“I wouldn't make a connection between the daily news and volcanoes.” NewsConnectionsVolcanoesDaily News Author:Werner Herzog
“It was a subject [ volcanoes] that was dormant in me for a long time and it popped up 40 years ago when I made a [short] film on the Caribbean island of Guadeloupe about a volcano that was about to explode and a single farmer refused to leave ["La Soufrière"].” YearsLongMadeFilmSubjectsLong TimeYears AgoIslandsFarmersCaribbeanVolcanoesDormantShort Films Author:Werner Herzog
“Everything you see in North Korea, it's all propaganda, but it's all connected to the volcano.” ConnectedPropagandaKoreaNorth KoreaVolcanoes Author:Werner Herzog
“Well, it had to be about the stories and the people who live under the volcano, what kind of new gods do they create? What sort of demons? And of course North Korea falls clearly into this category since the socialist revolution at the end of the Second World War. Somehow they adopted the myth of the power and dynamics of their volcano.” PeopleWorldWellsKindWarEndsStoriesFallCoursesRevolutionMythWar Of The WorldsDemonCategoriesSocialistAdoptedKoreaNorth KoreaSecond World WarDynamicsVolcanoes Author:Werner Herzog
“There are photos of Kim Jong-un right up atop the volcano. I actually wrote a letter to him asking if I could speak on camera. I never got an answer. But what was interesting was the people who were responsible for us, our "guards," it took them two days to figure out how I should address him. "President? No, you can't because there's a president for eternity." And it was a time when his status was still in flux. Only a few months later there was this party congress which assigned an official title to him, but that was after we did our film.” PeopleIfsShouldStillsTwoFilmSpeakPresidentAnswersInterestingPartyFiguresMonthsLettersEternityAskingResponsibleCamerasCongressTitlesOfficialsIf I CouldAddressesTwo DaysKimFluxVolcanoes Author:Werner Herzog
“I was able to persuade them to let me shoot in areas that were beyond the volcano itself. Beyond the joint scientific program between Cambridge University and North Korean scientists. I was able to film in a kindergarten, subway, other things you would not normally be allowed to do.” AbleFilmAreasProgramScientistLet MeUniversityJointsNorth KoreaKoreanSubwayKindergartenVolcanoesCambridgeNorth KoreanCambridge University Author:Werner Herzog
“Clive [Oppenheimer] and I figured out that I'm the only one probably in the film industry who is clinically sane. I say that as a joke, but there's a grain of truth to it. I'm not a stupid daredevil who jumps into the crater of the volcano to get the closest close-up, I'm not one of those. And you have to be aware that you have a crew with you and you are responsible.” FilmStupidIndustryJokesResponsibleSaneGrainClosestCrewFilm IndustryVolcanoesDaredevilCraters Author:Werner Herzog
“The wonderful thing is that Clive [Oppenheimer ] insisted on training his camera - his private camera - on me at one point. We were discussing things such as how to avoid certain dangers, while reflecting on a volcano that had threatened to explode 40 years ago.” YearsCertainWonderfulDangerTrainingYears AgoCamerasThreatenedWonderful ThingsReflectingDiscussingVolcanoes Author:Werner Herzog
“The volcano itself wasn't that interesting, but the man who refused to be evacuated - the only one of 75,000 people - was what set the tone for the film ["Encounters at the End of the World"] that we made together [with Clive Oppenheimer] ten years later.” PeopleMenWorldYearsMadeEndsTogetherFilmInterestingHe ManTenToneEncountersEnd Of The WorldVolcanoes Author:Werner Herzog
“As for the "anger" of the volcano, we leave it up to the local populations who create their demons, their gods and their divine punishment.” DivinePopulationPunishmentLocalsDemonVolcanoes Author:Werner Herzog
“Most of the volcanoes are pretty far away. You have to go to, God knows, Alaska. Or you have to go to the Southern Indies or you have to go to a specific island.” KnowsIslandsSouthernFar AwayGod KnowsAlaskaVolcanoes Author:Werner Herzog
“However, there are a couple of volcanoes very close nearby, like Vesuvius in Italy right next to Naples.” NextCoupleVolcanoesNaples Author:Werner Herzog
“We have volcanoes also in our immediate neighborhood. I wish we didn't have to travel that far. Probably the kind of magnitude and awesome raw power of them is very fascinating, and of course it's very cinematic.” KindCoursesWishFascinatingNeighborhoodMagnitudeVolcanoesCinematic Author:Werner Herzog
“When the camera is looking back at our planet Earth, it's the tiniest of specks somewhere out there in the universe. So we do have a new sense of proportion. Of course the volcanoes and the magma under us just remind us of that.” EarthUniverseCoursesPlanetsCamerasProportionLooking BackOur PlanetPlanet EarthVolcanoesSpecksSomewhere Out ThereOur Planet EarthMagma Author:Werner Herzog
“At the same time, there's something magnificent about volcanoes; they created the atmosphere that we need for breathing.” NeedsBreathingAtmosphereMagnificentVolcanoes Author:Werner Herzog
“I'm very, very curious about how people live under the volcano, how they handle the permanence of danger.” PeopleDangerHandleCuriousPermanenceVolcanoes Author:Werner Herzog
“It's very strange, for example, in North Korea where the volcano at the Chinese border is some sort of the mythical birthplace of the Korean people.” PeopleExampleStrangeChineseBordersKoreaNorth KoreaKoreanVolcanoesBirthplace Author:Werner Herzog
“In the communist revolution in North Korea, when they threw out the Japanese occupiers, they claimed the power in the dynamic of this volcano for their revolution, saying that this is at the center of the dynamics of our revolution. Everything that you encounter - you don't have, for example, any advertisements, you don't have anything like that anywhere in the country - if you see anything it would be propaganda, and propaganda always inevitably comes back to the volcano. It's always including the volcano. You see the new leader and standing behind him you see the volcano.” IfsCountryWould BeBehindsLeaderExampleRevolutionStandingIncludingPropagandaEncountersCommunistKoreaNorth KoreaAdvertisementsDynamicsVolcanoes Author:Werner Herzog
“It's very enigmatic because of course, the population [of North Korea] has no contact with the world outside or it's very, very limited. They don't have any telephone connections, no radio, no TV, no movies, no newspapers - nothing from the outside world. This is very strange and there's the very strict, unifying government that forces you to be in step. You see it in the stadium where the spectators create, by flipping cards, an image of the dear leader, or of the volcano, and it's made of a 100,000 human pictures.” WorldHumansMadeGovernmentCoursesForceLeaderStepsStrangeTvsConnectionsDearPopulationRadioNewspapersContactCardsStrictTelephonesSpectatorsKoreaNorth KoreaStadiumsOutside WorldVolcanoesUnifyingEnigmatic Author:Werner Herzog
“The power of a volcano when it erupts is so evident, so visible, so palpable.” VisibleEvidentVolcanoes Author:Werner Herzog
“It's not far-fetched that almost everywhere in the world where you have volcanoes you have mythologies or new gods being created.” WorldMythologyVolcanoes Author:Werner Herzog
“North Korea is not an exception. Even there, where you think it would be completely sober, they have the myth of their revolution being connected to the volcano.” ThinkingWould BeRevolutionConnectedMythExceptionSoberKoreaNorth KoreaVolcanoes Author:Werner Herzog
“It's curiosity, and always a sense of poetry. You see it in particular in the chapter "Iceland" where I'm reciting ancient Icelandic poetry. It has this very beautiful gravitas in conjunction with the volcanoes.” BeautifulParticularCuriosityAncientChaptersVery BeautifulVolcanoesConjunctionsIcelandRecitingGravitas Author:Werner Herzog
“I went to volcanoes where I knew that there was a lot of mythology around them; there was something like the creation of gods and monsters and demons.” CreationMythologyMonstersDemonVolcanoesGods And Monsters Author:Werner Herzog
“Of course, you do not do any research: you have to go there and do your film. It's not that I would travel there before without a camera and spend half a year on one of those volcanoes and then come back with a camera. You have to have some sort of a clear mindset.” YearsFilmCoursesHalfClearResearchCamerasMindsetVolcanoesHalf A Year Author:Werner Herzog
“When we speak about trespassing, we speak about artistic trespassing. You have to be prudent and have common sense and a sense of responsibility when you're trespassing. I think you haven't seen a film on volcanoes like that before. It's not National Geographic. It is wildly imaginative and very poetic and has a sense of awe that you normally do not see in films.” ThinkingFilmSpeakCommonResponsibilityHavensCommon SenseArtisticAwePoeticImaginativePrudentVolcanoesSense Of ResponsibilityNational GeographicTrespassing Author:Werner Herzog
“[ Digital revolution ] only has allowed me to work faster, editing digitally, which I'm doing right now, a film on volcanoes. I can edit almost as fast as I'm thinking, editing with celluloid means always searching for this little reel of film, and number it, and scribble on it with some sort of pens, and gluing it together, and working on a flatbed. It's much, much slower.” ThinkingMeanLittlesI CanTogetherFilmNumbersRevolutionRight NowFasterDigitalPensEditingEditsVolcanoesDoing RightScribblesCelluloidDigital Revolution Author:Werner Herzog
“There's happens to be a volcano in the vicinity and there's some talk about a volcano as well, so that's the title Salt and Fire” WellsHappensFireTitlesSaltVolcanoesVicinity Author:Werner Herzog
