Fata Morgana (1970)

Director/Scenario/Screenplay: Werner Herzog – Director of photography: Jörg Schmidt-Reitwein – Film editor: Beate Mainka-Jellinghaus - Music: Leonard Coen, Blind Faith, François Couperin, Wolfgang A. Mozart, Georg Händel – Production: Werner Herzog Filmproduktion – Country: Germany – Running time: 79’

 

Cast: Wolfgang von Ungern-Sternberg, James William Gledhill, Eugen des Montagnes, Lotte Eisner (voice-over)



The film:

“The heart of this essential, sorrowful and dazzling film is the myth of the creation. In Fata Morgana we watch a sort of multiplication of the represented reality, a kaleidoscope of images that invite to look deeply, to lose oneself round the line of the desert, to follow the suggestions of a tale that comes from another place and time. Suddenly you go round the world, pass over the ages and the History, and the Maya creation book becomes the guideline, the spirit which supports the images.”  

 

[Grazia Paganelli (curated by), Signs of Life. Tribute to Werner Herzog, Museo Nazionale del Cinema, Torino; Il Castoro, Milano 2008, p. 60-61]

 

The film restoration:

The preservation of Fata Morgana was conducted by Museo Nazionale del Cinema di Torino and it was based on the original 35 mm negatives conserved by Werner Herzog Film Archive.  

The preservation of the film is part of a project to valorize the works by Werner Herzog, including the homage Signs of life. Tribute to Werner Herzog organized by Museo Nazionale del Cinema in 2008.  

The event showed the complete retrospective, the photography exhibition, a concert and a workshop and it was realized together with Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, the Scuola Holden, the Teatro Regio of Torino, the Werner Herzog Film and the German Film.

The preservation was carried out in 2007 at the laboratories ARRI and Geyer.

 

 

© Werner Herzog Film



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