Every Night the Trees Disappear: Werner Herzog and the Making of Heart of Glass

by Alan Greenberg, Werner Herzog (Foreword)

When Alan Greenberg first showed up at Werner Herzog’s Munich home at age twenty-four, he was, according to the director, the first outsider to seek him and recognize his greatness. At the end of their first evening together, Herzog urged Greenberg to work with him on his film Heart of Glass —and everything thereafter. He clinched his plea by assuring the young American, “On the outside we’ll look like gangsters, but on the inside we’ll wear the gowns of priests.” Every Night the Trees Disappear is an intimate chronicle of how this visionary filmmaker directed a masterwork. Greenberg’s observations, interwoven with Herzog’s original screenplay, elucidate just how unusual Herzog’s filmmaking methods could be. By hypnotizing his actors before shooting each scene, Herzog led his crew into a veritable cinematic netherworld, resulting in one of the most haunting movies ever made. Rather than a conventional, journalistic account of how a director makes a movie, Every Night the Trees Disappear instead presents a unique vision with the feel of a novel—intimate, penetrating, and filled with mystery.

Genres: Film, Nonfiction

224 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2012

Reviews

[Lee Klein · Rating 3 out of 5]

On the one hand, here's an account of Herzog in action. Its movements are predictably unpredictable -- like Herzog's own Conquest of the Useless: Reflections from the Making of Fitzcarraldo, focused way more on oddities than technicalties -- but, at times, as Herzog notes in the afterword, things seem a bit adulatory, psyched to accelerate the transformation of man into myth. Long live the mythopoetic apparition of the great German neo-Romantic poet director questing for adventure and ecstatic beauty, hunting the great white whale of unseen-before images, the great athlete director standing on his hands, swimming under ice, compassionately running over various animals in his car. Admittedly, I'm a sucker for the ever-expanding Herzog story and its related literature: so far, at least two books by the man, interviews, now this. Which on the one hand is Herzog in action on set and elsewhere (at home with mom!) in 1976, working on Hearts of Glass, the stoniest film ever directed by a director not on even a trace of drugs (other than purest Bavarian geist). Loved the bit where the author emphasized that Werner doesn't smoke dope -- "the results would be terrifying." Loved the bits with Werner's mom where she relays images of his youth seeming straight outta the symptom list for Asperger's. Loved the bits about Clemens Scheitz, elderly co-star of Stroszek, whose little lecture about magnetism in that movie apparently derived from the man's great work (in the book, he reveals the secret of the meaning of life in single a word). Watching "Hearts of Glass" again, a slow spacey film with most of its actors performing under hypnosis, time-lapse shots of streaming clouds over valleys of pine, cinematographic Turner (swirling clouds) and Friedrich (three-planed tones of sky, sea, land) references, soundtracked by the rousing instrumental electro-ancient quasi-krautrock of Popol Vuh, it was clear to me that this film deserved a deeper, less distracted look than I'd given it the first time in 2005 or so. The book doesn't offer insights as much as it compels another viewing on a better TV this time, knowing a bit of the background. So: on the one hand, it's a four-star "privileged insider" look at a hugely idiosyncratic, particularly peculiar, and at times really beautiful movie, but on the other hand the good parts alternate every few pages with the original screenplay of the film, which I quickly found unreadable, uber-pretentious, and silly (without being funny), or more so impossible for me to concentrate on, even knowing what the world of the film was like, picturing Adalbert and Ludmilla and friends. (Had a hypnotized Kinski played the lead, oh man.) Otherwise, I'd only recommend this if you've already read Conquest of the Useless: Reflections from the Making of Fitzcarraldo and maybe Of Walking in Ice and Herzog on Herzog and have loved his stuff. A fun quick read -- especially once I started skimming the screenplay pages -- and a nice hardback but ultimately sort of an inessential entertainment, although anything that reminds me to dust off the Herzog DVD box sets can't be anything other than a welcome influence.

[Jeff Jackson · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Heart of Glass" - that movie where Werner Herzog hypnotized his entire cast. A bizarre and not entirely successful film, but its poetic stylizations, somnambulant actors, and dark folktale narrative make it worthwhile. Recording the expectedly strange behind-the-scenes activity here is Alan Greenberg, writer of the legendary unproduced screenplay "Love in Vain" about Robert Johnson and the exceptional doc "The Land of Look Behind" about Bob Marley's funeral. Learn Werner's hynosis techniques, his secret for swimming under a river of ice, and the metaphysical conundrum of trying to fuck your own ass. See his producer threaten to burn down a castle in the climatic scene whether the cameras are rolling or not. Salted throughout this account is the movie's original screenplay, providing a somewhat firmer grounding to the wonderfully delirious journey.

[Philipp · Rating 3 out of 5]

Disclaimer: I love watching Werner Herzog call people cowards. The latest famous example is when filming The Mandalorian: People wanted to replace the Baby Yoda puppet by CGI, Herzog called them cowards.

Here we have notes from the making of Heart Of Glass written by Alan Greenberg, a reporter who was covering Herzog back then in the 70s and became something of an on-set hangeron with occasional minor acting work thrown in. Heart of Glass was typical Herzog-like unconventional - almost all actors being hypnotised before scenes, no proper script but only prescribed scenes with some dialogue.

Greenberg tunes up the weird to 11 with strange scenes and extreme situations. Herzog notes this in the afterword, it was much more ordered than Greenberg makes it look like - but still, from everything we know from and about Herzog, this may have all happened.

Then [Bruno S.] glared at me and, with a look of desperate conviction, spoke.
'People always change,' Bruno growled, 'but the sea is always the same. Tomorrow you will turn into a pig.'
Together the two of us gazed silently upon the Mediterranean Sea. Bruno lifted the acamera to his eye once again: click, click, click, click.
'Inhuman whispers praise the will.'
Not a word had been said. I nodded my head.
A distant wind blew in.

You can see how Greenberg makes it appear weirder - Bruno S is certainly no normal person, but he Greenberg a knack of making the world appear weird, too.

But you do learn how Herzog was able to motivate his team to such extreme ends. When scenes didn't go right, he'd shout out seemingly crazy bets and then follow through later. Here we get to watch Herzog bet that he'd dive across a frozen river and back, and actually pulling it off after disappearing for several minutes (the trick is to breathe in the space between the ice and the river).

And Herzog gets to call someone a coward, that's what I am here for. I should call more people cowards.

[Joe Sacksteder]

I've been a longtime Herzog worshipper... well, not longtime at all, but intensetime. However, I'd never read any of his screenplays. I was surprised and not at surprised to find that the actual screenplay for "Heart of Glass" is an excruciating read. The film was one I had trouble liking, but eventually I did. I don't think the same would happen with the screenplay. If a screenplay is a recipe for a film, this on is like one of those recipes written by a matriarch where everything is vague because she was guided by her innate sense rather than words on the page. I was similarly underwhelmed when I read "Of Walking in Ice," so maybe Herzog just doesn't translate well to page. Makes me less disappointed I've never been able to find any of his poetry.

Luckily, Alan Greenberg is there to tell lots of interesting side stories about the production and to give us an at times intimate look into Herzog's beliefs and his family life. My favorite part was when Herzog's mother was talking about him as a boy, how he would sit in his room for days at a time and stare at a single object. Makes me wonder if I am, in the end, admiring a lunatic. This is worth reading if you're a big Herzog fan; there's hardly any "makings-of" for his film - other than "Burden of Dreams" - so the republication of this book is a real treat.

[Ben · Rating 5 out of 5]

Martje Herzog remarked that she and her husband had been married for ten years as of this day. Herzog related an incident from the night before.

"I was asleep at home, and Martje appeared before me. She walked over to the edge of a cliff and stood there, tottering. I felt frightened and dashed toward the edge, where I seized her, saving her as she was about to fall off the cliff and die. Right at that point, Martje awoke in a panic. My hands were around her throat, and I was squeezing--"

"He was choking me to death," said Martje.

"I was trying to protect her virtue," Herzog countered.

[Zach Werbalowsky · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fun read about the making of a very interesting movie. The controlled chaos of the set and the interesting people who made it. There are probably better books on Herzog, but this being the first I've read I found it interesting quite enjoyed his outlook!

[Shaun Mazerall · Rating 4 out of 5]

Such a great read in tandem with the film.

Here's my deep dive into HEART OF GLASS.
https://youtu.be/6QBqrnvpHik

[Lukas Evan · Rating 3 out of 5]

It’s hard to believe Herzog actually hypnotized his cast, but it’s very on brand.

[Mike · Rating 4 out of 5]

Heart of Glass is often overlooked among Herzog's classic work, or simply categorized as the hypnosis film. I was fascinated to discover the details of the filming. Whereas Herzog has always seemed eccentric, this is the first depiction that actually had me questioning his sanity. Perhaps the psychoanalyst on set was correct when he stated that Herzog himself is not mad, but that he surrounds himself with mad people, which impacts his psyche. In any case, it's a fascinating and bizarre read inter-spaced with Herzog's dream-like scenario.

[Jr · Rating 3 out of 5]

confounding, interesting, mysterious, mystical, philosophical, mad, inspired. a collection of remembrances interspersed with scenarios that built up the film Heart of Glass. i'd recommend it if you've seen the film and want to know more. if you haven't seen the film and want to read this book, i'd recommend watching the film first.