Even Dwarfs Started Small

Last updated
Even Dwarfs Started Small
Even Dwarfs Started Small.jpg
American Theatrical release poster
Directed by Werner Herzog
Written byWerner Herzog
Produced byWerner Herzog
StarringHelmut Döring
Cinematography Thomas Mauch
Edited by Beate Mainka-Jellinghaus
Music by Florian Fricke
Production
company
Distributed by Werner Herzog Filmproduktion
Release dates
  • 15 May 1970 (1970-05-15)(Cannes)
  • 2 February 1971 (1971-02-02)(West Germany)
  • 15 December 1971 (1971-12-15)(US)
Running time
96 minutes
CountryWest Germany
LanguageGerman
Budget$200,000 [1]

Even Dwarfs Started Small (German : Auch Zwerge haben klein angefangen) is a 1970 West German absurdist comedy-drama film written, produced, and directed by Werner Herzog.

Contents

Plot

Dwarfs confined in an institution on a remote island rebel against the guards and director, also dwarfs, in a display of mayhem. They gleefully break windows and dishes, cackle maniacally, abandon a running truck to drive itself in circles, engineer food fights and cock fights, look at pin-up magazines, set fire to pots of flowers, kill a large pig, torment some blind dwarfs, and perform a mock crucifixion of a monkey.

Cast

Production

The film was shot on the Canary Islands, at Lanzarote. It was produced during the same time period as Herzog's Fata Morgana and The Flying Doctors of East Africa , and there are visual and thematic connections between the three works. Notably, the goggles worn by the blind dwarfs are the same style as the goggles which several people wear in Fata Morgana. [1]

During the filming, Herzog gave some surprising stage directions to elicit particular performances from the actors. In directing one dwarf who continually struggled not to laugh, Herzog repeatedly told the actor that he must not laugh, but then made funny faces at him as soon as he started filming. [1]

While filming the scene where a van drives in circles with no one at the wheel, one of the actors was run over, but immediately stood up uninjured. During the flower burning scene, the same actor caught fire and Werner Herzog raced over and beat the fire out. The actor only had minor injuries from the fire. After these two accidents, Herzog promised the actors that if they made it through the rest of filming without any more injuries he would jump into a cactus patch and allow the actors to film him doing so. The film was finished without any further injuries and the director made good his promise and dived into the cacti. Herzog has said, "Getting out was a lot more difficult than jumping in." [2] The vehicle-in-circles scene was inspired by an incident that occurred when Herzog worked as a steward at the Munich Oktoberfest as a young man. Part of his duty was ensuring that drunk patrons did not attempt to drive their cars home, so when a drunk man insisted that he was capable of driving, Herzog got into his car with him, placed the steering wheel on full lock, then got out of his car. The man passed out and the car continued to drive in a circle until it ran out of petrol. This situation was repeated at the end Herzog's 1977 film Stroszek.

Reception

Even Dwarfs Started Small has a 100% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes. [3]

Related Research Articles

<i>Aguirre, the Wrath of God</i> 1972 film by Werner Herzog

Aguirre, the Wrath of God is a 1972 epic historical drama film produced, written and directed by Werner Herzog. Klaus Kinski stars in the title role of Spanish soldier Lope de Aguirre, who leads a group of conquistadores down the Amazon River in South America in search of the legendary city of gold, El Dorado. The accompanying soundtrack was composed and performed by kosmische musik band Popol Vuh. The film is an international co-production between West Germany and Mexico.

<i>Fitzcarraldo</i> 1982 film by Werner Herzog

Fitzcarraldo is a 1982 West German epic adventure-drama film written, produced, and directed by Werner Herzog, and starring Klaus Kinski as would-be rubber baron Brian Sweeney Fitzgerald, an Irishman known in Peru as Fitzcarraldo, who is determined to transport a steamship over the Andes mountains to access a rich rubber territory in the Amazon basin. The character was inspired by Peruvian rubber baron Carlos Fitzcarrald, who once transported a disassembled steamboat over the Isthmus of Fitzcarrald.

<i>Lessons of Darkness</i> 1992 German film

Lessons of Darkness is a 1992 documentary film directed by Werner Herzog. The film is an exploration of the ravaged oil fields of post-Gulf War Kuwait, portrayed in a manner that accentuates the catastrophic and surreal nature of the landscape. An effective companion to Herzog's earlier film Fata Morgana, the film again perceives the desert as a landscape with its voice.

<i>Gummo</i> 1997 film by Harmony Korine

Gummo is a 1997 American experimental drama film written and directed by Harmony Korine, and stars Linda Manz, Max Perlich, Jacob Reynolds, Chloë Sevigny, Jacob Sewell, and Nick Sutton. The film is set in Xenia, Ohio, a Midwestern American town that had been previously struck by a devastating tornado. The loose narrative follows several main characters who find odd and destructive ways to pass time, interrupted by vignettes depicting other inhabitants of the town.

<i>Stroszek</i> 1977 film by Werner Herzog

Stroszek is a 1977 West German tragicomedy film directed by Werner Herzog and starring Bruno S., Eva Mattes, and Clemens Scheitz. Written specifically for Bruno S., the film was shot in Plainfield, Wisconsin, and North Carolina. Most of the lead roles are played by inexperienced actors.

<i>Incident at Loch Ness</i> 2004 British film

Incident at Loch Ness is a 2004 mockumentary starring, produced by and written by Werner Herzog and Zak Penn, while also serving as the latter's directorial debut. The small cast film follows Herzog and his crew while working on the production of a movie project on the Loch Ness Monster titled Enigma of Loch Ness. Incident at Loch Ness won the New American Cinema Award at the 2004 Seattle International Film Festival.

<i>My Best Fiend</i> 1999 German film

My Best Fiend is a 1999 German documentary film written and directed by Werner Herzog, about his tumultuous yet productive relationship with German actor Klaus Kinski. It was released on DVD in 2000 by Anchor Bay.

<i>Fata Morgana</i> (1971 film) 1971 West German documentary film

Fata Morgana is a 1971 film by Werner Herzog, shot in 1968 and 1969, which captures mirages in the Sahara and Sahel deserts. Herzog also wrote the narration by Lotte H. Eisner, which recounts the Mayan creation myth, the Popol Vuh.

<i>Werner Herzog Eats His Shoe</i> 1980 film

Werner Herzog Eats His Shoe is a short documentary film directed by Les Blank in 1980, that depicts director Werner Herzog living up to his alleged vow to eat his shoe if Errol Morris ever completed the film Gates of Heaven.

Bells from the Deep: Faith and Superstition in Russia is a 1993 documentary film written and directed by Werner Herzog, produced by Werner Herzog Filmproduktion.

<i>Herakles</i> (film) 1962 Short film by Werner Herzog

Herakles (Heracles) is a 1962 short film and the first film by the German director Werner Herzog, then 19 years old.

Gesualdo: Death for Five Voices is a 1995 film by German director Werner Herzog filmed for ZDF television. The film explores the music of Carlo Gesualdo and the legends surrounding Gesualdo's personality, his cursed castle, and his murder of his wife and her lover. Between narration and interviews, several of Gesualdo's madrigals are performed. Herzog calls Death for Five Voices "one of the films closest to my heart."

Game in the Sand is an unreleased short film written and directed by Werner Herzog in 1964. The plot concerns four children and a rooster in a cardboard box, and includes a scene where the chicken is buried in sand up to its neck. Very little information about the film and its production is known.

<i>Signs of Life</i> (1968 film) 1968 film

Signs of Life is a 1968 feature film written, directed, and produced by Werner Herzog. It was his first feature film, and his first major commercial and critical success. The story is roughly based on the short story "Der Tolle Invalide auf dem Fort Ratonneau" by Achim von Arnim.

<i>The Unprecedented Defence of the Fortress Deutschkreuz</i> 1967 [[West Germany]] film

The Unprecedented Defence of the Fortress Deutschkreuz is a 1967 short film by Werner Herzog filmed in 1966 in Deutschkreutz, Austria. Herzog's official website describes the film as "a satire on the state of war and peace and the absurdities it inspires.

<i>The Flying Doctors of East Africa</i> 1969 film

The Flying Doctors of East Africa is a 1969 documentary film by Werner Herzog about the "flying doctors" service of the African Medical and Research Foundation in Tanzania and Kenya. The film is a fairly conventional documentary made during the filming of Herzog's more stylized films Fata Morgana and Even Dwarfs Started Small.

<i>Scream of Stone</i> 1991 film by Werner Herzog

Scream of Stone is a 1991 film directed by Werner Herzog about a climbing expedition on Cerro Torre. The film was shot on location at Cerro Torre, with several scenes filmed close to the summit.

<i>My Son, My Son, What Have Ye Done</i> 2009 American film

My Son, My Son, What Have Ye Done is a 2009 crime drama film directed by Werner Herzog, and written by Herzog and Herbert Golder. The film stars Michael Shannon as Brad McCullam, a mentally unstable man who kills his own mother after becoming obsessed with a play he is starring in. The film follows a hostage situation resulting from the murder, while also showing the events of McCullam's life leading up to the murder in flashback, with Willem Dafoe appearing as the lead detective, and Chloë Sevigny as McCullam's fiancée.

<i>Queen of the Desert</i> (film) 2015 American film

Queen of the Desert is a 2015 American epic biographical drama film written and directed by Werner Herzog and is based on the life of British traveller, writer, archaeologist, explorer, cartographer and political officer Gertrude Bell. The film follows Bell's life chronologically, from her early twenties until her death. It was Herzog's first feature film in six years after his 2009 film My Son, My Son, What Have Ye Done?

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Werner Herzog filmography</span> Films by German filmmaker Werner Herzog

Werner Herzog is a German filmmaker whose films often feature ambitious or deranged protagonists with impossible dreams. Herzog's works span myriad genres and mediums, but he is particularly well known for his documentary films, which he typically narrates.

References

  1. 1 2 3 Werner Herzog, DVD audio commentary for Even Dwarfs Started Small
  2. ↑ Herzog, Werner (2001). Herzog on Herzog . Faber and Faber. ISBN   0-571-20708-1.
  3. ↑ "Even Dwarfs Started Small". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved 2021-10-11.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.