Review of Heart of Glass (1976) by Appu B — 06 Aug 2010

Heart of Glass--not be confused with the Blondie song : )--is not one of my favorite Herzog films, but it is a striking, beautiful, and surreal film nonetheless. Heart of Glass further demonstrates Herzog's fearless originality, for he experiments in this film by hypnotizing all of the major actors and actresses except for the prophet character.

The hypnotized performances are bizarre to watch, and they do seem to stem from the unconscious in the characters' dialogue. Herzog's filming of this remote village and its moutainous environs is nothing short of breathtaking and the film will cast a spell on you with its images, its almost crazy dialogue and acting, and its constantly ambiguous prognostications about the future, some of which blantantly predict the rise of Nazism.

Aside from all that, Heart of Glass is a film about the fragility of community and individual identity. It examines the relation between community and identity by displaying the manner in which communal changes affect the psyches of the individual.

Ultimately, however, Heart of Glass's true power rests in its depiction of civilization as a fragile, glass structure that can easily be shattered by only one subtle change. The loss of the glass factory foreman who knows the secret of the town's distinctive ruby colored glass I enough to plunge the town into barbarism and chaos.

A beautiful if somewhat flawed film, Heart of Glass still demonstrates the prowess of one of cinema's truly great auteurs.