Werner Herzog
- Known for
- Directing
- Born
- September 5, 1942, Munich, Allemagne
- Movies
- 239
Werner Herzog (German: [ˈvɛɐ̯nɐ ˈhɛɐ̯tsoːk]; born 5 September 1942) is a German film director, screenwriter, author, actor, and opera director, regarded as a pioneer of New German Cinema. His films often feature ambitious protagonists with impossible dreams, people with unique talents in obscure fields, or individuals in conflict with nature. He is known for his unique filmmaking process, such as disregarding storyboards, emphasizing improvisation, and placing the cast and crew into similar situations as characters in his films.
Herzog started work on his first film Herakles in 1961, when he was nineteen. Since then he has produced, written, and directed more than sixty feature films and documentaries, such as Aguirre, the Wrath of God (1972), The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser (1974), Heart of Glass (1976), Stroszek (1977), Nosferatu the Vampyre (1979), Fitzcarraldo (1982), Cobra Verde (1987), Lessons of Darkness (1992), Little Dieter Needs to Fly (1997), My Best Fiend (1999), Invincible (2000), Grizzly Man (2005), Encounters at the End of the World (2007), Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans (2009), and Cave of Forgotten Dreams (2010). He has published more than a dozen books of prose, and directed as many operas.
French filmmaker François Truffaut once called Herzog "the most important film director alive." American film critic Roger Ebert said that Herzog "has never created a single film that is compromised, shameful, made for pragmatic reasons, or uninteresting. Even his failures are spectacular." He was named one of the world's 100 most influential people by Time magazine in 2009.
Upcoming Werner Herzog Movies
Ally
2027
July 14, 2027
The hunger in the world explained to my son
Release date TBA
The Twilight World
Release date TBA
Best-Known Movies
Filmography
Directing, Writing & Producing
| 2026 | Bucking Fastard | Writer, Director, Producer |
| 2026 | Ghost Elephants | Director, Writer, Producer, Screenplay |
| 2025 | Felicidad | Producer |
| 2024 | Theater of Thought | Director, Screenplay |
| 2024 | The Fire Within: A Requiem for Katia and Maurice Krafft | Director, Writer |
| 2022 | Flores del precipicio | Producer |
| 2022 | El Poso | Producer |
| 2020 | Fireball: Visitors from Darker Worlds | Director, Writer |
| 2019 | Family Romance, LLC | Writer, Director |
| 2019 | Meeting Gorbachev | Director, Writer |
| 2019 | Nomad: In the Footsteps of Bruce Chatwin | Director, Writer |
| 2016 | Salt and Fire | Writer, Producer, Director |
| 2016 | Into the Inferno | Director, Writer |
| 2016 | Lo and Behold: Reveries of the Connected World | Director, Producer, Writer |
| 2015 | Queen of the Desert | Director, Writer |
| 2013 | From One Second to the Next | Director |
| 2012 | The Killers: Unstaged | Director |
| 2011 | Into the Abyss | Writer, Director, Producer |
| 2011 | Ode to the Dawn of Man | Director |
| 2010 | Cave of Forgotten Dreams | Screenplay, Director |
| 2010 | Happy People: A Year in the Taiga | Writer, Director |
| 2010 | My Son, My Son, What Have Ye Done | Screenplay, Director |
| 2009 | Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans | Director |
| 2009 | La Bohème | Director |
| 2008 | Encounters at the End of the World | Director, Writer |
| 2007 | Rescue Dawn | Director |
| 2005 | The Wild Blue Yonder | Screenplay, Director |
| 2005 | Grizzly Man | Director |
| 2004 | Incident at Loch Ness | Producer |
| 2004 | The White Diamond | Director, Screenplay |
| 2003 | Wheel of Time | Producer, Director, Writer |
| 2002 | Ten Thousand Years Older | Director, Screenplay |
| 2002 | Ten Minutes Older: The Trumpet | Writer, Director |
| 2001 | Invincible | Writer, Director, Producer |
| 2001 | Pilgrimage | Director |
| 1999 | Wings of Hope | Director, Writer |
| 1999 | My Best Fiend | Writer, Director |
| 1997 | Little Dieter Needs to Fly | Director, Writer |
| 1996 | The Transformation of the World Into Music | Director, Writer |
| 1995 | Gesualdo: Death for Five Voices | Director, Writer, Producer |
| 1993 | Bells from the Deep | Director, Writer |
| 1992 | La Donna del Lago | Director |
| 1992 | Lessons of Darkness | Director, Writer |
| 1991 | Jag Mandir: The Eccentric Private Theatre of the Maharaja of Udaipur | Screenplay, Director, Producer |
| 1991 | Scream of Stone | Director |
| 1990 | Echoes from a Sombre Empire | Director, Writer, Producer |
| 1989 | Wodaabe: Herdsmen of the Sun | Director, Writer |
| 1989 | Giovanna d'Arco | Director |
| 1988 | The French as Seen by… | Director |
| 1988 | The Gauls | Director |
| 1987 | Cobra Verde | Director, Screenplay |
| 1987 | Location Africa | Producer |
| 1986 | Portrait: Werner Herzog | Director, Writer |
| 1985 | The Dark Glow of the Mountains | Director, Producer, Writer |
| 1984 | Ballad of the Little Soldier | Writer, Director, Producer |
| 1984 | Where the Green Ants Dream | Director, Producer, Writer |
| 1983 | God's Angry Man | Director, Writer |
| 1983 | Huie's Sermon | Director |
| 1982 | Fitzcarraldo | Director, Producer, Screenplay |
| 1980 | Werner Herzog Eats His Shoe | Writer |
| 1979 | Woyzeck | Screenplay, Director |
| 1979 | Nosferatu the Vampyre | Director, Producer, Writer |
| 1977 | La Soufrière: Waiting for an Inevitable Catastrophe | Director, Producer |
| 1977 | Stroszek | Director, Screenplay, Producer |
| 1976 | Heart of Glass | Writer, Director, Producer |
| 1976 | How Much Wood Would a Woodchuck Chuck | Director, Producer |
| 1976 | No One Will Play with Me | Director, Writer |
| 1974 | The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser | Producer, Director, Screenplay |
| 1974 | The Great Ecstasy of Woodcarver Steiner | Director, Screenplay, Producer |
| 1972 | Aguirre, the Wrath of God | Producer, Director, Writer |
| 1972 | Fata Morgana | Director, Screenplay, Producer |
| 1971 | Land of Silence and Darkness | Screenplay, Director, Producer |
| 1971 | Even Dwarfs Started Small | Producer, Screenplay, Director |
| 1971 | Handicapped Future | Director, Producer, Writer |
| 1970 | The Flying Doctors of East Africa | Director, Writer, Producer |
| 1969 | Precautions Against Fanatics | Director, Producer, Writer |
| 1968 | Signs of Life | Writer, Director, Producer |
| 1968 | Last Words | Director, Screenplay, Producer |
| 1967 | The Unprecedented Defence of the Fortress Deutschkreuz | Director, Screenplay |
| 1962 | Herakles | Director, Screenplay, Producer |
Data from TMDB. This product uses the TMDB API but is not endorsed or certified by TMDB.