Werner Herzog
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Werner Herzog (German: [ˈvɛʁnɐ ˈhɛʁtsoːk]; né Stipetić; born 5 September 1942) is a German filmmaker, actor, opera director, and author. Regarded as a pioneer of New German Cinema, his films often feature ambitious protagonists with impossible dreams, people with unusual talents in obscure fields, or individuals in conflict with nature. His style involves avoiding storyboards, emphasizing improvisation, and placing his cast and crew into real situations mirroring those in the film on which they are working. In 1961, when Herzog was 19, he started work on his first film, Herakles. He has since produced, written, and directed the feature films Aguirre, the Wrath of God (1972), The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser (1974), Heart of Glass (1976), Stroszek (1977), Nosferatu the Vampyre (1979), Fitzcarraldo (1982), Cobra Verde (1987), Invincible (2001), and Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans (2009) as well as the documentary films Lessons of Darkness (1992), Little Dieter Needs to Fly (1997), My Best Fiend (1999), Grizzly Man (2005), Encounters at the End of the World (2007), Cave of Forgotten Dreams (2010), and Into the Abyss (2011). He has also published over 12 books of prose and directed many operas. French filmmaker François Truffaut once called Herzog "the most important film director alive". American film critic Roger Ebert said that Herzog "has never created a single film that is compromised, shameful, made for pragmatic reasons, or uninteresting. Even his failures are spectacular". He was named one of the world's 100 most influential people by Time in 2009.