Werner Herzog on Kanye West: filmmaker praises musician's controversial 'Famous' video
Herzog did not appear to have heard of Kanye, referring to the rapper as 'Kane West', but he said he would offer him a place at his film school
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.When Lena Dunham first saw Kanye West’s controversy-baiting video for “Famous”, she called it “sickening”. Werner Herzog – the German filmmaker, philosopher and Tom Cruise’s unlikely Jack Reacher co-star – had a different reaction. “This is very good stuff,” he said. “I have never seen anything like this.”
(Of course, this is a guy who believes the "common denominator of the universe" is “chaos, hostility and murder.”)
Herzog was invite to give his take on the video by The Daily Beast, and appeared intrigued by its bedful of naked waxwork celebrities, including Taylor Swift, Rihanna, Bill Cosby, Donald Trump and Caitlyn Jenner – not to mention West and his wife, Kim Kardashian. The 10-minute video was directed by West himself and based on “Sleep”, a 2008 painting by Vincent Desiderio.
“The most interesting thing for me as a storyteller is... in a movie, yes, you do have a story, and you develop a story. But at the same time you have to be very careful and think about and organize a parallel story, a separate, independent story that only occurs in the collective mind of the audience,” Herzog said.
“And this video gives you space for creating your separate parallel story… You keep thinking, are these people for real? Are they doppelgängers? And what could be the story of them? What are they doing? How have they partied? What brought them together? So all of a sudden, the rapper gives me the chance to completely go wild on my own story.”
Musing on the idea of the “invented self” created by Facebook users, Herzog said he had noticed that he had his own online impersonators. “There are a lot of doppelgangers pretending to be me, trying to speak in my accent,” he said. “It’s all imposters, so our understanding of self has deeply and radically changed. It’s very fascinating.”
Herzog is on the promotional trail for his latest film Lo and Behold, Reveries of the Connected World, a meditation on the Internet and its effect on society. In another recent interview with The Verge, he was introduced to Pokémon Go and (naturally) soon identified the violent impulses embedded in what appears to be a children’s game.
Herzog didn’t actually appear to have heard of West before seeing the video, referring to him as “Kane”, not “Kanye”. But he did say he would accept the rapper to his “Rogue Film School” if he submitted the clip. “If he applies… with this film, I would invite him,” he said. “It really has calibre.”
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments