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Dubai International Film Festival honours Werner Herzog with Lifetime Achievement Award
posted on 14/12/2011: 613 views
Academy Award nominated German filmmaker Werner Herzog received the Lifetime Achievement Award at the Dubai International Film Festival (DIFF) late on Monday. Herzog is one of the founders of the ‘New German Cinema,' which marked the renaissance of the country's film industry.
Herzog was the third film personality to receive DIFF's top honour at its eighth edition, after veteran Egyptian actor Gamil Rateb and Indian music composer AR Rahman.
Speaking after receiving the award, the veteran filmmaker said, "This sums up almost 50 years of my work as a filmmaker, but I consider it a mid-career event, in other words I am not done yet. In fact, I am planning to shoot my next film, Queen of the Desert about the life of Gertrude Bell in the Middle East.”
The film is about Gertrude Bell, a real-life British woman who was alternately a traveller, writer, archaeologist, explorer, cartographer, and political attaché for the British Empire at the dawn of the 20th century.
Talking to media, Herzog said, "It's a big epic film set in the desert, which will talk about Islam, Bedouins and dignity of the Arab World, which is not found in the Lawrence of Arabia.”
"If you watch the Lawrence of Arabia today, you will find it very immature,” he added.
When asked whether he is planning to shoot the film in Dubai, he said that a particular part of the film has to be shot in Jordan. But he is open for the rest of the film, and it could be shot in the desert of the UAE.
"There is wonderful desert. The country has great beauty and possibility. Unfortunately, I cannot shoot it in the city of Dubai as it is a period film. But would love to do another film here,” he added.
Addressing aspiring filmmakers, Herzog suggested them to become self-reliant. "There is nothing like independent cinema. It is a myth. Become self-reliant. While in school, I worked at a steel factory to save enough money to make my first film. You can make a good feature film for less than US$20,000, we have seen many.”
He also suggested them not to nurture a Hollywood dream. "Don't dream of Hollywood. Don't dream the dreams of others. Dream the dream of your identity. And go ahead. Do not get afraid of it,” he added.
All-around film professional, author and adventurer, Herzog has to his credit some 18 feature films, over 30 documentaries, seven short fiction, 18 opera productions and three theatre productions. In a prolific career, continuing over 45 years, Herzog has donned various roles – as director, producer, scriptwriter, actor and opera director. He is credited with being the only director in the world to have made a film on every continent.
When asked about his dream film that he was not able to make so far, the seasoned director said he doesn't have any such dream unfulfilled. "I have made every single movie I wished to make. Maybe one or two films couldn't be completed, but I never spent sleepless night due to it,” he said.
Voted the ‘35th Greatest Director of All Time' by Entertainment Weekly, Herzog was nominated for an Emmy in 1999, in the ‘Outstanding Non-Fiction Special' category for Little Dieter Needs to Fly.
He was also awarded with the ‘Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Documentary' by the Directors Guild of America (DGA) Award for his film Grizzly Man in 2005.
Herzog's seminal contribution is in helping bring about a qualitative shift to the flagging fortunes of the German film industry through the 1960s to the 1980s, when he joined like-minded directors to make compelling ‘short' motion pictures that were appreciated by arthouse audiences. This in turn enabled the directors to receive big budget funding, and spark a revival for German cinema, without compromising on quality. – The Gulf Today
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