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It was one of those “I want to go to there” moments — Werner Herzog, perhaps the most mavericky maverick director ever, was convening a one-time-only “Rogue Film School”. It was almost as much as a surprise as the news that the director of “Aguirre: The Wrath of God” and “Grizzly Man” would also be the director of “Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call – New Orleans”. How could the man who dragged a steamship up a mountain, parried with Klaus Kinski, and continued an interview after being shot stay still long enough to impart his outsider wisdom? Taking Herzog’s “no compromises” philosophy to its natural extension, Flavorwire refused to pay the steep $1,450 and broke into the seminar series anyway.
Billed as “not for the faint-hearted; it is for those who have traveled on foot, who have worked as bouncers in sex clubs or wardens in a lunatic asylum, for those who are willing to learn about lock picking or forging shooting permits in countries not favoring their projects,” the Rogue Film School was an irresistible target for Laszlo Brauning who took Herzog at his word an faked his way into the weekend seminar. Seems that, despite some frayed nerves and an eventual hasty exit, Brauning didn’t need much in the way of instruction on Herzog’s renegade film making style to begin with.
Of course, you need not go jump through the hoops of forging press credentials or shelling out over a grand to follow in the footsteps of great directors. At around $16, our Film + Travel series tours you through the best schools and most famous vistas in film history — though we have to admit that a rudimentry understanding of lock picking never hurt anybody.
“First Person: Going Rogue at Werner Herzog’s Rogue Film School” [Flavorwire]
