Heart of GlassIn those rare moments upon waking up, when the vestiges of your dreams still linger, some moments ring out more clearly than others, and you attempt to work out the logic that manifests from those soporific scenes. That otherworldly imagery and sequence of events is what Werner Herzog's Heart of Glass mirrors most of all--a Bavarian town in some undisclosed century from the past, beleaguered by a kind of neurotic madness after the death of the craftsman and keeper of the secret of the town's most famous product, the "ruby glass" used to craft their exquisite glassware.
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After the death of the foreman at the glass blowing factory, the owner of the factory--the virtually vampiric and borderline effete Huttenbesitzer (Stefan Güttler)--scours all avenues for the secret his foreman took with him to the grave to reproduce the glass, employing absurd and extreme measures to ensure this secret does not elude him going forward. In the other corner is the reclusive Hias (Josef Bierbichler), a rather average looking fellow who lives in the woods, but receives visions which plant him firmly in the role of a mystic sought out by the townsfolk to assuage their worries. However, even when others learn of his predictions, they do little to avert the results, which suggests that Hias avoids the company of people because they just don't listen anyway. There is not much direct interaction between our two main characters, but their motivations drive the plot proper, with Hias' reason for coming down the mountain being ostensibly to warn Huttenbesitzer to a degree, but really to try to protect Ludmilla (Sonja Skiba) from being made a victim in this obsessive pursuit by her master for this ruby glass. The madness which grips the town is like a mental fog which ensorcells the residents, giving them all a perpetual look of sleep deprivation and of being unhinged. This particular effect was brought to the forefront by Herzog's unorthodox method of hypnotizing his actors, giving them the awkward aura of one who is acting on impulse rather than conscious decision.The varied imagery of fog pouring forth across the land is bookended with the rising smoke from the factory later, as the madness which has overtaken Huttenbesitzer finally goes too far.
Just as Herzog hypnotized much of his cast of Heart of Glass to give the film a dreamlike presentation by virtue of the unusual performances, so too are we hypnotized by the vast countryside depicted in all its grandeur, and by the actions of our strange inhabitants of the village. One early scene depicts two rough fellows in a bar, debating who will kill who first. They are basing their argument on something Hias had said, that one of them would be dead on the ground, and the other would be sleeping on top of him. Does Hias' prediction motivate them to mortal combat? It seems given one of the thug's wistful attitude at missing his friend after he killed him, that he regrets the action, but felt compelled to carry it out regardless. And perhaps Hias doesn't see just the strange visions which he shares with others when prompted, but he understands that the obsessive Huttenbesitzer is a danger in his pursuit to not only the town, but to the young servant, Ludmilla. But Hias does little more than talk; he doesn't take action against a "sea of troubles", but is left to share his predictions with a group of insane people, who cannot truly believe his tale of misfortune, making him something of an Alpine Cassandra. Heart of Glass boasts extended scenes of glass blowing, which show the factory at work making the glass the town thrives upon, even if it does not meet Huttenbesitzer's standard of "ruby glass". The scenes embody one of Herzog's finest qualities as a filmmaker, that he can merge narrative with scenes that would be at home in a documentarian capacity, given the technical acuity of the glass work demonstrated. Heart of Glass is dreamlike, both in the bizarre histrionics of the hypnotized cast as well as the bold, vast scenery of a wild, vibrant nature. Hias' prophesies are sometimes delivered to none but himself it would seem, espoused in a fashion like a kind of hypnosis-inducing gospel; or perhaps, this is Herzog's voice seeking to lure us to the rocks, to crash upon the upraised behemoth of an Atlantean emergence of rock. When we wake from this dream and wonder if it truly existed, this land where the red glass can evoke such emotion, we can recall only that strange set of images with the logic of that world beyond the veil in the land of Nod.
Recommended for: Fans of a literally hypnotic film, bedecked in potent imagery bursting with metaphor. The outright strangeness of the performances makes the film feel all the more like it emerged from the dreamscape of an artist's soul.
Just as Herzog hypnotized much of his cast of Heart of Glass to give the film a dreamlike presentation by virtue of the unusual performances, so too are we hypnotized by the vast countryside depicted in all its grandeur, and by the actions of our strange inhabitants of the village. One early scene depicts two rough fellows in a bar, debating who will kill who first. They are basing their argument on something Hias had said, that one of them would be dead on the ground, and the other would be sleeping on top of him. Does Hias' prediction motivate them to mortal combat? It seems given one of the thug's wistful attitude at missing his friend after he killed him, that he regrets the action, but felt compelled to carry it out regardless. And perhaps Hias doesn't see just the strange visions which he shares with others when prompted, but he understands that the obsessive Huttenbesitzer is a danger in his pursuit to not only the town, but to the young servant, Ludmilla. But Hias does little more than talk; he doesn't take action against a "sea of troubles", but is left to share his predictions with a group of insane people, who cannot truly believe his tale of misfortune, making him something of an Alpine Cassandra. Heart of Glass boasts extended scenes of glass blowing, which show the factory at work making the glass the town thrives upon, even if it does not meet Huttenbesitzer's standard of "ruby glass". The scenes embody one of Herzog's finest qualities as a filmmaker, that he can merge narrative with scenes that would be at home in a documentarian capacity, given the technical acuity of the glass work demonstrated. Heart of Glass is dreamlike, both in the bizarre histrionics of the hypnotized cast as well as the bold, vast scenery of a wild, vibrant nature. Hias' prophesies are sometimes delivered to none but himself it would seem, espoused in a fashion like a kind of hypnosis-inducing gospel; or perhaps, this is Herzog's voice seeking to lure us to the rocks, to crash upon the upraised behemoth of an Atlantean emergence of rock. When we wake from this dream and wonder if it truly existed, this land where the red glass can evoke such emotion, we can recall only that strange set of images with the logic of that world beyond the veil in the land of Nod.
Recommended for: Fans of a literally hypnotic film, bedecked in potent imagery bursting with metaphor. The outright strangeness of the performances makes the film feel all the more like it emerged from the dreamscape of an artist's soul.