Alan Greenberg is a writer, film director, film producer, and photographer. His film Land of Look Behind won the Gold Hugo Award at the Chicago International Film Festival, and he has collaborated with Werner Herzog for more than 35 years, helping him write the screenplay of Fitzcarraldo, among others. He is also the author of Love in Vain: A Vision of Robert Johnson.
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.
