Werner Herzog Returns With A Double Barrel Blast of Batshit Crazy

This isn’t exactly breaking news, but it’s not lighting up the internet like Avatar, when it should be.

What do you mean, you are out of pickles?

Everyone knows Herzog is a bit of an eccentric. This is the man who publicly cooked and ate his shoe for a bet and reportedly directed Kinski from behind the camera with a loaded gun. Of course, he doesn’t see it that way. He has been quoted as saying …in my own country, people have tried to label me personally as an eccentric, as some sort of strange freak that does not fit in any of their patterns. And that’s ridiculous. They are insane. Insane indeed.

There was a time when I thought Herzog would never top the midget fueled insanity of Even Dwarves Started Small, but it looks like I’m about to be proven wrong. Twice. The German auteur has two films playing the 2009 Toronto Film Festival, both of which I am dying to see.

The first, and more ridiculous of the two, is the cumbersomely titled Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans. This is a re-imagining of Abel Ferrara’s Bad Lieutenant (the Harvey Keitel nun rape movie) starring Nicolas Fucking Cage. It’s been a long time since Cage’s unique “talents” have been put to good use. Once upon a time he was a respected actor, starring in such films as Raising Arizona, Wild At Heart and Vampire’s Kiss. But ever since winning the best actor Oscar in 1995 for Leaving Las Vegas, he’s been churning out crazy hairstyles and crappy action movies like nobody’s business. The only exception I can think of is Spike Jonze’s Adaptation. Anyway, from the iguanas to the dancing souls, this trailer has to be seen to be believed.

The second is another mouthful. The David Lynch produced murder mystery, My Son, My Son, What Have Ye Done. That’s right, ye. Olde English Style. If ever a trailer didn’t need a Mr. Trailer Voice voice over, this is the one. Granted, it doesn’t feature the campy over-acting of the Cagester, so I guess they felt they really had to sell it. You’d think the pairing of David Lynch and Werner Herzog would be enough.