Werner Herzog wrote a foreword for Every Night the Trees Disappear by Alan Greenburg. He is considered one of the world's greatest filmmakers. His films include Aguirre, the Wrath of God; Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans; Cave of Forgotten Dreams; Encounters at the End of the World; The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser; Fitzcarraldo; Grizzly Man; The Wild Blue Yonder; and Woyzeck. His books include Conquest of the Useless and Of Walking in Ice.
This intimate chronicle about the visionary filmmaker Werner Herzog explores his unorthodox methods in directing the film Heart of Glass. Twenty-four-year-old Alan Greenberg showed up unannounced at Herzog’s Munich home; by the end of their first evening together Herzog urged him to collaborate on his current project—and everything thereafter. Sharing how unusual Herzog’s renegade filmmaking methods could be, Greenberg explains how Herzog hypnotized the actors prior to shooting their scenes, creating a profoundly haunting cinematic experience. More than a conventional journalistic account, this book interweaves the original screenplay with Greenberg’s observations from his work on the film, allowing the married texts to play off each other hypnotically and create a unique vision with the feel of a novel—intimate, penetrating, and filled with mystery.
