Split into three distinct parts, each of them special in their own way, "Fata Morgana" is an ambitious work that goes both nowhere and everywhere. Herzog's most outwardly experimental work, the film is absurd, surreal, melodic, powerful, spiritual, and uniquely comical. With plenty of melancholic shots of the desert's most desolate areas behind softly sad music and some very moody, but very beautiful songs by the great Leonard Cohen to soothe its more emotional bits, as well as plenty of wacky moments of absurdity to add to the overall feeling of satisfying comedy to the piece, "Fata Morgana" is a messy, brilliant, sprawling 70 minute epic.
As the film continues, it naturally grows on the viewer and allows itself to become much less heavy in its concepts and material. By the end of the film, every time I see it, I'm glowing with laughter and tears of perplexed happiness. A feeling of great inner peace swoops through the final shots of the film, which practically mirror the earlier, more intimidating desert shots but have a totally different effect due to the film's context. The world has been created, it has seen moments of tragedy and comedy, and, finally, it has developed into a peaceful landscape devoid of war and conflict. It is a work to soothe one's self, even if there is much chaos (which is bleached in fittingly absurd Herzogian humor) along the way.
This is a mythical film, a powerful, poetic masterpiece of freely avant garde cinema that is one of the most fascinatingly funny, beautiful, and insightful works of art I have ever borne witness too. One of, if not THE, finest film in Herzog's oeuvre-despite it's totally bizarre, off-the-rails approach.
As the film continues, it naturally grows on the viewer and allows itself to become much less heavy in its concepts and material. By the end of the film, every time I see it, I'm glowing with laughter and tears of perplexed happiness. A feeling of great inner peace swoops through the final shots of the film, which practically mirror the earlier, more intimidating desert shots but have a totally different effect due to the film's context. The world has been created, it has seen moments of tragedy and comedy, and, finally, it has developed into a peaceful landscape devoid of war and conflict. It is a work to soothe one's self, even if there is much chaos (which is bleached in fittingly absurd Herzogian humor) along the way.
This is a mythical film, a powerful, poetic masterpiece of freely avant garde cinema that is one of the most fascinatingly funny, beautiful, and insightful works of art I have ever borne witness too. One of, if not THE, finest film in Herzog's oeuvre-despite it's totally bizarre, off-the-rails approach.