William Verrone - Transgression and Transcendence in The Films of Werner Herzog

Film-Philosophy 15.
2011
Transgression and Transcendence in the Films of Werner Herzog William Verrone

University of North Alabama
The films of Werner Herzog present us with a very unique and distinct dilemma, namely, the difficulty of admiring protagonists who very often perform unappealing acts in order to satisfy their own desires, needs, or ambitions. A good many of Herzogs characters transgress because they seek transcendence. Not every Herzogian hero chases futile dreams, but the majority of his films depict characters in dire circumstances where they either deliberately choose or are forced to transgress. Transgression is a philosophical, sociological, and spiritual concept that connotes boundarycrossing, wrongdoing, sin, or, more figuratively, self-searching. Herzogs outsider characters allow us to recognize the boundaries that have been constructed by social institutions, and the transgressions show us the moral and ethical constraints that compel people to transgress. Contexts and circumstances also guide Herzogs characters dreams and motivations, but the binary and often competing concepts of transgression and transcendence provide a thematic and formal link in many of Herzogs films. Herzogs films are typically wrought with careful attention to mise-en-scne, cinematography, and narrative structure. Many of his films have characters who transgress given the nature of their circumstances. I want to discuss several of his films and their protagonists, ones that very deliberately seek alternative ways of existing. These characters live in worlds where seeking transcendence means committing a transgression or a series of transgressions. The philosophical interpretation of transgressive behaviour has perhaps been best articulated by Georges Bataille and Michel Foucault. And while Herzog does not directly confront either in his films, their insights into individual behaviour do belie a certain tendency of his characters who seek transcendence through transgression. The purpose of transgression or transgressive acts is to transport one to other realmsto literally or
Film-Philosophy | ISSN: 1466-4615
179
Film-Philosophy 15.1
2011
figuratively move beyond the ordinary. Herzogs diverse array of characters, from Aguirre to Fitzcarraldo to Timothy Treadwell, all participate in an act of transgression that perpetuates their transcendence. To this end, I will briefly discuss Kants idea of transcendentalism, which allows for a particular way of thinking about transcendence in Herzogs films. In what follows, I will offer a discussion of Herzogs aesthetics, the meanings and relevance of transgression and transcendence in his films, before providing a closer analysis of Bataille and Foucault and then specific analyses of only some of Herzogs films and characters. Much can be said about Herzogs films in terms of the dialectic between rationalism and poeticism, or, the dichotomy of German Idealism and Romanticism, two separateyet linkedphilosophical inquiries into human behaviour and endeavor. I mention these briefly, but it seems each merits a separate, more thorough, and different type of analysis than what my aim is here. I only will address Kants transcendentalism, which stems from German Idealism. (For instance, Herzogs tendency to focus on the beauty and awe of the landscapethe sublimebelies a certain Romanticism. However, Idealisms focus on thought over sensation possibly complicates this Romanticism. Still, there is a connection between these two discourses: the phenomenal world is produced a priori by the activity of the consciousness by reacting to that external reality whose eternal nature cannot be fully known.) I hope to articulate a more nuanced way of arguing about the nature of transgression and transcendence as two major themes, poles, and complementing tendencies in Herzogs films. Herzogs Aesthetic: Transgression and Transcendence The characters who inhabit Herzogs films are very often in search of somethingwhether a higher calling, a new level of consciousness, or a physical and psychic transposition or transfiguration. They essentially seek transcendence. Transcendence, both in a philosophical and religious sense, means something that reaches beyond any possible knowledge of human understanding. Kant suggests that transcendence is beyond the limits of human experience and is therefore unknown (Kant, 2008, 1); still, if transcendence connotes surpassing others to achieve a physical or mental state beyond ordinary perception, we can recognise both the attempts at reaching this level and also the depiction of the transcendent state itself, as Herzog demonstrates in some of his films. The nature of these quests is more often than not spiritual, and by spiritual I simply mean a personal journey for meaning or understanding while passing from one place or space to another, either inwardly or outwardly. These spiritual journeys do not have to be religious (indeed, religion and spirituality are not the same thing), and
180
2011
in Herzogs films they usually are not. More precise, the characters in Herzogs films undertake transgressive transformations; they seek to discover themselves through spiritual quests and by violating certain laws, boundaries, or moral codes. It is a highly personal endeavor that requires egoism. JeanPaul Sartre, in The Transcendence of the Ego (1937, 98) writes that transcendental consciousness is an impersonal spontaneity, which suggests that transcendental consciousness determines its existence in an instant, hence its spontaneity. Such Herzog heroes as Aguirre, Kasper Hauser, Nosferatu, Cobra Verde, Timothy Treadwell, or even the entire cast of Heart of Glass (1976), push beyond the limits of sanity, freedom, and societal restrictions in order to transgress or pass into a different state of being transcendence. I suggest these moves are spiritual because the characters become individual disciples of their own imaginings, their own beliefs, and their own codes of behaviour. Both physically and psychically these characters embark on journeys that allow us to see how difficult, yet ultimately manageable, these transgressions are. These intensely focused expeditions also epitomize what Herzog calls ecstatic truth. The thread that runs through Herzogs cinematic output consists of three main ties: transgression, transcendence, and the search for ecstatic truth. These elements work in combination to create the overwhelming sense of anxiety that hovers in almost every individual film, but also the overriding sense of beauty, wonder, and awe. In his Minnesota Declaration, a manifesto of sorts about truth and fiction in documentary film, Herzog suggested the ecstatic truth implies that there are deeper strata of truth in cinema, and there is such a thing as poetic, ecstatic truth. It is mysterious and elusive, and can be reached only through fabrication and imagination and stylization (Herzog, 1999, n.p.). This truth accounts for the extreme situations of his characters; discovering the ecstatic truth is achieved through privation, exertion, and strong will, and transgressive behaviour exemplifies these character attributes. Herzog carefully presents us with the sacred and the profane, where transgression and transcendence reside mutually and inclusively. Few other filmmakers have explored the obscured grey areas of human constraint and freedom that infuses individual consciousness in such glorious and grotesque ways as Herzog. He is demanding because he often refuses to give clear endings or rather, lets ambiguity remain. But what makes the films unique is the way he very accurately portrays how and why individuals spiritually transgress. This is not a negative thing, as the word transgress might connote. Rather, what Herzog teaches us is the necessity to constantly strive for a spiritual center, no matter how mad, strange, or transgressive it may be. By attempting to discover the ecstatic truth, these characters find themselves on journeys that are overly individualistic and thus quite burdensome since they engage in
181
2011
intense and complex self-examinations. We may not agree with some of Herzogs protagonists, like Aguirres murderous tactics or with Grizzly Man (2005) Timothy Treadwells nave understanding of natural law, but it does not matter. What matters is that they take risks in order to discover who they arethat is, by seeking transcendencethrough transgression, and if anyone stands in the way, as is the case with Aguirre, then that other individual may suffer. Transcendence for Herzogs characters is about finding belief, something to search for and hold onto. Spirituality in general is the singular creation of an individual; the world that he or she creates and chooses to call spiritual exists only for that individual. Thus, we cannot be overly critical when we see Herzogs characters transgress boundaries simply because outsiders interfere with the journey the character has decided to follow. Moreover, spirituality is and should be highly personal, and in turn may not be easy to understand from another perspective. These transgressions are attempts to discover the ecstatic truth. Herzog himself says the term ecstatic truth is searching for truth beyond the facts and much deeper than the facts (quoted in Aftab 2006). This search is somewhat equivalent to a transcendental experience, one that does indeed involve a deeper analysis of self and personal aspiration and meaning that may lead to some higher state of being or spirituality. Herzogs films, as art, have ecstatic potential. As Brad Prager notes, Ecstasy namesa state of rapture during which the body is incapable of sensation because the soul is otherwise occupied with the contemplation of divine things (2007, 6). For Herzogs characters, the struggle for spirituality is one that takes transgression in order to succeed. Bataille and Transgression Batailles book Erotism: Death and Sensuality explores the relations between the sacred world of violence and the profane world of taboo, which includes transgressions, limits (a concept later used by Foucault), death and sexuality, and specifically how taboos become interrelated with ordinary phenomena like transgressions because they give us a glimpse of our continuous nature. Bataille thinks that we need to closely examine taboos for they tell us about human nature, specifically, why people transgress and the resulting rewards or consequences of any transgression. To understand people is to examine their transgressions; for Bataille, the closest approximation to death one can achieve comes through eroticism. Eroticism and death undermine and disturb the world order of things. Herzogs films do not correlate eroticism or sexuality with death (except for Nosferatu), but because the characters transgress in multiple ways on various levels, their behaviour constitutes a close approximation of death, a fundamental concept that leads to
182
2011
continuity in ourselves, which Batailles philosophy can elucidate in Herzogs films. According to Bataille, transgressions stem from or arise alongside prohibitions or taboos because transgressions provide a temporary approximation to continuity by halting homogeneity (Bataille 2001, 103). For Bataille, people exist in discontinuous states because the only way to have a fully continuous nature is through death. Arguably, Herzog characters like Aguirre, Fitzcarraldo, Nosferatu, Kasper Hauser or Cobra Verde experience the sort of transcendence that comes through their manifest transgressions when they get closer to death. People cannot typically connect with others, hence they remain discontinuous, but through death (or the extreme sexuality or sacredness Bataille discusses), one can achieve a continuity of self. For Bataille, people go through life adhering to or obeying taboosthose laws, regulations, rules, or conventions that dictate how we must behavewhile constantly yearning to transgressto violate or break the very same laws or rules. We see this tendency in Herzogs characters. The dwarfs from Even Dwarfs Started Small (1969) rebel because they exist in a world where laws prohibit them from being their true selves. Transgressive experience, as Bataille would have it, involves the pleasure of passing from an ordered, reasoned realmthe world of regulationto an unordered, irrational, and destabilized realm. When the dwarfs overthrow the doctors that have kept them down, they are participating not just in the act of rebellion, but also in the search for continuity. By crossing boundaries, they realize only then how much they needed to transgress. The asylum where they have been held erupts into chaos. Similarly, when Aguirre declares himself the wrath of God, he does so with pleasure and guile because he recovers his individuality and subjectivity, two things stifled by the laws or rules he has had to endure as a simple member of the expedition. Bataille says that individual subjectivity is constructed from multiple sources, specifically social, economic, ethical, religious, or linguistic coding. When individuals transgress these boundaries, they then become aware of the limits imposed upon them. Through transgression, Aguirre reaches a new plane of existencea transcendent state that allows him to forge ahead without guilt, remorse, or objectivity. Recognizing the barriers that contain him, Aguirrelike many Herzog protagonists such as the dwarfsis compelled to transgress. Bataille believes that transgression does not deny the taboo but transcends it and completes it (2001, 63). Treadwell, in Grizzly Man, confirms to us through his home movies that he is fully aware of the taboo he is engagingthat the park he lives in prohibits people from living in it and engaging with the bears. Bataille suggests that any taboo will naturally give rise to an opposing view, namely, its transgression. Taboos are transgressed
183
2011
because they automatically incline a person, like Treadwell, to think of transgressing them. Transgression is necessary; Bataille advocates this in his philosophy, and Herzog seems to believe too that transgression is necessary for the individual to reach a transcendent state. The transgressive act can take one to a place where rules or manners are not governed. For Bataille, being is the experience of limits and the foundational experience and prime metaphor for this is the knowledge of death (Jenks 2003, 93). This is why Bataille suggests that continuity exists only when death is achieved. For Herzogs characters, an awareness of achieving the continuous state comes from transgression and transcendence. As Bataille says, Life may be doomed but the continuity of existence is not (2001, 23-24). Transgression serves as a way to circumscribe authoritythe tabooby participating in the act of deviation. According to Bataille, Men are swayed by two simultaneous emotions: they are driven away by terror and drawn by an odd fascination. Taboo and transgression reflect these two contradictory urges. The taboo would forbid the transgression but the fascination compels it. Taboos and the divine are opposed to each other in one sense only, for the sacred aspect of the taboo is what draws men towards it and transfigures the original interdiction. (Bataille 2001, 68) Bataille situates the longing to transgress in the erotic, or at least equates them, but as mentioned, Herzog does not focus on eroticism. The sacredness (and violence, which Bataille articulates as well) of eroticism, however, correlates to the compulsion to transgress: anything denoting continuity is inextricably bound with conflict because it is understood both as desirable and repulsivethe taboo and transgression of which Bataille speaks. The ideal of reaching transcendence is therefore appealing and repulsive, but inherently necessary for completion. Batailles philosophical project focuses on a variety of areas (eroticism/sexuality, taboo/transgression, continuity/discontinuity, productivity/unproductiveness), which means that not everything he examines is relevant to Herzogs films, but the main argument that complements Herzogs work is the idea that transgression is accomplished through excesswhich simply means that indulging in excessive behaviour dictates action. Transgressions are used to escape taboos; Herzogs characters engage in transgressive acts not as a mean to an end, but rather as a progression: transgression, in the minds of Herzogs characters, results in a new social order or transcendence. Aguirre, Fitzcarraldo, Treadwell, Nosferatu, the casts of Dwarfs or Heart of Glassall seek to establish new social structures by overturning or dismantling the taboo. Incorporating transgressive acts into their behaviours allows the Herzogian protagonist to
184
2011
experience a positive vision of human emancipation. The compulsion to transgressto exceed imposed limitsalso points toward Foucaults assessment of transgression. Foucault and Transgression Foucaults A Preface to Transgression (1977) was written in part as a response to and admiration of Bataille. In it, Foucault examines how transgression and what he calls the limit has replaced the older dichotomy of the sacred and the profane, highlighting how transgression instigates a will-to-power. Foucault valorizes authors like Bataille and the Marquis de Sade who explore the limits of madness via transgression (particularly sexuality). These writers challenge assumptions of Western culture, and so should be admired. In Foucaults terms, the transgressive nature of sexuality is given a transcendent significance. For Herzogs films and protagonists, this correlates to the underlying principle that madnessor relative degrees of madnesseither produce or promulgate transgression, which in turn becomes a moment or moments of transcendence. In other words, transgression brings one closer to self-transcendence by marking the limit within us while simultaneously revealing us as the source of the limit. The limit serves a symbiotic relationship with transgression: Transgression is an action which involves the limit, that narrow zone of a line where it displays the flash of its passage, but perhaps also its entire trajectory, even its origin; it is likely that transgression has its entire space in the line it crosses (Foucault 1999, 60). Foucault continues, The limit and transgression depend on each other for whatever density of being they possess: a limit could not exist if it were absolutely uncrossable, and reciprocally, transgression would be pointless if it simply crossed a limit composed of illusions and shadows (Foucault 1999, 60). The limit, to Foucault, is that space/place where one enters by crossing the line or boundary that exists to keep individuals from transgressing. Transgression pushes wide the envelope of the limit, in ever-expanding vistas of limitlessness. Foucault writes, The limit opens violently on the limitless[and] transgression carries the limit to the limit of its being to face the fact of its imminent disappearance, finding itself in what it excludes (Foucault 1999, 60). Herzogs protagonists pursue the limit; the moment becomes the thing for them. Aguirre, for instance, gives his whole being (violently) over to transgressing the limit. For Foucault the boundaries of the self are necessarily illuminated by acts of transgression, hence the importance of the limit which coexists or operates with the notion of transgression. The continual crossing of boundaries is essential to Foucaults ideas on transgression, and Herzogs characters continually cross boundaries. The crossing of boundaries is both
185
2011
a transgression and, I suggest, a necessary step toward transcendence. The relationship between the limit and transgression is that of a spiral, according to Foucault, which implies it cannot be exhausted or essentially ended. Thus, the individuals who transgress do so to continuously seek the limit, to pass the limit, to enter the limitless, which, after all, is transcendence. Transgression is the essential acting out of finitude, which I propose in my discussions of Herzogs films, is akin to transcendence. Foucaults notion of boundary crossing is equivalent to the continual movement or spiral between the appropriate and the inappropriateor taboo and transgression, to use Batailles terms. Transgression was initially linked to the divine or sacred. Aguirres declaration that he is the wrath of god suggests that a severe profanation has occurred to and/or with the sacred. As Foucault suggests, Profanation in a world which no longer recognizes any possible meanings in the sacredis this not more or less what we call transgression? (Foucault 2001, 58). Transgression becomes the site of profanation in a world devoid of the sacred. Transgression establishes new conditions for sacredness which Foucault calls unmediated substance, but for my purposes, is relative to transcendence. In other words, transgression becomes a sacred area because it fills the void left by the absence of the sacred (or God, as Nietzsche would have it), where all of our actions are addressed in this absence in a profanation which at once identifies it, dissipates it, exhausts itself in it, and restores it to the empty purity of its transgression (Foucault 1999, 58). If this is indeed the case, the necessity of transgression assumes a correlating transcendence, which occurs in Herzogs films. The characters that perform transgressive acts do so to become transcendent. Remembering that according to Foucault no transgression can exist without a limit, we can see how Herzogs characters are always crossing boundaries, always servicing the limit. Foucaults notion of transgression is both complicated and paradoxical. He says, The play of limits and transgression seems to be regulated by a simple obstinacy: transgression incessantly crosses and recrosses a line which closes up behind it in a wave of extremely short duration, and thus is made to return once more right to the horizon of the uncrossable. But this relationship is considerably more complex: these elements are situated in an uncertain context, in certainties which are immediately upset so that thought is ineffectual as soon as it attempts to seize them. (Foucault 1999, 60) Indeed, the boundary crossed never vanishesit remains for the purpose of creating the line that is perpetual, the space between the limit and limitless.
186
2011
This obstinacy that stands behind the transgressive act perhaps suggests a process of a non-transcendent will-to-resist, or, the taboo, in Batailles terms, which is obeyed. This idea perhaps renegotiates the boundaries between taboo/transgression, outer/inner, and sacred/profane, making thought ineffectual at least in terms of its efforts to subdue the transgressive act. But, as Foucault says, this process is of very short duration. Transgression will occur nonetheless. Foucault continues, in the form of questions: [Toward] what is transgression unleashed in its movement of pure violence, if not that which imprisons it, toward the limit and those elements it contains? What bears the brunt of its aggression and to what void does it owe the unrestrained fullness of its being, if not that which it crosses in its violent act and which, as its destiny, it crosses out in the line it effaces? (Foucault 1999, 60-61) As I will discuss when analyzing Herzogs films, the violence anticipated and created in transgression is often necessary, for it is directed toward some thing or someone or something sacred. Transgression seeks to overthrow, outwit, supersede, or control that which imprisons it. Herzogs characters engage in some forms of transgressive acts, which therefore make them transcendent. According to Chris Jenks, in his useful book Transgression, transgression connotes the idea of excess as abundance, excessive behavior, or deviant conduct, and various forms of transgression are decidedly situation-specific (Jenks 2003, 2-3). The transgressors in Herzogs films often are compelled to transgress based on their circumstances, which they deem limiting. Aguirre, Fitzcarraldo, Kasper Hauser, Timothy Treadwellall are somehow trapped by their circumstances and so decide to follow their instincts in order to escape. The need to transgress stems, perhaps, from their need to question the relationship between the core of social life and the periphery, the center and the margins, identity and difference, the normal and the deviant, and the possible rules that could conceivably bind us into a collectivity (Jenks 2003, 5). Herzog challenges us to consider the ethical and moral questions that arise from recognizing the societal norms that shape our lives; these boundaries are literal and figurative entities that inspire, invoke, or provoke transgression. However, transgressions are also highly subjective and often metaphorical events. Thus, it becomes a bit more difficult to see Aguirres or other Herzogian heroes transgressions as normal reactions. Transgressions are indeed part of the social process, [but they] are also part of the individual psyche (Jenks 2003, 186). Herzog, for instance, almost always prefers the sensual, the physical, and the corporeal over the verbal. Natural landscapes become
187
2011
landscapes of the mind, a tricky proposition because the idea of transgression (and transcendence) could be interpreted as inner psychic states, whereby we are left to recognize representation as actualitya purely hypothetical and speculative realm of understanding. Still, because Herzog typically favors moments of silences that communicate more powerfully than ordinary language, it is possible to recognize transgressive acts. The meaning of an act does not reside solely within the intentionality of the actor, indeed, in most instances it resides within the context of the acts reception. The epistemological quest for true meaning becomes the metaphysical search for transcendence; achieving this state of sovereignty is crucial for Herzogs protagonists. Overreaching the limits produces an alterity, a commitment to freedom, to self, to sovereignty. Even though many of Herzogs heroes could be considered unattractive, the meaning of the acts the very essence of human performanceis what gives the transgressions significance. Therefore, we must examine Herzogs protagonists as transgressors who are not simply fighting the status quo; rather, they are destroying or questioning the societal totems that dictate rules and regulations. As Jenks suggests, Totems are metaphoric[Thus] they instance a break from the continuity provided by compact symbols between material reality and consciousness, they act as a mediating order whose status derives from the work of interpretation. Totems, then, belong to difference (Jenks 2003, 30-31). Totemism implies a self-conscious discipline but demands no allegiance. Hence, people like Treadwell, Aguirre, or the entire casts of Even Dwarfs Started Small or Heart of Glass can and are willing to transgress. Constraint yields to reflexivity. Kant and Transcendence Kants philosophical inquiry into the transcendent, often referred to as transcendentalism, distinguishes between the world as perceived and its phenomena and another level of reality which is beyond our knowledge but is a precondition for experience. This realm could be equated (in terms of Herzogs films and characters) to the transcendent or even ecstatic truth. The transcendental realm for Kant is real but unknowable, emphasizing our knowledge is restricted to what is perceivable. Things can appear transcendentally ideal because they lie outside of individual consciousness. Kant called all knowledge transcendental which is concerned not with objects but with our mode of knowing objects (Kant, 2008, 258), which perhaps describes Herzogs characters continual search for transcendence. Kants idealism suggests that inner freedom comes from transcendentalism, which in turn correlates to the creative transgression Herzogs characters undertake. That is, when someone like Aguirre or Treadwell transgresses,
188
2011
there is a high concentration of internal energycreativitythat surfaces to help them reach the limit. In the Critique of Judgment (1790), Kant argued that an individual does not understand as much as have a feeling about the existence of a larger, divine plan. We cannot interpret or comprehend the entirety of nature, but we can sense there is a larger plan. Herzogs characters, especially someone like Aguirre, seem to understand this, which would help explain his turn against nature and God by declaring himself the wrath. Kants philosophy suggests that the individual imposes reality upon the world, which is a way of thinking about how individual subjectivity needs release from societal taboos. This Kantian thinking, which is couched in idealism, was adopted by the Romantics, which is why I think that discussing Herzogs intermingling between Idealism and Romanticism is complicated, and deserves a much larger analysis than what I am suggesting here about his films. For one thing, Herzog typically straddles both camps as philosopher and poet. Herzogs idea of the ecstatic truth is an aesthetic undertaking. He wants to give the spectator a fully rendered sensorial experience through the image. Herzog irrefutably concerns himself with the search for something less mediated and more authentic than the everyday life-world we inhabit (Prager 2007, 5), which is, it seems, akin to Kants idea of discovering the transcendental. Here too lies the ecstatic truth: truth, for Herzog, does not consist in the mundane. It is a personal discovery inasmuch as it is an aesthetic event. The search and discovery for something beyond ourselves results in the ecstatic truth, which is, I believe, a commingling of idealism and romanticism. Herzogs truth is not superficial; it is something outside of our conscious being, a transcendence that renders the world ecstatic. His characters strive for this, achieving it in toto only after a transgression or series of transgressive acts. The Films Kasper Hauser, from Herzogs The Enigma of Kasper Hauser (1974), is forced to adopt societys rules and norms after he is discovered wandering the streets. A wild man-child, Kasper comes into the world relatively untouched by the strictures of modern society; accordingly, Kasper transforms into a worthy person through societal instruction, but as a result, loses his innocence. There are few benefits to civilization. Many of Herzogs films almost always confront the conflict between man and society. The characters then seek ways of existing in a world where there are limits. In order to transcend, they must transgress. The full title of the film stresses this point. It is called Every Man for Himself and God Against Allclearly indicating a transgression, and also that spirituality comes from within the
189
2011
individual; that is, transcendence stems from the inner self before becoming manifest in the corporeal world. God in this case is prohibiting. Each individual must fend for himself in order to find a spiritual center, just as Kasper does during the course of the film. Kasper too is portrayed as a Christ-like figure, someone who, because of his outsider status, is taunted, ridiculed, and mocked, and therefore discovers himself only through personal reflection. The mood of the film certainly suggests this; Herzog sees something transcendent in the imagery of Kasper Hauser (Prager 2007, 62), which makes Kaspers dilemma all the more poignant. In one scene, when Kaspers father-figure comes to release him from the barn where he has been held and takes him to the hills to teach him how to walk, Kasper falls to the ground. The camera remains static, focusing on Kasper on the ground and the black-cloaked figure, whose back is to the camera, hovering above him. The image reflects either a tombstone or a cross, two symbolic images about Kaspers inevitable fall and his impending death. Kasper escapes the rigid structures he has been forced to accept by his mysterious death and transfiguration, exemplified by the enigmatic vision he has at the end of the film, where he sees outsiders traversing over a large mountain. Throughout the film, Kasper is considered a casean individual to be studied, someone who has been rejected, and subsequently and condescendingly treated by society. Kasper Hauser was taught how to act properly in society, which turns out to be false. He is at odds with the world, but he achieves a sense of fulfillment through the search for ways to effectively communicate his inner worldthe landscape. There is a sense of pity and remorse as we watch him struggle to connect with other people. He seeks to find a particular place and space in societyironically in a society that has labeled him an outsider. He literally has come from outside the community when he suddenly appears, so the people disregard him as unfit. It is precisely because Kasper cannot live in his external world that he retreats within. This is how and why he could be considered an outsider, or a transgressorsimply because he is not conforming or because he disrupts societys limits, having come from the outside. The more he understands language and has the ability to communicate, the more complicated his life becomes. The mundane world of objects inhibits his search for the transcendent; Herzog cleverly has a great deal of the conversations take philosophical meanings once Kasper learns to speak, which suggests that meanings are found in language, which are hardly intuitive. The sociologist Emile Durkheim suggests that a crime against society is a crime against the collective social consciousness, and is thus a transgression against society itself (Jenks 2003, 20). Because Kasper sullies the society he enters, it is considered a transgression. He has entered the center of society from the periphery and therefore has made society sick. As Durkheim says,
190
2011
metaphorically, for societies as for individuals, health is good and desirable; disease, on the contrary, is bad and should be avoided (Durkheim 1964, 49). Kasper is not literally diseased, but since has come from outside the safeguards of the city, from a different space and place, he is eventually treated as someone who can sicken the society. In one scene, Kasper retreats from a group of people eating so that he can eat alone. He ends up eating in the bathroom. He sits in the stall with an egg. It is a rather perverse retreat for Kasper, one that has been discussed by film and philosophy theorist Kaja Silverman as being a scene full of transgression, suggesting that because Kasper is divorced from the group, is eating in a bathroom, and eating a raw egg, he has transgressed against normal modes of conduct (Silverman 1981, 77). For Kasper, like Aguirre, Treadwell or other Herzog protagonists, these people are usually confined by spaces that are created by others, which prove limiting or confining. Kasper and these other Herzog misfits want to transcend these spaces by following their own ideas of space, that is, to move into a new, less confining space that is structured by their very being outcasts from society. Society has judgments, restrictions, rules and norms, which Herzogs transgressive personalities do not or cannot adhere to. The film ends with Kasper foreseeing his own death, but it also ends with a vision of another metaphysical place where he says he and others like him may exist a refuge for the outsider where transcendence will be achieved. This space and place is transcendent; the transcendentmust open up the space of its own disclosure, which means that space will be incommensurable to any human faculties, hence, it is presented as a dream (Falconer 2003, 8). Kaspers vision describes a place where death is present. He says, I saw the ocean and I saw a mountain and there were many people climbing the mountain as if in a procession. There was a lot of fog. I couldnt see it very clearly; at the very top was death. The film shows this in a great shot of a cloud-enshrouded mountain (actually filmed in Ireland). The way Herzog has shot itwith a hazy interplay of light and darksuggests that it is a world not where Kasper has been, but one that is not of his reality, a transcendent place. It is somewhere beyond the space of the story, and it signifies a return to transcendence. Because Kasper was tainted by language as he became more like others, Herzog suggests that this unnamable sphere that Kasper sees in his vision is a place devoid of language, which could be described or equated to a Kantian realm of transcendence: inner freedom, the power of the mind, an absolute consciousness helps us delineate the real world. Kasperand people like him, Nosferatu, Aguirre, Fitzcarraldo, Stroszek and so onis not a cripple and not inferior; there is an intensity about his life (and their lives) that asks questions of us, the spectators, the
191
2011
supposedly normal ones who are a part of society. Herzog clearly sees these outsiders as people we should look to and not away from: their transgressions are meant to instruct. Kaspers death is in some way a link to Batailles idea of finding the continuous nature of the self: he foresees his own death and thus escapes the conflict of his life, transcending as a result of his death, and there is a certain ecstatic truth involved as well, since Kaspers vision alludes to a metaphysical, hallucinatory, limit state. Herzogs most celebrated film, Aguirre, the Wrath of God (1972) encapsulates the theme of transgression and in particular, one that has a spiritual or transcendent dimension. Aguirre, played perfectly to fever pitch by Klaus Kinski, transgresses boundaries set by humans and by nature, and by extension, natural law (or Gods law). The movie details the ill-fated expedition of Spanish conquistadors traveling through South America searching for the lost city of gold. Herzog took some liberties with the actual events of the expedition, but the story has so much powerof suggestion, literalness, and visual dynamicsthat the fictionalized portions of the film remain largely secondary. It is a film that deals with transformations. When Aguirre remains in isolation at the end of the film, drifting aimlessly on a raft with monkeys as his only companions, he has nevertheless somehow transformed. Aguirres path to transcendence is brazenly self-centered, but it deserves recognition as a transgressive act. As Brad Prager suggests, [Herzog takes] a position that both reviles and reveres [Aguirres] unabashed gall, his narcissism, his death drive and his insatiable hunger for power (Prager 2007, 26). Though he is alone, has destroyed those around him, and seems to be wandering toward oblivion, it is clear that through his transgressions, Aguirre has achieved what he has been looking for, though we recognize, of course, that his newfound sovereignty is ironic. In one scene earlier in the film, Aguirre derides his fellow conquistadors for their blind faith and unquestioning passivity. He declares himself the wrath of God, and says, The earth I walk upon sees me and quakes, implying that he is above his travelers and also above God. As the wrath of God, he claims unyielding power to dictate events as they transpire. All of the people with him stare in awe and fear at Aguirre. This transgression ultimately seals his doom, but it also indicates that he is far more concerned with the selfhis transcendence of the ego, as Sartre puts it, allows him to become a proactive visionary, (Jenks 2003, 32) to destroy the world of the sacred and enter the world of the profane, of going to the limits, of thought, notions, beliefs and morals and then transgressing those very limits in order to delimit their operation (Pefanis 1991, 45). Aguirre proclaims himself larger than life and in so doing creates a moral and existential dilemma that forces himas with other Herzog protagonistsinto an unattached and total individualist. He has to be this way if he is to spiritually transgress the ordinary circumstances (as he
192
2011
sees it) that confine him. Foucaults notion of the destabilized subject, one that is neither stable nor unified, emerges from the idea of transgression as the continual crossing of borders, something Aguirre does throughout the film. Companionship for Aguirre means foregoing any attachments to anyone (save for a mad declaration for his daughter that never manifests) which underscores the isolation and solitude that he dwells in, in order to transgress. Herzogs heroes, as New German Cinema scholar Thomas Elsaesser explains, do not merely exclude the world of the ordinary, the space where most human beings organize their lives, but exist in a void because of a determination to investigate the limits of what it means to be human at all (Elsaesser 1989, 220). Aguirres declaration that he is The Wrath of God, demonstrates the relationship to Batailles theories of taboo and transgression (or, as some critics have suggested, the sacred and the profane). Individuals will fear what is sacred but will be awed by it at the same time, which is what happens in Aguirre, The Wrath of God. Once Aguirre achieves his dominance over everyone, the rest of the expedition members feel two contradictory urges: to either flee the situation or to be drawn into it. In Batailles language, this would mean either sticking to the taboo or embracing the transgression, or that they are driven away by terror and drawn by an odd fascination (Bataille 2001, 68). According to Bataille, The profane world is the world of taboos. The sacred world depends on limited acts of transgression. It is a world of celebration, sovereign rulers and God (2001, 67-68). Aguirre becomes a sovereign ruler, albeit a doomed one, but he nevertheless has participated first in the limited transgressive act of rebellion, then murder, and finally transcendence, all increasing levels of transgression that allow the shattering of taboos. Aguirre seamlessly blends Herzogs fascination with individual transgression, documentary-like footage, and fictional storytelling. Aguirres plight is grotesque, yet in Herzogs hands, we come to admire the strange and emotional complexity of an individuals struggle for transcendence. Aguirres journey becomes an existential one; in his search for the metaphysical, he transgresses against God and nature, which also suggests a quest for ecstatic truth. Aguirre stands as a solitary figure, yet incapable of solidarity or ultimate success, so much so that his sanity vanishes during his determined quest (Elsaesser 1989, 221). Like other Herzog characters, Aguirre is alone, mad, and transfigured. Though we recognize that his transcendence results in his being alone, it nevertheless suggests that if one is to cross literal and figurative boundaries, constructed by society or natural law in this case, the individual may end up in desperate or unattractive circumstances. Taking risks means facing danger; the individual transgressor very often inverts norms of social, cultural, religious, or judicial society and
193
2011
therefore becomes the existential outcast, the outsider, or the Other. It is often hard to empathize with these characters; Herzog deliberately shows us their flaws, yet somehow, they remain attractive. Herzog himself noted, It is difficult for me to explain my feelings about Aguirre[Aguirre] fascinated me because he was the first person who dared defy the Spanish crown and declare the independence of a South American nation. At the same time he was completely mad, rebelling not only against political power, but nature itself (quoted in Cronin 2002, 77). I suggest the reason for their attraction is because they follow their transgressions through to reach transcendence. (Some characters, like Stroszek are a bit more sympathetic.) Still, Aguirre, like many of the protagonists in Herzogs films, are linked through their shared quests that redeems their vaulting ambition and their hubris, (Elsaesser 1989, 221) which clearly demonstrates the attempted and successful transgression or transcendence of humanitys limits. Transgressions, says Bataille, are accomplished through excess. Discovering the ecstatic truth for Aguirre means crossing boundaries, entering the limitless via the limit, of excessive transgression. The beauty of the film rests upon this idea of the ecstatic truth, and Herzog focuses both on Aguirres transformation and how the natural environment is transformative. Aguirre also demonstrates Herzogs ideas of the inner landscape of the individual that is in sharp contrast with the natural landscape. Clearly the film demonstrates the poetic sensibilities of ecstatic truth. The natural wonder and indifference of nature consumes Aguirre and the other men in the expedition. (A similar occurrence happens in Grizzly Man, Heart of Glass, Signs of Life [1968] or several Herzog documentaries, including Fata Morgana [1971], Encounters at the End of the World [2007], or The Great Ecstasy of the Woodcarver Steiner [1974].) Herzog has mentioned, In Aguirre, the jungle is never some lush, beautiful environment it might be in a television commercial[It] is not just a location, it is a state of our mind. It has almost human qualities. It is a vital part of the characters inner landscapes (quoted in Cronin 2002, 30). The films natural beauty hints at both the ecstatic truth and to the sacred, or, more appropriately, the absence of the sacred, which compels further transgression. The landscape is indifferent. According to Prager, Some of the beauty [of the film] comes from depicting nature in the context of theological abandonment; the silent, staring mountainsides are more an intimidation of an absence than evidence of Gods mercy (Prager 2007, 31). The way the film ends complements this indifference, and points toward Aguirres profanation. The film ends with Aguirre alone on the raft; the landscape surrounds him and forces the raft to float directionless. Herzog films the scene with a continuous 360 degree pan, which reinforces the lack of movement of the maniacal Aguirre. Aguirre is left in a continuous spiral, to use Foucaults term, spinning on his raft. The
194
2011
formal use of the camera as a spiral reinforces the thematic content; that Aguirre is in constant circular motion. He is literally going nowherebut he has nevertheless transcended. Transcendence does not necessarily imply a sacred realm; indeed, it can be a state of uncontrolled frenzy, hysteria, madness, or even death, which possibly leads to continuity. While Aguirre cannot physically move and is now captive to the rages of the river, he still has reached a final point: madness embedded in his transcendence. As Prager notes, The idealism, the grand vision of Aguirre, like that of many of Herzogs other protagonists, has at its basis an unbridgeable gulf. The difference between the protagonists vision and reality is embodied in the abyss that lies between the circles perimeter and its center (Prager 2007, 33). Durkheims social theory of societies denotes a concentric structure to societies. In the center is the norm; the further one goes from the center, the more likely for a transgression. The center has laws, morals, ethicsthe very things that become grey as one reaches the periphery. Thus, Aguirres spiral motion would indicate the ironic journey toward the center. But here, in his new state, there are no laws or morals. He is utterly alone, yet he is at the place he has sought. As Jenks points out, drawing from Bataille, The limits to our experience and the taboos that police them are never simply imposed from the outside; rather, limits to behaviour are always personal responses to moral imperatives that stem from the inside. This means that any limit conduct carries with it an intense relationship with the desire to transgress that limit (Jenks 2003, 7). The inside circle tries to limit individual behaviour, or, in Durkheims model, tries to punish the transgressor. Aguirre breaks societal, political, and theological boundaries in order to reach his transcendence. His dreams are incommensurate with the world he is forced to inhabit, (Prager 2007, 49) so he attempts to create his own. Aguirre and Kasper Hauser serve as bookends to the themes of transgression and transcendence. Although both figures are essentially direct opposites of one anotherAguirre has deranged and sublime visions of conquering the world as the wrath of God, while Kasper is condemned for joining societythey nevertheless seek control over their surroundings. Another character who attempt to assimilate into society but is thwarted on several levels is Nosferatu. Nosferatu (1979) is a loose remake of Murnaus classic silent film, but Herzog makes the lead character, again played by Klaus Kinski, one uniquely his own. Nosferatu is cursed with eternal life and he yearns for entering society and simply to be understood. He is very much like Kasper Hauser in that he comes into a society that is already very mannered and structured, and is immediately chastised and treated as an outsider. Just because he poses a threat (which, of course, he really does) he is rejected because he is different. Nosferatu, like Kasper Hauser, could be described as epitomizing Foucaults rationale of
195
2011
transgression as an anti-humanist one: neither character is stable or free,, so they are compelled to transgress against the very communities that dispel them. Nosferatu is superior to other human beings by his powers over death, but he is less human by his exile from the temporal, daytime order of his life, desiring the ordinary the more for being excluded from it (Elsaesser 1989, 218). Nosferatu is perhaps the ultimate transgressor, but he is also a figure that, in Herzogs vision, seeks transcendence. He wants to be part of a community and to have love (of Lucy), but his status preordains his fate. As social theorist Mary Douglas puts it, When the community is attacked from outside at least the external danger fosters solidarity within. When it is attacked from within by wanton individuals, they can be punished and the structure publicly reaffirmed (Douglas 1966, 166). Like Kasper Hauser, Nosferatu longs to belong to a community, but his actions are deemed unnatural for societal, cultural, or ideological norms, hence he becomes an outsider. The story of the unsocialised man, here being Nosferatu, recurs in Herzogs films. For example, according to Timothy Corrigan, In The Enigma of Kasper Hauser, we see there are no benefits specific to civilization, and Kasper offers a radical awareness of the world which shuns him; when he tries to fit in, to submit to doctors and other community leaders, he perishes. Herzog aligns the gentle and innocuous Kasper with the violent visionary Aguirre, the ultimate iconoclast Nosferatu, and the flying skier Steiner. In a world where vision and sensibility have been corrupted by status-quo notions of truth, Herzogs outcasts are entirely inaccessible to the prejudices of society. Depending on his physical means, Nosferatu is thus both victim and oppressor, both Kasper and Aguirre, and finally the two at once. (Corrigan 1983, 126) Nosferatu is a remarkable character because he is already considered a transgressor based on the fact he is a vampire. Like many of the misfits that populate Herzogs films, Nosferatu elicits sympathy for his plight. As Herzog points out, From Kinskis vampire you get real existential anguish. I tried to humanize him. I wanted to endow him with human suffering and solitude, with a true longing for love and, more importantly, the one essential capacity of human beings: morality (quoted in Cronin 2002, 102). Ironically, Nosferatu is shunned for being someone who simply wants transcendence. The people who do inhabit Herzogs films formulate conceptions of a general order of existence that include the attempt to deal with experiences of law and order, or more specifically, with limits imposed by society. Take for example the inmate/students of Even Dwarfs Started Small. The central characters of the narrative, who are all played by dwarfs, overthrow the leaders of the asylum/school where they have been held, humiliated, and
196
2011
subjugated to rituals that do not allow them any freedom. In order to transgress these boundaries, they must resort to chaos and violence; there is no alternative. Their struggle is a struggle for dignity. Essentially, when the characters become in control of the prison-house where they have been entrapped, they become spiritually free from certain laws. Herzog does indeed show them as quite mad (there is no explanation for their rebellion, nor do they actually succeed or gain anything in overthrowing their masters), but the overall point seems to indicate that with transgression comes transcendencehere a collective sense of freedom from authority. Foucaults ideas on discipline and punish could possibly neatly describe this particular film; individual and collective subjectivity is defined, according to Foucault, through a process of the demarcation of appropriate values and the exploration of inappropriate values of the other. In Even Dwarfs Started Small, this means that the dwarfs find meaning only when constructing a new subjectivity derived from transgression, of transgressing against those who have controlled them. Remembering that Bataille suggests that transgression is used to escape the power of the taboo, we see how a new sense of self is achieved when the dwarves become their own disciplesthat is, when they follow their own rules by breaking the taboo. The dwarfs are depicted as physically small, but in their actions and self-images they see themselves as superior to the rest of mankind (Elsaesser 1989, 221). Herzog ingeniously depicts the struggle of the dwarfs by using the camera as a measuring device. After the opening credits, we have an overhead shot of the institution. The film is arguably about seeing the world from below (from the perspective of a dwarf), but Herzog begins with us looking down at the place and then the characters. Eventually, this perspective yields to that of the dwarfs, but the use of the camera to heighten the thematic idea of constraint exemplifies the necessary need for transgression in order to break the controlling perspective. By switching the camera from low to high, Herzog emphasizes how everything in the dwarfs world is too large, hence we get their perspective. As Prager notes, Most everything in this film is seen from low to the ground, and it makes it hard to imagine that reason could ever penetrate a world that has so greatly outgrown its inhabitants (Prager 2007, 57). Indeed, the world is unreasonable for the dwarfs, so their only recourse is to create havoc: to transgress in order to escape. Through transgression, the dwarves too reach an ecstatic truth, a certain level of transcendence that creates a boundary-free society where they can choose and act as they want to without adhering to social mores or customs. They are now able to see more clearly, to appreciate actuality, to see and to believethis is akin to Herzogs idea of ecstatic truth, and it seems to me, is somewhat equivalent to transcendence, but only in the sense of coming to a greater understanding of self or environment. In their headlong
197
2011
pursuit of dissolution and transcendence, the dwarfslike other Herzogs charactersreveal their strength and autonomy and proclaim their independence. The deranged grandeur of their struggles may frequently lead to tragic ends, but their transgressions represent pure and euphoric epiphanies that give them life or insight in the face of authority, convention, or principle. Like Aguirre, they have not gone anywhere: they remain where they have been, but they also are transformed. Clearly too, Herzog seems to be pointing the finger at society: he suggests that at least there is some dignity, maybe even a touch of some good sense among the dwarfs, whereas the culture and society that causes such delirium is truly the ones to blame for transgression. The natural settings of Herzogs films always suggest a powerful quality of stillness and silence, which is shattered by the characters and their outward manifestations of spiritual questing. In their search for an ecstatic truth, the characters either merge with natural landscape or succumb to its power, but what Herzog captures is both physical and interior landscapes, and the transcendence or transgression that one attempts or succeeds when approaching both. For Herzog, nature is not a conquerable entity. In Grizzly Man (2005), the story of self-proclaimed environmentalist Timothy Treadwell, who lived illegally among grizzly bears in the Alaskan wilderness, Herzog chastises the anti-hero Treadwell for his impudence for and nave approach to nature. Treadwell risked and ultimately lost his life to a natural universe that Herzog describes as full of disorder and death. Herzogs droll yet straightforward narration in the film underscores this belief, which he also earlier made clear in Les Blanks Burden of Dreams (1982). At one point, he says, in his voice-over narration, in reference to the bear that killed and ate Treadwell: What haunts me is that in all the faces of all the bears that Treadwell ever filmed, I discover no kinship, no understanding, no mercy. I see only the overwhelming indifference of nature. To me there is no such thing as a secret world of the bears, and [the bear that killed Treadwell]s blank stare peaks only of a half-bored interest in food. Treadwells death resulted from his crossing the boundary between man and bear, a transgression on a different level than societal boundaries, though Treadwell did drop out of society and became so obsessed with the bears that he became an outsider. Treadwells spiritual journey is typical of Herzogs protagonists. Transcending the bounds of humanitythe very act of transgressionis a selfless compulsion, an essential part of ones identity and a means of justifying ones own existence. It is the reason why Herzogs protagonists often have trouble communicating with others. They remain radically insulated and unresponsive to human aggressions, which allow the
198
2011
characters to continue toward their transcendence. Treadwells journey is indeed one of transgression against nature. Bataille suggested that violent urges emerge when humans realize the world remains violent toward them. Treadwell is at odds with the world but he achieves a sense of fulfillment through his search for ways to disrupt or pollute society. Social theorist Mary Douglas has used the metaphor of pollution to describe the transgressors actions. She says, The polluting person is always in the wrong. He has developed some wrong condition or simply crossed some line which should not have been crossed and this displacement unleashes danger (Douglas 1966, 34). In the case of Treadwell, the danger is his own proximity to the bears. Herzogs heroes are usually confined by spaces that are created by others, which prove limiting, as is the case with Even Dwarfs Started Small or Aguirre (or Fitzcarraldo [1982], Rescue Dawn [2006], and The Enigma of Kasper Hauser, to name but a few other examples). Treadwell and these other Herzog heroes want to transcend these spaces by following their own ideas of freedom, which partially stem from the need to transgress into a new, less confining space. Ironically, Treadwell goes to the expanses of Alaska to create a new space for himself, one where he does not have to adhere to societys limits. He pollutes this space by causing danger to himself and others (particularly his girlfriend, who, like Treadwell, is killed by a bear). Through searching for a new place and space, Grizzly Man demonstrates the spiritual nature of his transgression against other members of civilized society. He envisions a place that is different and better and that can provide a sense of fulfillment and self-actualization. In this manner, he succeeds. But, as Herzog intones, nature prevails, though in Treadwell, we receive a lesson of sorts about the need for transcendence. Herzog uses much of the footage that Treadwell himself filmed while living among the bears, and he does not hold back his enthusiasm for Treadwells amateur status as filmmaker. At the end of the film, Herzog narrates again: Treadwell is gone. The argument how right or wrong he was disappears into a distance, into a fog. What remains is his footage. And while we watch the animals in their joys of being, in their grace and ferociousness, a thought becomes more and more clear: that it is not so much a look at wild nature as it is an insight into ourselves, into our nature. And that to me gives meaning to his life and death. Treadwell has many moments of mania in the film, where he rails against the disrespect people have for the grizzly bears. He becomes somewhat akin to Aguirre, in that both proclaim monomaniacal thoughts in the name of justice. The heroic transgressor almost always declares his authority above all else. As Jenks suggests, Transgression is always a step into the unknown and a step that is without precedent (Jenks 2003, 42). Bataille also
199
2011
discussed the need for confrontation with horror instead of turning our gaze to something nostalgic for comfort. In other words, we need to turn toward the transgression, suggests Bataille, or else they will become suppressed and therefore cause worse damage to individual enterprise or discontinuity. Treadwells eventual death does not mean he failed to transcend his limits or the boundaries that compelled him to transgress. Pollution is often caused by risk: The sense of order within society is hedged around with notions of risk[The] nature of the risk, the threat, and the ways in which that risk is handled are most instructive concerning the moral bond and the social structure of the society in question. Herein lies the artistry of transgression (Jenks 2003, 33). Treadwells transgression involved risk, and the moral imperative at play in his desire suggests the need for crossing the boundaries of social structures. Werner Herzog is one of the most idiosyncratic, challenging, and prolific filmmakers of the past forty years. He can be rightly called a visionary filmmaker, for his idea of what cinema can achieve and what it can present to us is far different from traditional forms of filmmaking. Filmmaking in extremis describes Herzog: formally, stylistically, and thematically. He takes his camera to exotic locales (Peru, Antarctica, Laos, Alaska, and others) and constructs a film while also allowing spectators to meditate on the nature of filmmaking itself. Similarly, many of the protagonists who populate his films are also visionariesbut they are also people who are fundamentally flawed because their visions occasionally take violent or transgressive turns. Herzog attempts and succeeds at capturing great moments of transgression, transcendence, and emotional and physical catharsis caused by existential angst on film. The impetus at discovering and presenting the ecstatic truth challenges us to reconsider the aims of filmmaking itself. Whether sublime images of nature or of intense character examinations, what we often see onscreen is the struggle to discover the ecstatic truth and the appropriate outlet for individual transgression or transcendence. Herzog allows the camera to show us the aesthetics of cinema; that is, he does not inundate his films with dialogue that expounds the story. As Prager suggests, The moment that an aesthetic event takes place, or we see something upon the screen that exceeds our ability to assimilate it into the archive of what we have already seen and heard are arguably the glimpses of ecstatic truth in his films (Prager 2007, 5). Herzog is striving for something far deeper than ostensible reality in his films: he is searching for the poetic. We therefore can discuss his films in terms of their poetic and philosophical undercurrents. Much more can be said about other Herzog transgressors: Fitzcarraldo, Cobra Verde, Woyzeckall can be examined for their transgressive behaviour and also their struggles for transcendence. Herzogs characters
200
2011
embrace transgression because they connect the real world with the mystical world. Though the protagonists might die, suffer, or meet tragic ends, somehow, they have achieved transcendence. For Herzog, the trial one grows through is what is important because we see how transcendence occurs and how it affects individuals. We can admire his protagonists on their quests for they overreach the bounds that are restricting. Outsiders always have the possibility of being accepted by and incorporated into a group, but in Herzogs films, this rarely happens. Instead, they either relish in their outsider role (like Aguirre), suffer (like Kasper Hauser), or break free (like the dwarves). The passage from once place to the next, from one space to the other, and from transgression to transcendence is dangerous. It is often a symbolic journey that encompasses far-reaching and deep-rooted attitudes about societal structures and limits. As Jenks rightly surmises, There is an inevitable violence in the collision and a celebration in the instantaneous moment at which both limit and transgression find meaning. Limit finds meaning through the utter fragility of its being having been exposed, and transgression finds meaning through the revelation of its imminent exhaustion. But equally clearly the power and energy of both elements derives from the perpetual threat of constraint or destruction presented by the other. (Jenks 2003, 90) Transgressions are exhausted and then reform into transcendence, and Herzog demonstrates the often grey areas of boundary crossing and the implications of crossing thresholds. Herzog has the uncanny ability to make us feel for characters that are self-willed exiles from the world of moderation. Whether in fact or fiction, his films seek out the extreme boundaries of existence. Indeed, Herzog conjures visions that reveal the metaphysical core of everyday realitythe ecstatic truth.
201
2011
Bibliography Aftab, Kaleem (2006) Werner Herzog Q & A. Time Out London. [http://timeout.com/London]. Accessed 25 September 2009. Bataille, Georges (2001) Eroticism. London: Penguin. Corrigan, Timothy (1983) New German Film: The Displaced Image. Austin: University of Texas Press. Cronin, Paul (ed.) (2002) Herzog on Herzog. London: Faber and Faber. Douglas, Mary (1966) Purity and Danger. London: Routledge. Durkheim, Emile (1964) The Division of Labor in Society. New York: Free Press. Durkheim, Emile (1964) The Rules of Sociological Method. New York: Free Press. Elsaesser, Thomas (1989) New German Cinema: A History. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press. Falconer, James (ed.) (2003) Transcendence in Philosophy and Religion. Bloomington: The University of Indiana Press. Foucault, Michel (1999) Religion and Culture. London: Routledge. Herzog, Werner. (1999) Minnesota Declaration. [www.wernerherzog.com]. Accessed 25 September 2009. Jenks, Chris (2003) Transgression. London: Routledge. Kant, Immanuel (2008 [1781]) Critique of Pure Reason. London: Penguin Classics. Pefanis, Julian (1991) Heterology and the Postmodern: Bataille, Baudrillard, and Lyotard. Durham: Duke University Press. Prager, Brad (2007) The Cinema of Werner Herzog: Aesthetic Ecstasy and Truth. London: Wallflower Press. Sartre, Jean-Paul (1937) The Transcendence of the Ego. New York: Hill and Wang (1960). Silverman, Kaja (1981/2) Kasper Hausers Terrible Fall into Narrative, New German Critique, 24-5, 73-93.
202
2011
Filmography Blank, Les (1982) Burden of Dreams. USA. Herzog, Werner (1972) Aguirre, the Wrath of God (Aguirre, der Zorn Gottes). Germany. Herzog, Werner (1974) The Enigma of Kasper Hauser, or Every Man for Himself and God against all (Kaspar Hauser - Jeder fr sich und Gott gegen alle). Germany. Herzog, Werner (1969) Even Dwarfs Started Small (Auch Zwerge haben klein angefangen). Germany. Herzog, Werner (2005) Grizzly Man. USA. Herzog, Werner (1979) Nosferatu. (Nosferatu: Phantom der Nacht) Germany.
203

William Verrone - Transgression and Transcendence in The Films of Werner Herzog

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Description:

Original Title

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

William Verrone - Transgression and Transcendence in The Films of Werner Herzog

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Film-Philosophy 15.

Transgression and Transcendence in the Films of Werner Herzog William Verrone

Film-Philosophy | ISSN: 1466-4615

Film-Philosophy | ISSN: 1466-4615

Film-Philosophy | ISSN: 1466-4615

Film-Philosophy | ISSN: 1466-4615

Film-Philosophy | ISSN: 1466-4615

You might also like