alt Hacker NewsWhat I always loved about Werner Herzog documentaries that how he just lets people talk. He just listens. Most people will talk and tell their story if you let them do it and that's exectaly what he does without any fanfares. But he never lets them off the hook either. It's an art on its own to do this, walking on a thin line.
I can highly recommend Into the Abyss, one of his best work https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QmyN3QJky7I
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Spot on. There's something about his approach to documentaries that really resonates with me. I'll admit I'm not super well-versed in documentaries so maybe his style isn't that unique, but I suspect it is. The only other film that's had the same effect on me as a Herzog documentary was Joshua Oppenheimer's The Act of Killing. I would also highly recommend Herzog's early film, Land of Silence and Darkness (1971) which shows he had the magic very early in his career.
"he just listens" is probably a false assumption. He famously promotes his documentary method of finding the "ecstatic truth", which "does not necessarily have to agree with facts". This style leads him him to script and stage scenes, sometimes with multiple takes. I don't think this counts as just listening.
Additionally, he has called cinema verite "a mistake".
Grizzly Man was the first Herzog documentary I saw and this scene is exactly what you’re talking about and something I still think about when I am with people willing to share the things they alone carry in life: https://youtu.be/hXyQAtXJ4II