Mountain FogENCOUNTERS AT THE END OF THE WORLD: INTERESTING PEOPLE, INTERESTING PLACES
September 17th 2009 06:47
There's some unbelievable photography in Encounters at the End of the World.
Nobody can deny the existentialism that seems to inhabit the films of Werner Herzog. Whether it’s his infamous feature Aguirre, The Wrath of God or a documentary such as Little Dieter Needs to Fly, Herzog continually feels the need to play on, speak to, and reframe the human condition.
And yet Herzog’s documentaries are very different to his feature films. While releases such as Aguirre or Fitzcarraldo are frightening in their scope and intensity, Herzog’s non-fiction films tend to be personal and intimate, right down to the director’s droll, conspiratorial narration.
Encounters at the End of the World is another of these often-fantastic documentaries, Herzog using a trip to Antarctica to riff on his and others’ thoughts on the meaning of life and the future of the human race.
Invited by friend and underwater diver/photographer, Henry Kaiser, Herzog and his crew travel to the US Antarctic community of McMurdo Station. Located on the permanently iced-in Ross Island, the station is the headquarters of the National Science Foundation, and its population of just over 1000 inhabitants provides an ample sample of professional dreamers and fringe dwellers, just the type of people the filmmaker seems so interested in.
So we meet a former corporate banker who’s now the community bus driver, and a philosophy student who operates a forklift. There’s also a cell biologist who take a profound fascination in the microscopic horrors he studies and a fantastic conversation with a reticent penguin researcher that leads to one of the film’s more poignant moments. Throughout, Herzog proves himself as interested in the mental and philosophical goings-on of the workers themselves as he is in the environment they tackle day-in, day-out.
Continually using references to and images of Ernest Shackleton’s doomed Antarctic adventure of 90 years ago, Herzog raises questions about the changing way in which we view the world and the sustainability of human life on the planet. Almost everyone he talks to shares these grand concerns, even if they don’t express it quite so explicitly.
Not everything's so grim at the South Pole.
And there seems to be no better place to consider such issues than the frozen steppes of Antarctica. The surface of the continent seems so barren, and yet it’s teeming with life. Underwater, all sorts of strange creatures are captured by Henry Kaiser’s beautiful, drifting shots, his work framed by the icy catacomb that engulfs him and his fellow divers. Peter Zeitlinger takes care of the more traditional photography, and his seemingly symbiotic link with Herzog translates to the screen as he captures both the interview subjects and intimidating scenery with a quick but sure hand.
Herzog himself is a highly adept interviewer. He never lets the boffins of this strange environment get overly self-indulgent and instinctively knows when an interview has run its course. He’s both inquisitive and respectful, but also sometimes a little cheeky, and it’s perhaps this delicate mix that breaks open his subjects so easily.
Throughout, the fantastical scenery and colourful characters are strummed along by a fleet-footed score from David Lindley and Henry Kaiser, which switches from the profound to the playful in an instant.
And it’s that careful balance of elements that makes Encounters at the End of the World such a fantastic documentary. It effortlessly spins the viewer into Herzog’s web; the inquisitive philosophy, dramatic imagery and otherworldly music providing a hypnotic beat that remains in the brain long after the final credits have rolled.
Check out the trailer for Encounters at the End of the World below:
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Comment by David O'Connell
Screen Fanatic
Comment by Matt Shea
20/20 Filmsight
Comment by David O'Connell
Screen Fanatic
Comment by Jason King
Sydney Table
Salty Popcorn
Total Randomness
I reviewed this one about 6 months ago and for the life of me I can't find the review when searching.
I do remember thoroughly enjoying it though. I paid a bloody fortune back then to buy it on DVD. I have an Anatarctica obsession. Will watch anything filmed there. This was one of the better ones if not slightly quirky. There are a strange bunch of people at McMurdo.
Comment by Matt Shea
20/20 Filmsight
Comment by Lara M
Love Speaks
Food Slate
Will check it out - thanks!
Comment by Matt Shea
20/20 Filmsight