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HEART
OF GLASS
8/10
Herz
aus Glas : (West) Germany 1976 : Werner Herzog : 94 mins
It’s
the early days of the industrial revolution in a small, isolated German
town where the only large-scale employer is a glassware business owned
by a decadent family of local aristocrats. The firm – and thus the town
– are plunged into crisis when glass expert Muhlbeck dies, taking with
him the secret of the firm’s renowned ‘ruby glass.’ The impact upon bosses
and workers alike is a mood of desolate, terminal, dejection. The only
person immune from this cloud of depression is a bear-like shepherd, Hias
(Joseph Bierbichler), who happens to be gifted with second sight. As the
general mood darkens to a more violent hysteria, Hias’s visions gallop
forward in time, through the bloody events of the 20th century,
and beyond…
Combining
aspects of gothic horror movie, weird fairytale and crazy comedy, Heart
of Glass is a way-out bit of seventies experimental cinema that’s
also a wildly over-ambitious chronicle of a nation’s history, art and
philosophy – nothing less than an attempt to analyse the essence of Germany’s
tortured soul. It’s also one of the most aggressively soporific films
ever made, best known these days for Herzog having supposedly ‘hypnotised’
the entire cast (presumably excepting Bierbichler) in order to convey
the world-out-of-joint impact of the ruby-glass crisis, and also recapture
the pace of an era completely removed from our own.
Whatever
the process, the results are often agonisingly protracted, with heavy-lidded
rustics intoning their lines in a robotic monotone. The effect extends
to the viewer, and we may find ourselved being sucked into this sleepy
world of nightmarish stasis. Heart of Glass clearly isn’t like
anything else – and this may not necessarily be a good thing. It is
recommended, however. And so is drinking some black coffee beforehand.
For
a more in depth review click here.
17th
August, 2001
(seen National Film Theatre, London, Aug-8-01)
by Neil
Young
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