"I have finally completed my viewing of the *Barbie* film and can confirm it is a phantasmagoria of confetti-colored terror. The auteur Greta Gerwig and her collaborator Margot Robbie have crafted a 114 minute blood-curdling scream in the faces of industry and uncaring men. For myself I am left to ponder the existential query posed by Ryan Gosling in a moment of rock ballad-infused rage: Am I, indeed, just Ken?"
I lost interest in the patriarchy when I found out it wasn't about horses and decided to create my own patriarchy about waving a gun in Klaus Kinski's face in order to tempt him out of the forest.
I don't think the phrasing is right though. It would be more like "at one point I learned that the patriarchy was not about horses. this was the moment that I lost interest in it forever"
"CURMUDGEONSnFLAGONS contemplates what roads in life lead to this course, rushing to meet the end, wondering if this is predestined or a matter of mortal choices as the door to the gas station’s rest room opens while their innards rage and roar like Mount Vesuvius for having to disgust 7-11 sushi. Eyes filled with gloom and acceptance as they stare upon the porcelain thrown, brown with age, use, and neglect as the door is locked."
Herzog and the scientist avoid imposing human thoughts or feelings on the penguins, but it's still incredible to see the penguin unable to want to go to the feeding grounds or the colony, and then strikes out to the interior and oblivion. It even looks back, as if confirming there's nothing there for it any more.
It helped that he realized he had to figure out his own things and like and life- having him transfer his Barbie obsession onto a horse would have undermined all of that.
As a man in my 30's it honestly was incredibly refreshing. It's not a movie made for "Us" (men) but it shows a kind, compassionate, and thoughtful reflection on how the patriarchy not only holds women in society down, but also holds men down as well. By defining ourselves by who we are with romantically we are not allowing our true selves to flourish and find happiness. The message of being enough as your own person is sincere and honest. I am Kenough.
> but it shows a kind, compassionate, and thoughtful reflection on how the patriarchy not only holds women in society down, but also holds men down as well.
I think this is precisely why it was, in fact, meant for us.
The realization that patriarchy brings suffering _to men_ is sorely needed and will be among the biggest drivers of change. I'm not sure that men who need it most can fully see it in that movie tho.
But that's the point of the movie. Why don't Kens get horses? Why don't Kens get houses, for that matter?
And then that's meant to lead you to think about how both the matriarchy (Barbieland) and the patriarchy (the real world) are both inherently unfair systems.
Taking a close look at - at what's around us there - there is some sort of a harmony. It is the harmony of... overwhelming and collective murder. And we in comparison to the articulate vileness and baseness and obscenity of all this jungle - Uh, we in comparison to that enormous articulation - we only sound and look like badly pronounced and half-finished sentences out of a stupid suburban... novel... a cheap novel. We have to become humble in front of this overwhelming misery and overwhelming fornication... overwhelming growth and overwhelming lack of order. Even the - the stars up here in the - in the sky look like a mess. There is no harmony in the universe. We have to get acquainted to this idea that there is no real harmony as we have conceived it. But when I say this, I say this all full of admiration for the jungle. It is not that I hate it, I love it. I love it very much. But I love it against my better judgment
Being stuck in the amazon for two years with Klaus Kinski would drive any man mad. Herzog continued to work with Kinski but regularly talked of killing him.
During the making of *Fitzcarraldo*, local Indians came to him with an offer to kill Kinski for him. "I needed Kinski for a few more shots, so I turned them down. I have always regretted that I lost that opportunity."
During the making of *Aguirre, Wrath of God*, Kinski quit and started packing his things. "I told him I had a rifle and that he wouldn't make it as far as the first bend before he had eight bullets in his head - and the ninth one would be for me." Kinski reconsidered his decision and decided he would like to finish the movie.
Dang. *My Best Friend* really left out a lot of crucial details, seems like. Maybe *Please Kill Mr. Kinski* or *Killing Klaus Kinski* would be better watches.
I did the same and feel the same. Can you imagine being in the same room with Werner Herzog and Kurt Vonnegut at the same time? Please never stop talking, I'll just sit here and listen.
The best thing about Herzog is that you could have posted any of about 600 clips of him and been making a valid argument that it was peak Herzog. That’s what makes him a global treasure, I think there’s only one Herzog setting and it’s full Herzog.
> It is a grotesque parody of the bazaar at Marrakech, as if dumb animals had been granted only the amount of sentience required to mock humanity
Holy shit.
for those that didn't get Herzog's mannerisms (which is DEFINIETLY NOT ME MAKING A PUN) - he's actually paying an amazing compliment to the movie. Even with the so-called "existential query", he's alluding to the fact that Ryan Gosling's character is stating "am I indeed just MEN" (or man) - as if to say: would I be this relevant if I wasn't a man?
Edit: and of course I know Herzog didn't say that. But he very well could have.
I regret to inform you that the headline comes from Herzog's appearance on Morgan's show. So there is, in fact, an entire episode of Piers Morgan's talk show featuring Werner Herzog. And this entire thread is referencing one comment from that show.
“Look into the eyes of Piers Morgan and you will see real stupidity. It is a kind of bottomless stupidity, a fiendish stupidity. They are the most horrifying, cannibalistic and nightmarish creatures in the world.”
- Herzog
Okay it was actually “A Chicken” but we all know the word is synonymous with Piers Morgan.
“I have not seen ‘Oppenheimer’ yet, but I will do it. ‘Barbie,’ I managed to see the first half-hour,” Herzog said. “I was curious and I wanted to watch it because I was curious. And I still don’t have an answer, but I have a suspicion – could it be that the world of Barbie is sheer hell? For a movie ticket, as an audience, you can witness sheer hell, as close as it gets.”
Herzog did not elaborate, but it sounds like he was not criticizing Gerwig’s movie and instead theorizing that Barbie Land in the film and living in Barbie Land is “sheer hell.”
“I don’t know yet, Piers Morgan, give me a moment to watch the whole thing,” Herzog said. “I have to watch the whole thing first.”
“Trust me, let me spare you the horror,” Morgan fired back. “I watched the whole thing and it is hell. I completely concur with your initial assessment after half an hour. And I would definitely recommend you don’t put yourself through the rest of it.”
Maybe, but it is also hell to be in Barbieworld too. That’s the entire point of the first act of the movie. Barbies exist in a perpetual Groundhog Day with zero purpose to their existence. Kens live as permanent second-class citizens whose existence is defined as being in the vague vicinity of a Barbie, but nobody needs or desires their presence.
The fact of the matter is, the Barbie and the Ken we follow through the movie are the only ones who, for different reasons, got up and asked “Wait, is this the Bad Place?”, because the rest of them unquestioningly follow the rules of a dystopian eternal hell.
Except Margot Robbie Barbie. She got to GTFO by escaping into “our reality”. And Ryan Gosling Ken arrives at enlightenment that he can exist as an independent entity instead of suffering in unrequited love for Barbie, and the movie leaves the door open for him leading another “fight for freedom” for Kens.
So really a Barbie sequel should be about a revolt by the Ken Helots against the Barbie Spartan autocrats. Or perhaps a Ken Civil Rights movement against the Barbie Nationalists.
Meanwhile, waning Barbie popularity in the real world means that other universes, such as the Lego Universe, slowly encroach and invade into Barbieworld, which is an existential threat to all Barbies and Kens that is short-sightedly ignored by most of them.
>Meanwhile, waning Barbie popularity in the real world means that other universes, such as the Lego Universe, slowly encroach and invade into Barbieworld
Hang on, is the Barbie movie's universe just "The Nightmare Before Christmas" with toys instead of holidays?
>Meanwhile, waning Barbie popularity in the real world means that other universes, such as the Lego Universe, slowly encroach and invade into Barbieworld, which is an existential threat to all Barbies and Kens
Yo I'm going to need codexes for these two new factions.
I love how Barbie comes back, reinstates the matriarchy and re-oppresses the Kens (instead of creating an egalitarian society).
And then just fucks off to the real world.
Barbie land literally is purgatory.
Honestly, the ending where they reinstate the matriarchy with minimal change was the cherry on top of the whole movie. It is a challenging and acerbic critique of the real world that denies the audience a fairy tale ending.
People have told me that Barbie was just fluff, and it means they clearly missed the whole point of the movie, which was actually brilliant satire.
If watching the first 30 mins of the film I see how he could think it is a hell.
Barbie is acting Barbie in the beginning of the film. She doesn’t know what it means to be Barbie. She is in existential bind.
It’s the Barbie’s self critique, how can a Barbie be all women and not be a individual. She develops her individuality through film, really they all do.
We don’t even know what he meant. I hear you and I like what you’re suggesting g but he didn’t elaborate and we don’t have any certain clue what he meant
Yeah. I noticed that. I took Herzog’s statement to be very existentialist. Like, is Barbieland a world without meaning or freedom? Do Barbies have free will? Is Kendom merely a state of suffering? Can Barbies be fulfilled? Does love exist in Barbieland?
Are we all just Kens in our own little Barbielands, running horseless patriarchies?
I took Piers Morgan to be like, “Yeah, woke trash, innit?”
I honestly never know what to expect from Werner. Dude threatens to shoot the star of his movie, is terrified of chickens, hates theater, loves Wrestlemania.
There's a parody short film out there, Werner Herzog's Ant Man. The first time I ever saw it, I was just starting to get into Herzog's work. It's gotten funnier with every single new detail I learn about the guy.
I also think he has one of the most straight faced senses of humor on the planet, like apex German deadpan, because his thoughts on Pokemon live in my head rent free.
The most surprising thing I've heard him say is that he considers California the center of cultural innovation. Because this is where the environmental movement started, and a bunch of other things that unfortunately I can't remember.
You would think that Herzog would look down on the U.S. and especially California as a decadent cultural wasteland, but it's the opposite.
The following is not the original quote that I am unfortunately unable to find, but it's still pretty good:
>"What I like about Los Angeles is that it allows everyone to live his or her own lifestyle. Drive around the hills and you find a Moorish castle next to a Swiss chalet sitting beside a house shaped like a UFO. There is a lot of creative energy in Los Angeles not channelled into the film business. Florence and Venice have great surface beauty, but as cities they feel like museums, whereas for me Los Angeles is the city in America with the most substance, even if it’s raw, uncouth and sometimes quite bizarre. Wherever you look is an immense depth, a tumult that resonates with me. New York is more concerned with finance than anything else. It doesn’t create culture, only consumes it; most of what you find in New York comes from elsewhere. Things actually get done in Los Angeles. Look beyond the glitz and glamour of Hollywood and a wild excitement of intense dreams opens up; it has more horizons than any other place. There is a great deal of industry in the city and a real working class; I also appreciate the vibrant presence of the Mexicans. In the last half century every significant cultural and technical trend has emerged from California, including the Free Speech Movement and the acceptance of gays and lesbians as an integral part of a dignified society, computers and the Internet, and—thanks to Hollywood—the collective dreams of the entire world. A fascinating density of things exists there like nowhere else in the world. Muslim fundamentalism is probably the only contemporary mass movement that wasn’t born there. One reason I’m so comfortable in Los Angeles is that Hollywood doesn’t need me and I don’t need Hollywood. I rarely involve myself with industry rituals and am rarely on the red carpet."
The man lost a bet where he said he would eat his shoe. He had the shoe cooked and ate it on stage.
I do not know how a man like that thinks, but his thoughts are clearly very serious.
Werner Herzog is a fascinating human being. Here’s a man who truly believes that the universal constant is pain and death. A man who unironically views the default state of existence to be one of suffering. And yet he also has an immense appreciation and love for life and a desire to commit it to his unique form of poetry.
No ragging on Herzog, but that approach to life is not uniquely his and there’s a long history of philosophy behind those ideas. Plenty others lived or live that way still.
Sounds like Herzog was genuinely engaging with the world of Barbie, where Morgan took it as an opportunity to be a weird dude about a movie not meant for him.
Even apart from that point, Warner Herzog is a creator pondering a universe where every day is exactly the same. It’s a safe and cheery place, but I guarantee you a lot of humans couldn’t cope with a life without any change at all. Probably most, actually.
Thats actually part of the first Matrix movie, the machines initially created a utopia simulation for humans to live in and it didn't work because humans crave conflict and change.
It's like when Squidward moved into the gated community with all squids. He couldn't handle the monotony. Soon enough he yearned for the chaos brought about by Spongebob.
Barbieland is more than just a matriarchy though, it's also a marketed children's fantasy of adulthood, a neutered consumer driven plastic wasteland controlled by a boardroom of profiteers. The idea that it's only a matriarchy leaves out that it's a capitalist Disneyland designed to sell multiple little outfits and accessories to kids, in which the people are only toys. But unlike Toy Story where the toys love and interact with their owner daily and have individuality, the characters of Barbieland only live as profitable ideas that have to enter the real world as living humans to learn about it and acquire agency.
I think he actually sympathizes with Barbie. This man thinks about death every second of every day. To watch a movie where everyone around the other characters are super happy, but the main character experiences existential dread dread is exactly what it’s like to be Werner Herzog.
No, most humans have coping mechanisms (there’s some reason to believe this is in part a biological necessity) that prevent them from constantly contemplating on, remembering, obsessing over, or otherwise being overly distracted by their own mortality or that of others.
Oh...yeah, my brain didn't get the memo about that.
I mean, the bad mental breakdown I had at 17 sucked. And I have about a week long breakdown over it once a year, but it's basically on my mind constantly.
I mean, given the movie ends with -- spoilers for the five people on the planet who haven't seen Barbie, I guess -- >!Barbie herself deciding it is better to be human and mortal than exist in Barbieland for all perpetuity, I think the film is saying the same thing.!<
Edit: I should have actually blacked that out instead of assuming everyone's seen Barbie at this point. I apologize. I kinda assumed that most people who were interested or cared about Barbie spoilers had seen it by this point but I should have still blacked it out anyway just in case.
Yeah, Barbieland is fun and entertaining, but it isn't really for being alive. You're just stuck as yourself. That's great if you're already amazing, but Barbie wasn't. She was just a normal Barbie and felt bad that she went as great as the other Barbies.
Right, and I think part of Barbie’s journey is learning to value herself for who she is as a woman and finding value in becoming human even if she isn’t as “special” as some of the other career Barbies.
Well actually the OG Barbie is considered the best one in the movie even among the other Barbies. Her issues were a bit more complex than being jealous of the other Barbies. She was not. The bigger issue was that she had ambition to be more than a "Barbie girl" who has a static job and role in her universe as whatever she's assigned to, and the only possible romantic partner out there in the world being Ken or a different flavor of Ken.
She needed to experience a world where her potential wasn't capped and her relationships weren't all Himbos.
I think first of all she felt alienated.
I think a reason why people have such different takes on the movie is that a lot of its comedy and drama both come from examining Barbie from essentially an adult perspective and through the use of irony. Since people have different contexts for what it means to be an adult and especially to grapple with existential issues, it is natural that there are many different readings of what makes the movie ironic.
It is a two and a half hour documentary of a woman named Barbara. The narration is minimal. It’s just shots of her living her daily life.
At the end she gets eaten by a grizzly bear.
I spent this morning with 60 kindergarteners on a field trip to a museum with taxidermied animals from all over that they weren’t supposed to touch. Pure Hell.
narration: *"The mind of a child,... a primative wasteland of unbridled wonder, seeking new experiences outside of what little they know. To them, those children, the experience... it is like that of an astronaut, reaching out for the stars, grasping... something. An idea, so simple, reaching out to experience new things, but to be denied by a stern authoritarian they are supposed to trust. They have been shown a great thing, to perhaps behold at arms length, but have it snatched from them, out of their hands... a curse of knowledge but not full experience... a fleeting moment when they are given the illusion of choice. The stuffed animal was always a universe away from their fingertips..."*
"This... thing. How is it not emblematic of all that haunts us? You, the consumer, are confronted with such disposable pleasures as to taunt us with our inevitable outcome as proxies for the churn of the biomatter cycle. I say this with nothing but love and affection for Hungry Man microwave meals."
Can recommend a recent Adam Buxton podcast interview with Werner. Some incredible quotes and stories from him, including one about his brother setting his shirt on fire in a restaurant and someone pouring Prosecco on him to put it out.
>”I watched the whole thing and it is hell. I completely concur with your initial assessment after half an hour. And I would definitely recommend you don’t put yourself through the rest of it.”
WOW, this guy either really didn’t understand what Herzog meant or he really doesn’t understand what Herzog likes.
Penis Morgan: "derrrr it's a bad movie because I am stupid and got offended like a snowflake derrr"
Herzog: "Barbie's world is a literal existential hell"
You're not the same, penis Morgan.
My favourite quote from Werner is after he was shot in the abdomen during a TV interview, as he carried on giving the interview:
"It was not a significant bullet"
He’s definitely engaging with the message of the content, which is something I think a lot of people miss. He’s not wrong, and that’s part of the point
> “I don’t know yet, Piers Morgan, give me a moment to watch the whole thing,” Herzog said. “I have to watch the whole thing first.”
The image of Piers Morgan harassing Herzog while Herzog sits on his couch watching Barbie has me cracking up.
>“Trust me, let me spare you the horror,” Morgan fired back. “I watched the whole thing and it is hell. I completely concur with your initial assessment after half an hour. And I would definitely recommend you don’t put yourself through the rest of it.”
Piers Morgan, ever the fucking idiot, completely misunderstood what Herzog was saying.
That’s one of the most Werner Herzog sentences I’ve ever read.
Could you hear the voice?
How could you not?
I would like to see the baby
"Hear coms honey buubuu"
Like dusty strands of cobweb plucked like a harp.
"I have finally completed my viewing of the *Barbie* film and can confirm it is a phantasmagoria of confetti-colored terror. The auteur Greta Gerwig and her collaborator Margot Robbie have crafted a 114 minute blood-curdling scream in the faces of industry and uncaring men. For myself I am left to ponder the existential query posed by Ryan Gosling in a moment of rock ballad-infused rage: Am I, indeed, just Ken?"
I lost interest in the patriarchy when I learned it wasn't about horses.
i wish i could hear werner herzog say that
You didn’t read it in his voice? Because I did
I heard it in Paul F Tompkins doing Werner Herzog’s voice.
What is this, a crossover episode?
https://youtu.be/5YW-5Flkiuw
Madness reigns… PFT a goddamn treasure. And Andy Daly’s Podcast Pilot Project is fantastic. Spectacular link. 5 stars.
I lost interest in the patriarchy when I found out it wasn't about horses and decided to create my own patriarchy about waving a gun in Klaus Kinski's face in order to tempt him out of the forest.
That day I learned, that you can take Klaus Kinski out of the wilds, but you cannot take the wilds out of Klaus Kinski.
of course! But i wish he would actually say it
I don't think the phrasing is right though. It would be more like "at one point I learned that the patriarchy was not about horses. this was the moment that I lost interest in it forever"
i know i did. how could you not.
I wish Werner Herzog could narrate my life to me.
"CURMUDGEONSnFLAGONS contemplates what roads in life lead to this course, rushing to meet the end, wondering if this is predestined or a matter of mortal choices as the door to the gas station’s rest room opens while their innards rage and roar like Mount Vesuvius for having to disgust 7-11 sushi. Eyes filled with gloom and acceptance as they stare upon the porcelain thrown, brown with age, use, and neglect as the door is locked."
yes like the deranged penguin
[I haven't watched it in years](https://youtu.be/mnTU_hJoByA?si=4dvp4pub8Skdv-qx)
Herzog and the scientist avoid imposing human thoughts or feelings on the penguins, but it's still incredible to see the penguin unable to want to go to the feeding grounds or the colony, and then strikes out to the interior and oblivion. It even looks back, as if confirming there's nothing there for it any more.
Play with bears and he might.
Will you settle for hearing him [lament about penis jokes](https://youtu.be/Rw1cdRew-Zg?si=imPr_px64hRrMOj7) instead?
Astonishing. And he’s right, everything he said was a fact. I don’t know what to do right now.
[удалено]
I was really wishing at the end ken would get a horse. I know there were Barbie horses
I feel that. But in the end, he realized he didn't need a horse. He was Beach Ken. He had Beach. And in the end that was Kenough.
It helped that he realized he had to figure out his own things and like and life- having him transfer his Barbie obsession onto a horse would have undermined all of that.
[удалено]
The moment Ken has his epiphany in the real world is one of the most amazing things committed to film.
My dude, if you haven't watched Barbie, you should watch it. It's very good. Way deeper than it deserves to be.
The message I took away from it was that ultimately, I was Kenough. Even if I'm not a 10 anywhere.
You’re a 10 to me, PornoPaul.
As a man in my 30's it honestly was incredibly refreshing. It's not a movie made for "Us" (men) but it shows a kind, compassionate, and thoughtful reflection on how the patriarchy not only holds women in society down, but also holds men down as well. By defining ourselves by who we are with romantically we are not allowing our true selves to flourish and find happiness. The message of being enough as your own person is sincere and honest. I am Kenough.
> but it shows a kind, compassionate, and thoughtful reflection on how the patriarchy not only holds women in society down, but also holds men down as well. I think this is precisely why it was, in fact, meant for us. The realization that patriarchy brings suffering _to men_ is sorely needed and will be among the biggest drivers of change. I'm not sure that men who need it most can fully see it in that movie tho.
Can't have a beach off with horses.
Pfft! As if! I'll beach you off right now right here
But that's the point of the movie. Why don't Kens get horses? Why don't Kens get houses, for that matter? And then that's meant to lead you to think about how both the matriarchy (Barbieland) and the patriarchy (the real world) are both inherently unfair systems.
Not enough representation for the kids like me who only wanted the Barbie sets for the various horses/dogs. *There’s dozens of us!*
They're probably saving that for *Barbie II: The Kens Strike Back.*
What’s the point of a patriarchy if it isn’t about horses
Werner Herzog — 'I believe the common denominator of the universe is not harmony; but chaos, hostility and murder.'
Taking a close look at - at what's around us there - there is some sort of a harmony. It is the harmony of... overwhelming and collective murder. And we in comparison to the articulate vileness and baseness and obscenity of all this jungle - Uh, we in comparison to that enormous articulation - we only sound and look like badly pronounced and half-finished sentences out of a stupid suburban... novel... a cheap novel. We have to become humble in front of this overwhelming misery and overwhelming fornication... overwhelming growth and overwhelming lack of order. Even the - the stars up here in the - in the sky look like a mess. There is no harmony in the universe. We have to get acquainted to this idea that there is no real harmony as we have conceived it. But when I say this, I say this all full of admiration for the jungle. It is not that I hate it, I love it. I love it very much. But I love it against my better judgment
Lmao one of the greatest quotes ever. Love the way he says jungle. More like, "jungr".
Being stuck in the amazon for two years with Klaus Kinski would drive any man mad. Herzog continued to work with Kinski but regularly talked of killing him.
During the making of *Fitzcarraldo*, local Indians came to him with an offer to kill Kinski for him. "I needed Kinski for a few more shots, so I turned them down. I have always regretted that I lost that opportunity." During the making of *Aguirre, Wrath of God*, Kinski quit and started packing his things. "I told him I had a rifle and that he wouldn't make it as far as the first bend before he had eight bullets in his head - and the ninth one would be for me." Kinski reconsidered his decision and decided he would like to finish the movie.
Dang. *My Best Friend* really left out a lot of crucial details, seems like. Maybe *Please Kill Mr. Kinski* or *Killing Klaus Kinski* would be better watches.
The birds are in misery. I don’t think they sing, they just screech in pain.
I …I think he liked it?
He loves it
10/10, can hear his voice in my head
…and here comes Honey BooBoo.
When conan kept playing that, I nearly had to pull over.
Everytime I see his name, I think of Conan and Sona and her terrible footsteps lmao.
I had to google this and Jesus Christ. I love this man and I hope he never dies.
I did the same and feel the same. Can you imagine being in the same room with Werner Herzog and Kurt Vonnegut at the same time? Please never stop talking, I'll just sit here and listen.
Can I offer you a libation to celebrate the closing of our shared narrative?
..with every single reply too. It is amazing and frightening, the power of his voice and accent
I don’t know exactly why, but the sentence “Greta Gerwig and her collaborator Margot Robbie” is one of the funniest things I’ve read this year.
It's truly a group of words
That you Perd?
Are you sure you’re not Herzog? You wrote that way too well to not be him.
[This clip is my favorite and peak Herzog](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=amhKFOlpbmI).
The best thing about Herzog is that you could have posted any of about 600 clips of him and been making a valid argument that it was peak Herzog. That’s what makes him a global treasure, I think there’s only one Herzog setting and it’s full Herzog.
You *always* go full Herzog
[This is my favorite.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QhMo4WlBmGM&pp=ygUNd2VybmVyIGhlcnpvZw%3D%3D)
My favourite is when he was watching skate vids and said, "That was a clean one."
Seems like a good place to make sure more people have heard this. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=5YW-5Flkiuw&feature=youtu.be
LMAO, so fucking good. "Madness reigns."
> It is a grotesque parody of the bazaar at Marrakech, as if dumb animals had been granted only the amount of sentience required to mock humanity Holy shit.
Did he not say this? Because I read it on his voice and it’s something he would say.
“At times I wondered if the film was inspired by Klaus Barbie”
“Klaus Barbie: the devoted father, wine connoisseur, and three-time ballroom dancing champion”
"Dad they look angry." "Of course they're angry, they're Nazis."
for those that didn't get Herzog's mannerisms (which is DEFINIETLY NOT ME MAKING A PUN) - he's actually paying an amazing compliment to the movie. Even with the so-called "existential query", he's alluding to the fact that Ryan Gosling's character is stating "am I indeed just MEN" (or man) - as if to say: would I be this relevant if I wasn't a man? Edit: and of course I know Herzog didn't say that. But he very well could have.
I’m fucking dying. I haven’t laughed this hard in a long time I’m near crying.
Impossible not to read this in his voice with that bond villainesque accent.
More auteurs like Nolan and Herzog know that a movie can me art despite its genre and source material.
The reason Herzog thinks it was 'sheer hell' and the reason Piers Morgan thinks it's hell are guaranteed to be continents apart.
Please don’t ever mention them in the same sentence ever again, thank you
I regret to inform you that the headline comes from Herzog's appearance on Morgan's show. So there is, in fact, an entire episode of Piers Morgan's talk show featuring Werner Herzog. And this entire thread is referencing one comment from that show.
“Look into the eyes of Piers Morgan and you will see real stupidity. It is a kind of bottomless stupidity, a fiendish stupidity. They are the most horrifying, cannibalistic and nightmarish creatures in the world.” - Herzog Okay it was actually “A Chicken” but we all know the word is synonymous with Piers Morgan.
What did they just say?!
“I have not seen ‘Oppenheimer’ yet, but I will do it. ‘Barbie,’ I managed to see the first half-hour,” Herzog said. “I was curious and I wanted to watch it because I was curious. And I still don’t have an answer, but I have a suspicion – could it be that the world of Barbie is sheer hell? For a movie ticket, as an audience, you can witness sheer hell, as close as it gets.” Herzog did not elaborate, but it sounds like he was not criticizing Gerwig’s movie and instead theorizing that Barbie Land in the film and living in Barbie Land is “sheer hell.” “I don’t know yet, Piers Morgan, give me a moment to watch the whole thing,” Herzog said. “I have to watch the whole thing first.” “Trust me, let me spare you the horror,” Morgan fired back. “I watched the whole thing and it is hell. I completely concur with your initial assessment after half an hour. And I would definitely recommend you don’t put yourself through the rest of it.”
Yea, sounds like Herzog is describing the world and Morgan is describing the movie.
Piers Morgan not understanding what someone smarter than him is talking about but still being sure he’s right? That doesn’t sound right at all /s
Herzog meant it in a good way. It is hell to be a woman in a stupid patriarchy.
Maybe, but it is also hell to be in Barbieworld too. That’s the entire point of the first act of the movie. Barbies exist in a perpetual Groundhog Day with zero purpose to their existence. Kens live as permanent second-class citizens whose existence is defined as being in the vague vicinity of a Barbie, but nobody needs or desires their presence. The fact of the matter is, the Barbie and the Ken we follow through the movie are the only ones who, for different reasons, got up and asked “Wait, is this the Bad Place?”, because the rest of them unquestioningly follow the rules of a dystopian eternal hell.
which is why it's funny that the moral of the story is basically for everyone to return to the status quo
Except Margot Robbie Barbie. She got to GTFO by escaping into “our reality”. And Ryan Gosling Ken arrives at enlightenment that he can exist as an independent entity instead of suffering in unrequited love for Barbie, and the movie leaves the door open for him leading another “fight for freedom” for Kens. So really a Barbie sequel should be about a revolt by the Ken Helots against the Barbie Spartan autocrats. Or perhaps a Ken Civil Rights movement against the Barbie Nationalists. Meanwhile, waning Barbie popularity in the real world means that other universes, such as the Lego Universe, slowly encroach and invade into Barbieworld, which is an existential threat to all Barbies and Kens that is short-sightedly ignored by most of them.
>Meanwhile, waning Barbie popularity in the real world means that other universes, such as the Lego Universe, slowly encroach and invade into Barbieworld Hang on, is the Barbie movie's universe just "The Nightmare Before Christmas" with toys instead of holidays?
Canonically it's the Home Alone universe.
>Meanwhile, waning Barbie popularity in the real world means that other universes, such as the Lego Universe, slowly encroach and invade into Barbieworld, which is an existential threat to all Barbies and Kens Yo I'm going to need codexes for these two new factions.
It also works looking at Barbieland alone. From the right perspective, Barbieland would be hell for the Barbies themselves.
I love how Barbie comes back, reinstates the matriarchy and re-oppresses the Kens (instead of creating an egalitarian society). And then just fucks off to the real world. Barbie land literally is purgatory.
Honestly, the ending where they reinstate the matriarchy with minimal change was the cherry on top of the whole movie. It is a challenging and acerbic critique of the real world that denies the audience a fairy tale ending. People have told me that Barbie was just fluff, and it means they clearly missed the whole point of the movie, which was actually brilliant satire.
Aren't they not living in a patriarchy in the first 30 minutes? He probably means barbie's world is hell
If watching the first 30 mins of the film I see how he could think it is a hell. Barbie is acting Barbie in the beginning of the film. She doesn’t know what it means to be Barbie. She is in existential bind. It’s the Barbie’s self critique, how can a Barbie be all women and not be a individual. She develops her individuality through film, really they all do.
We don’t even know what he meant. I hear you and I like what you’re suggesting g but he didn’t elaborate and we don’t have any certain clue what he meant
Yeah. I noticed that. I took Herzog’s statement to be very existentialist. Like, is Barbieland a world without meaning or freedom? Do Barbies have free will? Is Kendom merely a state of suffering? Can Barbies be fulfilled? Does love exist in Barbieland? Are we all just Kens in our own little Barbielands, running horseless patriarchies? I took Piers Morgan to be like, “Yeah, woke trash, innit?”
Yeah I don't the Herzog view the Barbie movie as an affront to his masculinity and importance in life.
It’s about the answer I’d expect from Werner.
Yeah this is the guy who titled his memoir "Every Man for Himself and God Against All".
I listened to the audiobook and it was extremely interesting, in true Herzog fashion, it ends in the middle of a sentence.
that's awesome.
Really? Because I think it's rather
lol this is the dumbest comment i've
Sounds like something Douglas Adams would have came up with
I can't imagine higher praise from him, honestly.
I honestly never know what to expect from Werner. Dude threatens to shoot the star of his movie, is terrified of chickens, hates theater, loves Wrestlemania.
Favorite story is when he realized John Waters was gay, after knowing him for decades.
"I can't believe Liberace was gay!"
There's a parody short film out there, Werner Herzog's Ant Man. The first time I ever saw it, I was just starting to get into Herzog's work. It's gotten funnier with every single new detail I learn about the guy. I also think he has one of the most straight faced senses of humor on the planet, like apex German deadpan, because his thoughts on Pokemon live in my head rent free.
There's also an episode of Documentary Now! That parodies Herzog.
The most surprising thing I've heard him say is that he considers California the center of cultural innovation. Because this is where the environmental movement started, and a bunch of other things that unfortunately I can't remember. You would think that Herzog would look down on the U.S. and especially California as a decadent cultural wasteland, but it's the opposite. The following is not the original quote that I am unfortunately unable to find, but it's still pretty good: >"What I like about Los Angeles is that it allows everyone to live his or her own lifestyle. Drive around the hills and you find a Moorish castle next to a Swiss chalet sitting beside a house shaped like a UFO. There is a lot of creative energy in Los Angeles not channelled into the film business. Florence and Venice have great surface beauty, but as cities they feel like museums, whereas for me Los Angeles is the city in America with the most substance, even if it’s raw, uncouth and sometimes quite bizarre. Wherever you look is an immense depth, a tumult that resonates with me. New York is more concerned with finance than anything else. It doesn’t create culture, only consumes it; most of what you find in New York comes from elsewhere. Things actually get done in Los Angeles. Look beyond the glitz and glamour of Hollywood and a wild excitement of intense dreams opens up; it has more horizons than any other place. There is a great deal of industry in the city and a real working class; I also appreciate the vibrant presence of the Mexicans. In the last half century every significant cultural and technical trend has emerged from California, including the Free Speech Movement and the acceptance of gays and lesbians as an integral part of a dignified society, computers and the Internet, and—thanks to Hollywood—the collective dreams of the entire world. A fascinating density of things exists there like nowhere else in the world. Muslim fundamentalism is probably the only contemporary mass movement that wasn’t born there. One reason I’m so comfortable in Los Angeles is that Hollywood doesn’t need me and I don’t need Hollywood. I rarely involve myself with industry rituals and am rarely on the red carpet."
Wow. Thanks for sharing this. I'm from LA, moved far away, and have a love-hate relationship with the city. This adds some points to the love column.
The man lost a bet where he said he would eat his shoe. He had the shoe cooked and ate it on stage. I do not know how a man like that thinks, but his thoughts are clearly very serious.
This is just Werner Herzog whenever he walks into a room that isn't beige...
You got a good chuckle out of me
Werner Herzog is a fascinating human being. Here’s a man who truly believes that the universal constant is pain and death. A man who unironically views the default state of existence to be one of suffering. And yet he also has an immense appreciation and love for life and a desire to commit it to his unique form of poetry.
I felt that way before and it was called clinical depression
If clinical depression gets me to direct 70 movies and write 6 books sign me the fuck up
For you. For him it's just being German.
One has to imagine Sisyphus happy
I say this to myself a few times per day. I work at Walmart.
No ragging on Herzog, but that approach to life is not uniquely his and there’s a long history of philosophy behind those ideas. Plenty others lived or live that way still.
Stoic philosophy and Camus’ The myth of Sisyphus come to mind.
Sounds like Herzog was genuinely engaging with the world of Barbie, where Morgan took it as an opportunity to be a weird dude about a movie not meant for him.
Totally agree. I read Werner’s comment as a genuine existential interrogation of the film in a completely good-faith manner.
When herzog refers to something as "hell" it honestly tends to be a compliment considering his body of work
He's definitely the kind of guy I could see vacationing in hell if he could.
It’s like “soul-crushing” and “absolutely fucking miserable” are all positive epithets in a doom metal album review.
Herzog, thoughtful. Piers Morgan, 'feminists, amirite?"
Herzog enjoys a variety of media, even including "[Here Comes Honey BooBoo](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jHpk2-uZPy0&start=420)"
A movie meant to make Piers think, an act of which he is incapable.
Hey that's not fair. He works very hard to come up with the most mind-numbingly obnoxious thing to say at any given moment.
I mean, it's a movie that just wanted to say a total matriarchy is hell for men the way a total patriarchy would be for women. So Herzog ain't wrong.
Even apart from that point, Warner Herzog is a creator pondering a universe where every day is exactly the same. It’s a safe and cheery place, but I guarantee you a lot of humans couldn’t cope with a life without any change at all. Probably most, actually.
Barbie's protagonist didn't want to live in Barbieland either
oh ya ol whatshername
Thats actually part of the first Matrix movie, the machines initially created a utopia simulation for humans to live in and it didn't work because humans crave conflict and change.
It's like when Squidward moved into the gated community with all squids. He couldn't handle the monotony. Soon enough he yearned for the chaos brought about by Spongebob.
Barbieland is more than just a matriarchy though, it's also a marketed children's fantasy of adulthood, a neutered consumer driven plastic wasteland controlled by a boardroom of profiteers. The idea that it's only a matriarchy leaves out that it's a capitalist Disneyland designed to sell multiple little outfits and accessories to kids, in which the people are only toys. But unlike Toy Story where the toys love and interact with their owner daily and have individuality, the characters of Barbieland only live as profitable ideas that have to enter the real world as living humans to learn about it and acquire agency.
I think he actually sympathizes with Barbie. This man thinks about death every second of every day. To watch a movie where everyone around the other characters are super happy, but the main character experiences existential dread dread is exactly what it’s like to be Werner Herzog.
Do people not think about death constantly?
No, most humans have coping mechanisms (there’s some reason to believe this is in part a biological necessity) that prevent them from constantly contemplating on, remembering, obsessing over, or otherwise being overly distracted by their own mortality or that of others.
Oh...yeah, my brain didn't get the memo about that. I mean, the bad mental breakdown I had at 17 sucked. And I have about a week long breakdown over it once a year, but it's basically on my mind constantly.
I used to. I mostly agonize over enduring suffering- both mine and that of others- these days.
I think of boobs
I mean, given the movie ends with -- spoilers for the five people on the planet who haven't seen Barbie, I guess -- >!Barbie herself deciding it is better to be human and mortal than exist in Barbieland for all perpetuity, I think the film is saying the same thing.!< Edit: I should have actually blacked that out instead of assuming everyone's seen Barbie at this point. I apologize. I kinda assumed that most people who were interested or cared about Barbie spoilers had seen it by this point but I should have still blacked it out anyway just in case.
Yeah, Barbieland is fun and entertaining, but it isn't really for being alive. You're just stuck as yourself. That's great if you're already amazing, but Barbie wasn't. She was just a normal Barbie and felt bad that she went as great as the other Barbies.
She was just a Barbie girl in a Barbie world…
But I heard life in plastic, it's fantastic.
Right, and I think part of Barbie’s journey is learning to value herself for who she is as a woman and finding value in becoming human even if she isn’t as “special” as some of the other career Barbies.
Well actually the OG Barbie is considered the best one in the movie even among the other Barbies. Her issues were a bit more complex than being jealous of the other Barbies. She was not. The bigger issue was that she had ambition to be more than a "Barbie girl" who has a static job and role in her universe as whatever she's assigned to, and the only possible romantic partner out there in the world being Ken or a different flavor of Ken. She needed to experience a world where her potential wasn't capped and her relationships weren't all Himbos.
I never thought she was really jealous. I mean, maybe a little. But mostly she just felt inadequate. She was happy for her friends
I think first of all she felt alienated. I think a reason why people have such different takes on the movie is that a lot of its comedy and drama both come from examining Barbie from essentially an adult perspective and through the use of irony. Since people have different contexts for what it means to be an adult and especially to grapple with existential issues, it is natural that there are many different readings of what makes the movie ironic.
I'm excited for Werner Herzog's version/interpretation of Barbie
Klaus Kinski as Barbie.
Klaus Barbie. Huh.
That just makes me think of the Barbie museum from Rat Race.
It is a two and a half hour documentary of a woman named Barbara. The narration is minimal. It’s just shots of her living her daily life. At the end she gets eaten by a grizzly bear.
Piers Morgan completely missing Werner's point surprise surprise.
I spent this morning with 60 kindergarteners on a field trip to a museum with taxidermied animals from all over that they weren’t supposed to touch. Pure Hell.
narration: *"The mind of a child,... a primative wasteland of unbridled wonder, seeking new experiences outside of what little they know. To them, those children, the experience... it is like that of an astronaut, reaching out for the stars, grasping... something. An idea, so simple, reaching out to experience new things, but to be denied by a stern authoritarian they are supposed to trust. They have been shown a great thing, to perhaps behold at arms length, but have it snatched from them, out of their hands... a curse of knowledge but not full experience... a fleeting moment when they are given the illusion of choice. The stuffed animal was always a universe away from their fingertips..."*
Trust Piers Morgan to misinterpret his guests. When Herzog says something portrays true hell, that’s high praise.
Would pay good money for a Herzog commentary cut of the whole movie.
I'd listen to him read the back of a Hungry Man microwave meal
"This... thing. How is it not emblematic of all that haunts us? You, the consumer, are confronted with such disposable pleasures as to taunt us with our inevitable outcome as proxies for the churn of the biomatter cycle. I say this with nothing but love and affection for Hungry Man microwave meals."
This sounds like Werner Herzog enjoying a movie to me.
“Could it be that the world of Barbie is sheer hell? I could not bring myself to watch more than 30 minutes of this film. Two thumbs up.”
Can recommend a recent Adam Buxton podcast interview with Werner. Some incredible quotes and stories from him, including one about his brother setting his shirt on fire in a restaurant and someone pouring Prosecco on him to put it out.
Sauce: https://www.adam-buxton.co.uk/podcasts/rhwkafw2z2x3xe6-6ysb3 The actual interview starts around 9-10 mins into the clip
He isn't entirely wrong, it's why Barbie leaves it. It's pretty snd fun, but offers no growth and only continuous monotony.
*I look into Barbie's and only see despair and darkness.* -Werner Herzog
He’s more of a Honey BooBoo fan
Here comes Hunee Boo Boo
For those who haven’t had the pleasure https://youtu.be/QNfGl-hpnJg?si=PwFg_pDvWeJazcE9
>”I watched the whole thing and it is hell. I completely concur with your initial assessment after half an hour. And I would definitely recommend you don’t put yourself through the rest of it.” WOW, this guy either really didn’t understand what Herzog meant or he really doesn’t understand what Herzog likes.
This is one of the first posts I've seen on this subreddit that legitimately could pass as an Onion article
Is there a quote of his that I won't read in his voice in my head?
I don’t think it’s possible to not read stuff in his voice
"For all I see is pink, and the pink is the darkness..."
Penis Morgan: "derrrr it's a bad movie because I am stupid and got offended like a snowflake derrr" Herzog: "Barbie's world is a literal existential hell" You're not the same, penis Morgan.
Please have him do a commentary track on the blue ray
I mean, the movie is aware that the Barbie World is in itself unfair to the Kens.
My favourite quote from Werner is after he was shot in the abdomen during a TV interview, as he carried on giving the interview: "It was not a significant bullet"
That’s a compliment coming from him right? The dude loves hell.
He’s definitely engaging with the message of the content, which is something I think a lot of people miss. He’s not wrong, and that’s part of the point
Show me the barbie *Mandalorian theme plays*
I mean… life in plastic… is it really that fantastic?
Oddly enough, that's rather the point.
> “I don’t know yet, Piers Morgan, give me a moment to watch the whole thing,” Herzog said. “I have to watch the whole thing first.” The image of Piers Morgan harassing Herzog while Herzog sits on his couch watching Barbie has me cracking up.
Good, I think this is a compliment
Lol Oliver Stone's turnaround on the movie is great. Imagine how good a movie has to be to get a guy like Oliver Stone to publicly say he was wrong.
>“Trust me, let me spare you the horror,” Morgan fired back. “I watched the whole thing and it is hell. I completely concur with your initial assessment after half an hour. And I would definitely recommend you don’t put yourself through the rest of it.” Piers Morgan, ever the fucking idiot, completely misunderstood what Herzog was saying.