Landscapes of the Soul

Versatile, impossible to pigeon-hole and always artistically unorthodox, Werner Herzog has never stopped finding ways to breathe new life into the conversation around film. He grew up in a village in Bavaria, cut off from culture and without access to television or cinema. He made his first phone call at the age of 17 and his first film at 19.

Self-taught, a visionary with an inexhaustible supply of inspiration, he built himself a highly eclectic career as a film-maker ("Aguirre—the Wrath of God", "Grizzly Man", "Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans" ), has acted alongside Tom Cruise, taught aspiring film-makers, saved Joaquin Phoenix's life (in reality, not in the movies), directed opera and eaten his shoe (when he lost a bet he made in a documentary).

Werner Herzog has a special relationship with Greece and antiquity. His grandfather Rudolph, a scholar and archaeologist, unearthed ancient artefacts in excavations he conducted on the Greek island Kos in the early 20th century. The discoveries fascinated the young Herzog, whose cinematic journeys to uncharted places they would inspire. Two of his first short films, “Last Words” (1968) and “Signs of Life” (1968) were filmed in Greece.

Following on from the conversation the two of them had about ancient Greek literature three years ago at an event co-produced by the Onassis Foundation in New York, this April will see Herzog meet up again with Paul Holdengräber, Founding Executive Director of The Onassis Foundation LA (OLA) and founder and director of The New York Public Library’s LIVE from the NYPL cultural series , for a conversation every bit as unpredictable as the 76-year-old master's career.