Scream Of Stone - Werner Herzog's Lost Masterpiece
With his autobiography out soon, one wonders how much room the director will devote to a film that some consider his greatest work even if he can't stand it himself...
Werner Herzog doesn’t like 1991’s Scream Of Stone. This seems odd since i) it’s a film about one of his favourite things, namely homo sapiens thriving in the world’s harshest environments, and ii) it’s a film he directed! Attend any Herzog retrospective or purchase his collected works on DVD, however, and the odds are slim that his mountaineering epic will be a part of it.
Of course, not everybody has as little regard for Scream Of Stone as the man who made it. Kevin Macdonald - director of One Day In September, The Last King Of Scotland and his own high altitude survival story Touching The Void - is a huge fan of Herzog’s, but has no qualms about declaring Scream Of Stone the director’s undisputed masterpiece.
That Herzog doesn’t feel the same shouldn’t come as a surprise. With a body of work that comprises Fitzcaraldo, Aguirre, Heart Of Glass, Woyzeck, Strozek, Kasper Hauser, Cobra Verde and Rescue Dawn - and that’s just his dramatic output! - choosing your favourite film must be as hard as selecting your favourite child.
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