Der Shorn Artist
By Izzy
Werner Herzog, the obsessive director of obsessives real and imaginary, a filmmaker whose career began with his stealing a camera from film school, serves as a stark example of a gentleman who ought to have kept his moustache. That horizontal strip of hair flatters a long face and de-emphasizes a mountainous nose. Given that one of Herzog’s chief fixations has been the nature of manliness, it’s all the stranger that the director of Fitzcarraldo deforested the wide swath between his nose and mouth.
August 4th, 2008 at 6:55 pm
Disagree. Seeing him without the mustache is like getting punched in the face by your grandfather. It was one of the most striking things about seeing him on screen in My Best Fiend and Little Dieter.
August 8th, 2008 at 7:58 pm
Toss-up. The cruelty expressed in the upper lip in picture #2 would have been hidden under the moustache. Is that good or bad?
Anyway, that shirt in the older picture reminds me of Gilligan, which I can safely say is bad. He should have destroyed any prints or negatives, regardless of the cost.