Werner Herzog's ecstatic truth

Mitcheson, Katrina

Abstract

In his stimulating discussion of Werner Herzog's work, Richard Eldridge emphasizes that Herzog's films are truth-disclosing. At the same time Eldridge acknowledges that Herzog makes clear the presence of the filmmaker and the process of filmmaking. In this essay, I explore further how the emphasis upon interpretation and perspective that one finds in Herzog's films can be reconciled with Herzog's notion of ecstatic truth. Eldridge's move to relate Herzog's work to Pierre Hadot's discussion of spiritual exercises is key to resolving this apparent tension, because it allows one to better understand the relationship between the subject and truth. I argue that an understanding of truth is operative in Herzog's films that is comparable to Friedrich Nietzsche's understanding of truth; in which the practice of truth involves a gradual breaking of habits and a purification of false beliefs which is ultimately transformative.

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Sep 2, 2021
• Publication Date: 2020-09
• Deposit Date: Feb 28, 2022
• Publicly Available Date: Mar 1, 2022
• Journal: Existenz
• Electronic ISSN: 1932-1066
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 15
• Issue: 1
• Pages: 12-29
• Keywords: Herzog, Werner; Eldridge, Richard; Hadot, Pierre; Nietzsche, Friedrich; ecstatic truth; spiritual exercises; conversion; perspective
• Public URL: https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/9081607
• Publisher URL: https://existenz.us/volumes/Vol.15-1Mitcheson.html