Herzog@Stanford; now on YouTube

Celebrated filmmaker WERNER HERZOG isn’t generally regarded as a literary tastemaker – so his February appearance as a guest of Stanford’s Another Look book club caused surprise as well as excitement. The topic for the public conversation was one of his favorite books: J.A. Baker’s The Peregrine, required reading for his Rogue Film School. Another Look regularly sponsors events for booklovers at Stanford and the Bay Area community – but this was its biggest to date. The crowd at Dinkelspiel Auditorium spent 90 minutes with the German genius, in discussion with Another Look’s director, ROBERT POGUE HARRISON, professor of Italian literature.

Harrison gamely tried to keep Herzog on topic, but it wasn’t easy to reel him in. Herzog’s wide-ranging conversation embraced Martin Luther’s 1546 translation of the Bible, Livy’s history of the Second Punic War, Virgil’s Georgics and the Warren Commission Report on the Assassination of President John F. Kennedy.

Herzog spoke a little of his own books, too: “I am fairly certain that my written work will outlive my films,” he said.

The full-length video is available here.

For highlights of the conversation, watch the video below: