FATA MORGANA

FATA MORGANA (RETRO)

FATA MORGANA

Director: Werner Herzog
Feature film | Germany | 1968
73 min | Stereo

56th Hof International Film Festival
2022
|8|16|35| – HoF Classics on Film

A fantastical-poetical film essay by Werner Herzog, who concentrates visual material shot mainly in North Africa into disturbing visions of a world devoid of meaning. A history of humanity unfolds in three chapters – “Creation”, “Paradise” and “Golden Age” – a history defined by decay, destruction and failure; wrecked planes in the desert, abandoned villages and animal carcases seem like relics of an already lost civilisation. The accompanying texts, spoken by film historian Lotte Eisner, serve as a commentary on the pictorial metaphors, but do not pin down their meanings – instead expanding them to incorporate another, sometimes sceptical-ironic dimension.

With WOLFGANG VON UNGERN-STERNBERG, JAMES WILLIAM GLEDHILL, EUGEN DES MONTAGNES

Screenplay WERNER HERZOG, AMOS VOGEL, Cinematography JÖRG SCHMIDT-REITWEIN, Editing BEATE MAINKA-JELLINGHAUS, Music FRANÇOIS COUPERIN, GEORG FRIEDRICH HÄNDEL, WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART, THIRD EAR BAND, LEONARD COHEN