. I have the two-volume Modern Library edition with the handsome dust jacket, as opposed to the three-volume edition in the awful plain-brown-wrapper jackets that Modern Library used more recently.
I have to admit that when things got slow in some of the chapters I mention, I accepted the challenge and pushed on to the end. When you have done likewise, I'll consider accepting you as an acolyte.
Two books like that are a bit much to carry around, so an abridged Penguin might indeed be a worthwhile investment.
================
Detectives Beyond Borders
"Because Murder Is More Fun Away From Home"
http://detectivesbeyondborders.blogspot.com/
I just got back from the rogue film school. they DO look at your stuff, and H makes it a point to chitchat with every single one of the participants, making sure that you know that he's seen your film.
they DO want your money. 60 people at $1450 = nice chunk of dough even for Mr H. The lockpicking and forging of documents took about one hour to cover - the rest was him talking about the spirit of filmmaking etc. He was great. The first day his editor visited and spoke about their process and about the cave film they are working on now. the second day got a little "thinner", with his co-writer visiting and rambling on obsessively about having too much source material. took him two hours to say what H could have said in 5 minutes. the last day was pretty hard to sit through because what had been a great opportunity to listen to a legendary filmmaker speak about his craft, turned into an odd feedback session where random work of participants was screened, and because people didn't get a chance to introduce their stuff, they ended up sounding defensive when WH gave feedback, thinking that what was a trailer was an excerpt from a film or the other way around. weird. there was a lot of wasted time. was it worth the money? i guess. it was definitely inspiring to hang around him and a bunch of hardcore fans for three days. at some point there was a rumor that 600 people had been turned away. hardly true. we did form a secret nyc rogue cell though...
I just got back from the rogue film school. they DO look at your stuff, and H makes it a point to chitchat with every single one of the participants, making sure that you know that he's seen your film.
they DO want your money. 60 people at $1450 = nice chunk of dough even for Mr H. The lockpicking and forging of documents took about one hour to cover - the rest was him talking about the spirit of filmmaking etc. He was great. The first day his editor visited and spoke about their process and about the cave film they are working on now. the second day got a little "thinner", with his co-writer visiting and rambling on obsessively about having too much source material. took him two hours to say what H could have said in 5 minutes. the last day was pretty hard to sit through because what had been a great opportunity to listen to a legendary filmmaker speak about his craft, turned into an odd feedback session where random work of participants was screened, and because people didn't get a chance to introduce their stuff, they ended up sounding defensive when WH gave feedback, thinking that what was a trailer was an excerpt from a film or the other way around. weird. there was a lot of wasted time. was it worth the money? i guess. it was definitely inspiring to hang around him and a bunch of hardcore fans for three days. at some point there was a rumor that 600 people had been turned away. hardly true. we did form a secret nyc rogue cell though...
Thank you Anon, thats an excellent and detailed report. I dont know how I feel about that. I love Herzog but the price seems high for what you get. Maybe if they'd charged 100 bucks or something I'd see what he's doing as a public service.
Hmmm....
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