Scenarios is an absolutely RIVETING collection of stories all based on films created by Werner Herzog.. When I first requested this, I wasn't sure what to expect - to read an introduction written in 1977 was a shock, but a clever way of catching attention. "The texts in this volume have remained completely unchanged, in the same shape they were before shooting started." Have they really?

The further into this book you get, the more you realize that these are screenplays. They read exactly like short stories in a story format, but they match perfectly with the movies they pair with (I did go and watch all of them!).

The fact that this was published by the University of Minnesota Press makes it very clear that it was worth the attention. A great read, and definitely for everyone who enjoys Herzog's films.

If you don't know Werner Herzog's films you should correct that right away. You'll be in for a treat, but don't expect to see your average blockbuster type movie. Herzog is an artist and his films tend to be powerful stories of ordinary people attempting something extraordinary.

This book contains the texts for four of Herzog's films: <em>Aguirre, the Wrath of God</em>; <em>Every Man for Himself and God Against All</em>; <em>Land of Silence and Darkness</em>; <em>Fitzcarraldo</em>. In his introduction, written in 1977, Herzog writes, "The texts in this volume have remained completely unchanged, in the same shape they were before shooting started." But the student of film studies will note that these screenplays don't read anything like what you might expect when you're reading a screenplay by William Goldman or any modern screenplay.

These screenplays read like stories, and in a very confounded sort of way, they are quite visual and it's easy to see the film as you read through this. It's an interesting way to write a film script, but it clearly works for Herzog and it gives us two opportunities to enjoy his work - as films and as stories (or 'scenarios').

I faintly remember seeing <em>Fitzcarraldo</em> in the mid-to-late 1980's, but now, having enjoyed these works as stories, I really want to see all four films and see how they compare to these narratives. In his introduction Herzog notes that the films "followed a very different evolution."

It is a real treat that the University of Minnesota Press has published this collection. Herzog shows here that he is a creative dreamer and that his dreams take shape in various art forms. The films are most obvious, but these scenarios show that I wouldn't mind sitting down and reading Herzog's writing as he tells a story with words better than most.

Looking for a good book? <em>Scenarios</em> by Werner Herzog is a unique collection of four film stories by Herzog, written in a narrative, novella format, but every bit as wonderful as the films.

I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher, through Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review.

Text of four of Werner Herzog's documentaries. Thanks for the ARC.

Werner Herzog screenplays have the same relation to orthodox screenplays as Werner Herzog movies have to orthodox movie-making, which is to say, it's about as far as you can get and still be in the same genre.

Herzog is an acquired taste. It's a rare bright moment in these gloomy times that more and more people seem to be acquiring the taste. His voice has become so familiar that he can lend it (for a handsome sum, I hope) to a good-natured parody in a big budget Hollywood movie, and can be played for laughs by stand-up comics.

I have acquired the taste for Herzog. I am an extreme case. The Long-Suffering Wife (also a fan) and I own a special collector's edition of “Fitzcarraldo”, which came packaged in a biscuit tin with a beautiful photograph on the cover of the white-suited Klaus Kinski beaming happily in front of a steamship wedged half-way up a mountain. It's a prize possession.

I would pay good money to listen to an unabridged audio version of this book, read by the author. Until the happy day when such a product is made available, I had to content myself with reading this book silently to myself in his voice, which turned out to be an adequate substitute.

I repeat: not like the type of practical and successful screenplay sold, for example, on the streets of mid-town Manhattan to television writers looking for a fast crib. This is like the fevered outpourings of the Herzog mind, written as if time, space, and budget were not considerations, and as if you could somehow telegraph, directly brain-to-brain from character to moviegoer in real time, the nuance of madness that his characters are experiencing. Sometimes Herzog seems to suddenly remember that he's in the mundane real-life movie business and throws in a “the camera shows...” or “we see...”, but more often there are long narrations of what the characters are thinking as they are staring vacantly off into space, as they often do in Herzog movies. Maybe some film scholar can interpolate these interior monologues as subtitles during the scenes of prolonged space-staring-off as they actually appeared in his movies – I know I'd pay good money to see that.

Herzog's cinema is long and life is fleeting, so I confess that it's been several long, sad, empty decades since I've last seen, for example, “Aguirre, Wrath of God” or “Every Man for Himself And God against All”. It was good to be reminded of them. When, for example, I read, at the beginning of the screenplay for “Aguirre”, that the inexplicably German-speaking Spanish conquistadors and their captives were trudging knee-deep in the snow across a mountain pass, I said to myself, “Hmm, I don't remember any snow in Aguirre”. Whatever the other drawbacks of our times, such things can be dependably checked on YouTube. Sure enough, there are a few snow-dusted mountain at the beginning, but not the trudging nearly naked through mountain passes knee-deep in snow, as the original vision issued from Werner's febrile mind.

The third of the book's four parts, “Land of Silence and Darkness”, is not, strictly speaking, a Herzog screenplay but a transcript of the spoken dialogue, titles, and narration of a Herzog documentary about a deaf and blind person. It is very serious, not as much fun as the rest of the book, but still interesting. Although the titles and narration have the distinctive Herzog voice, the subject successfully resists fitting into the Herzog box, to her credit.

The last scenario, “Fitzcarraldo”, was just a great read and a very pleasant surprise. You might just start with it if you are the type who eats dessert first.

It made me reassess my opinion of the original. I doubt many Herzog neophytes will make it this far into the review, but in case you are one, here's what happened: The first try at making this film (seemingly closer in detail to this screenplay than the final product) in the Amazon was reportedly 40% completed when its star, Jason Robards, came down with dysentery and was forbidden to return by his doctor. Co-star Mick Jagger had to depart due to other commitments. Eventually long-time Herzog frenemy Klaus Kinski agreed to star, Jagger's part was eliminated, and the film was made.

Some of the scenes that Robards and Jagger made have survived, and I always felt that perhaps the Kinski-only version might be better, especially because Jagger always seems too project his larger-than-life Mick Jagger persona even when he is nominally playing someone else. But after reading the screenplay, I think I see what Herzog had in mind for the Jagger role and I understand why Herzog cast Jagger. Further, I understand what a potentially great movie never got made. But, as a consolation, you can read this treatment and make a great movie in your mind. In my movie, I usually ended up with Kinski starring with Jagger, but: your mind, your movie.

The screenplay is also just plain old gripping in an old-fashioned way and fun to read, especially if you can never get enough Herzog.

Final comment: Lest I be accused of treating Herzog with insufficient gravity, I want to note that Herzog himself has said that his movies are actually funnier than Eddie Murphy's.

I received an egalley copy of this book free of charge to review. Thanks to Netgalley and University of Minnesota Press for their generosity.

This is a great gift idea for anyone who loves Werner Herzog's unique point of view. These are the original stories for four of his most well-known films. Screenplays for films are easy to come by, but it's rare to glimpse the original scenario behind the screenplay. Read the stories and then re-watch the movies.

He enjoys breaking the fourth wall. Interesting book, very vivid descriptions of misery and violence, not sure if I would read more by this author.

Werner Herzog's Scenarios is an intense collection of narratives with Aguirre being particularly disturbing. Mr. Herzog never fails to deliver something that is heart-wrenching, disturbing, informative and thought-provoking. I enjoyed each scenario especially the Land of Silence and Darkness and the female subject Fini. Sometimes I thought Werner was pushing the envelope a bit and heading straight into madness with the lengthy prose, but in the end reading through to each scenario's end was very rewarding as a reader.

I reviewed this book through NetGalley.

This is like nothing I've ever read before, just as Werner Herzog films are like nothing I've ever seen elsewhere. I like that there's a still photo included from each of the four filmed scenarios. Herzog's descriptions are so vivid they are manic, and I just have to say these stories are all weird. I don't know what Herzog's motivation is besides his obvious love of words, music and describing misery and violence, but I'd love to know where his head is at when he has a male character ask what women were made for, "they really don't seem to be useful for anything more than sitting around". I'm glad Land of Silence and Darkness has female main characters to balance out the overwhelming macho-manliness of all the other leads presented here. At one point I wondered if it was a typo when Herzog himself had a word of dialog in Land of Silence and Darkness, but after searching online I see that breaking the 4th wall is a technique he used fairly often.

Not at all what I was expecting, being listed on photography. Interesting all the same.