Volume 54, Number 12 · July 19, 2007
Herzog and His Heroes
By Ian Buruma
Rescue Dawn
a film written and directed by Werner Herzog
Werner Herzog: Documentaries and Shorts, 1962–1999
Werner Herzog Film, 6 DVDs, $150.00
Herzog (Non)Fiction
a film series at Film Forum, New York, May 18–June 7, 2007
In her memoir about Bruce Chatwin, Susannah Clapp tells the following story. Not long before his death, already very ill, Chatwin was receiving guests in his room at the Ritz in London. Many of them left with a gift. One friend was given a small jagged object which Chatwin identified as a subincision knife, used to slit the urethra in an Aboriginal initiation rite. He had found it in the Australian bush, he said, with his connoisseur's eye: 'It's obviously made from some sort of desert opal. It's a wonderful color, almost the color of chartreuse.' Not long after, the director of the Australian National Gallery spotted the object in the grateful recipient's house. He held it up to the light and muttered: 'Hmmm. Amazing what the Abos can do with a bit of an old beer bottle.'[1]
Review, 4100 words
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