My Son, My Son, What Have Ye Done

He says his name is Farouk, screams something about God and throws porridge at us. It’s a bit confusing. Who would have said? Lynch and Herzog are authors who move in a grey area of degenerate film language, where the average viewer (and in this case I don’t mean it pejoratively, I include myself into that group, too) can never be sure about what is serious, what is meant as over the top self-reflection, what is supposed to be a symbol for something else, and what doesn’t make any sense at all. There are two fundamental ways to enjoy films of this kind: to be intellectually sophisticated enough, or to “just” play a mysterious game about something that may lead to some result and knowledge or simply to the joy of the game itself. And I’m always happy to play with these two gentlemen. 8/10 (08/10/2010)

For a long time after watching the movie, I kept wondering whether I would give it three or four stars. And I’m still not really sure if I have yet to adjust the final evaluation. Werner Herzog keeps filming lunatics and one of such has appeared in this movie, too. But the movie itself isn’t anything ordinary. You’ll be assured of that in the opening credits already when you notice that Lynch himself has participated in this movie, and not only as a producer. His distinct atmosphere really was evident in the movie. In any case, I was somehow able to deal with the mess of the present and the past – there simply was a lunatic on the screen. Herzog kept jumping from the present to the past to explain and clear up the events from the beginning of the movie. But I expected some deeper message. Not only because Herzog usually shoots documentaries about the forgotten cultures all around the world. In the end, I didn’t get to see a significant explanation, which is why I’m still unsure what to think of this movie. But even so, the filmmaking is great. Suspenseful scenes took turns with gorgeous shots of Peru, but the end result? Sort of an empty shell with no thought behind it. (15/03/2014)