Heart of Glass (1976) West Germany
Heart of Glass Image Cover
Additional Images
Director:Werner Herzog
Studio:Anchor Bay
Producer:Werner Herzog
Writer:Herbert Achternbusch, Werner Herzog
Rating:3.5
Rated:NR
Date Added:2006-03-27
ASIN:B00005R247
UPC:0013131156690
Price:$29.98
Awards:1 win
Genre:German
Release:2002-08-01
IMDb:0074626
Duration:93
Picture Format:Widescreen
Aspect Ratio:1.66:1
Sound:Dolby Digital 2.0
Languages:German, Dolby Digital 2.0, Commentary by producer and director Werner Herzog and Norman Hill, Unknown
Subtitles:English
Features:Anamorphic
Subtitled
Werner Herzog  ...  (Director)
Herbert Achternbusch, Werner Herzog  ...  (Writer)
 
Josef Bierbichler  ...  Hias
Stefan Güttler  ...  Huttenbesitzer
Clemens Scheitz  ...  Adalbert
Sonja Skiba  ...  Ludmilla
Wolf Albrecht  ...  
Thomas Binkley  ...  
Janos Fischer  ...  
Wilhelm Friedrich  ...  
Edith Gratz  ...  
Alois Hruschka  ...  
Egmont Hugel  ...  
Amad Ibn Ghassem Nadij  ...  
Sterling Jones  ...  
Karl Kaufmann  ...  
Brunhilde Klöckner  ...  
Helmut Kossick  ...  
Helmut Krüger  ...  
Wolfram Kunkel  ...  
Werner Lederle  ...  
Richard Levitt  ...  
Sepp Müller  ...  
Agnes Nuissl  ...  
Volker Prechtel  ...  
Bernhard Schabel  ...  
Walter Schwarzmeier  ...  
Friedrich Steinhauer  ...  
Arno Vahrenwald  ...  
Andrea von Ramm  ...  
Detlev Weiler  ...  
Siegfried Wolf  ...  
Karl Yblagger  ...  
Summary: In his tireless crusade to expand the vocabulary of cinema, Werner Herzog turned Heart of Glass into a bold and challenging experiment. By placing all but one of his actors under hypnosis, Herzog achieved his desired effect, eliciting performances that seem oddly detached and trancelike, perfectly appropriate to a story about 19th-century Bavarian villagers who have lost their collective vision, cast adrift and descending into madness. They've lost the life-sustaining secret to the magical ruby-red glass that was once made in the local glassworks, and their predicament cannot be solved by the mystic (Josef Bierbichler, the only actor not hypnotized) who appears with premonitions of the fate of all humankind. All of this is mere pretense for Herzog's loftier (and not altogether successful) ambition: to present haunting, mysterious images that seem directly drawn from our collective subconscious. In his visionary defiance of conventional narrative, Herzog crafted a timeless, mesmerizing allegory, and one of the most eerily beautiful films ever made. --Jeff Shannon