Die große Ekstase des Bildschnitzers Steiner (1974)

Die große Ekstase des Bildschnitzers Steiner: Directed by Werner Herzog. With Walter Steiner, Werner Herzog. A study of the psychology of a champion ski-jumper, whose full-time occupation is carpentry.

“This starts out looking like a more or less standard TV documentary about a ski-jumper. Over time, however, it somehow gets stranger and stranger, until the ending, that somehow, incomprehensibly, left me totally out of breath.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThe film works on so many levels: Itu0026#39;s a fascinating portrayal of the celebrated ski-jumper Steiner, but itu0026#39;s also an amazing look at the plain aesthetics of ski-jumping, with extreme slow-motion pictures showing the jumpersu0026#39; fears and ecstasy at a very profound level. In addition, there is also something in this film thatu0026#39;s simply very hard or impossible to define, something about man itself, something about longing and – perhaps the most advanced of human emotions – pity.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eHow much of this portrayal that actually reflects Steineru0026#39;s personality, and how much of it that reflects Herzogu0026#39;s, is hard to tell. But thatu0026#39;s the only catch. Those looking for Herzog classics should not think that this movie can be missed because itu0026#39;s a 45-minute TV documentary. Apart from pictures of some nasty ski-jumping falls, itu0026#39;s not really disturbing to the extent that put me slightly off when watching for example Aguirre and Even Dwarfs Started Small – so it could from my point of view overall be the best of the many Herzog movies Iu0026#39;ve seen so far.”