"I am a man of celluloid."

This last Saturday my sister and I saw a double feature of Aguirre, Wrath of God and Fitzcarraldo at the Aero. Werner Herzog was present during the intermission for a Q&A. My favorite Herzog film is Little Dieter Needs to Fly, which is heart-breaking and amazing, and Aguirre is now a close second. According to the Internets, Aguirre was a big influence on Apocalypse Now.

If you've ever seen an interview with Herzog you know he has interesting things to say. This is the guy that rescued Joaquin Phoenix from a wrecked car, after all. I highly recommend checking out this clip of his appearance on the Henry Rollins show.

Back to the Q&A: Herzog dropped some verbal gems. I got some of the quotes exact, and some I had to convey the gist because I couldn't get it all down:

Q: What do you think of digital video?
A: "I am a man of celluloid.... I have used digital video but under hostile conditions. When I filmed "Lara & the Laden" (I'm _really_ not sure of the title, this is what I think he said) I was nearly run over twice by angry men.... Digital video entices you to film anything mediocre or below mediocre.... You need to choose the shots and can't waste them and you need to feel like you filmed the best shot you could."

Q: Given the current political climate, do you see parallels between Aguirre and our current political leadership? (I hated this question; we were in hallowed ground being in the room with Herzog, why did this biatch have to bring up Bush?)
A: "I don't think it would be helpful for President Bush or the movie to be connected."

Q: Tell us about the monkeys at the end of Aguirre.
A: "I bought the monkeys from a local person who catches them and sells them. One day, I woke up to find them gone and I realized he had sold them to someone else. So I found out that the monkeys were being flown to America by some American company. So I went to the airport and found where they were loading the monkeys. I told them I was a veterinarian and I needed their vaccination license in order to let the monkeys leave the country. They were intimidated so they left the monkeys and I took them back to the set."

Q: (Something about the extras on the set of Aguirre)
A: There were a lot of fights on the set, the men were causing trouble... Whoever was bad became a body in the film. Kinski would have been first but we needed the pestilence until the ending."