Werner Herzog - Radical Dreamer

Thomas von Steinaecker’s documentary, Werner Herzog: Radical Dreamer, offers an enjoyable, if fairly light portrait of the German filmmaker and survey of his 60-plus year career.

Interviewees tie themselves in knots of gushing superlatives, but the real insights come from the man himself.

Calling a film-maker a “dreamer” sounds hackneyed, but it does justice to his idealism. Perhaps no other description will do.

These stories are already the stuff of cinematic legend, but that doesn’t make their retelling any less compelling.

The movie also provides a smart primer on the “New German Cinema” Herzog helped bring into being during the 1960s.

A watchable, if by-the-book, documentary. It’s only a pity that the conventional storytelling hems in such a deeply unconventional director.

Some people might enjoy a solitary clip from a Henry Rollins interview, as well as occasional anecdotes from “Rescue Dawn” star Christian Bale (another Batman!). Others might wonder why we’re watching a chaotic docu-salute to Herzog when we could be watching a Herzog movie instead.