Here’s a feud that I was completely unaware of, which is strange considering it involves two of my favourite documentary filmmakers of all time. Many of you are most likely aware of the story behind Morris’ first film ‘Gates of Heaven’, in which Herzog presented a challenge claiming that if the film was seen through to completion, he would eat his own shoe. Not only was the film finished, but it has become an American classic with heavy support from film critics alike. Most vocally, Roger Ebert has included Gates of Heaven in his top ten films of all time. That’s pretty impressive. As for Herzog’s bet, he ended up boiling and eating his shoe at the world premiere of Morris’ film, with Les Blank documenting the event that would ultimately become the short ‘Werner Herzog Eats His Shoe’. What I DIDN’T know is that apparently Errol Morris wasn’t impressed by this event, seemingly looking at this as grandstanding on the part of Herzog. I guess he simply figured his first world premiere should spotlight his film rather then Herzog’s stunt.
In Kevin MacDonald’s documentary ‘A Brief History of Errol Morris’, Herzog tells a story of Morris becoming upset when Werner decided to shoot his film Stroszek in the same location (Plainfield, Wisconsin) that Morris was conducting interviews with Ed Gein for a future documentary project. I suppose this was the first example of Herzog seemingly stepping on Errol’s toes so to speak. Well according to a post over at Cinematical, the two of them will be reuniting October 22 at the Edie and Lew Wasserman Cinematheque in Massachusetts. The event was organized by a mutual friend Alice Kelikian, a professor and chair of the film studies program at Brandeis University. It looks like it’s an invite only engagement, open to students and special guests. After having seen Herzog speak at the Hot Docs festival in Toronto, i’m certain this will be an entertaining talk. Here’s hoping someone will be capturing it on video.
Source: Cinematical (via)
Related Video: Werner Herzog Eats His Shoe
Related Video: A Brief History of Errol Morris
Errol Morris is probably an asshole though. Clearly Werner Herzog is a very arrogant and impatient man, who will push people, but he also seems like he will not take offense if he is pushed back. Sounds to me like Herzog battled Morris and Morris wasn’t able to cope and went into kindergarten defense mode. Too bad.
Incidentally I watched Gates of Heaven at the school archives this monday. It started off very disjointed and slow, but the second half was pretty awesome. Do you know what happened to the long-haired brother? I hope he found someone. His speech on love was heartbreaking, and even though it looked like he was content with his music, the sadness was still apparent.
My brother recently worked on something with Errol Morris and said he was a really nice, generous guy. Like you, I think they’re both geniuses. I’d love to see what happens at this event. Keep us posted if any footage becomes available!
i met herzog and morris today. they’re both very interesting people. one can learn so much just by being in their vicinity.
Wondering if anyone can help. Years ago we saw this amazing documentary by Herzog, the name we cannot recall.
It was about this guy on skis with a flying suit that could travel unbelievable distances beating all the previous records.
Anyone seen this?
Hey Anne,
I believe the film you’re looking for is “The Great Ecstasy of Woodcarver Steiner”.