is as personal as it is comprehensive. Released by Werner Herzog Films, the six-disc box set includes nearly all of Herzog's documentaries and shorts completed during the first thirty-one years of his career, from his first experimental short Herakles in 1962, to his 1993 documentary about faith and superstition in Russian, Bells from the Deep. Rounding out the set is Herzog's 1999 documentary Wings of Hope. The distinction between documentary and fiction often feels arbitrary, but rarely more so than when applied to the films of Werner Herzog. His documentaries are frequently no less staged than his fictions. For example, the surrealistic Fata Morgana and Lessons of Darkness are influenced deeply by Herzog's wonder at what extra-terrestrials would make of mankind and its environment. Herzog's loathing of cinéma vérité as an overly simplistic method is apparent in his documentary works which are anything but objectively-direct, unmediated reality.

Starring:

Genre:

Documentary, Short