Keywords:
Werner Herzog, Short Film, classical reception, German Cinema, Herakles
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.
Abstract
Bavarian filmmaker Werner Herzog’s work has been widely studied; his first short film Herakles (1962), however, has received scarce attention. This paper aims to fill this gap. After focusing on Herzog’s personal connections to the classical world, we will explore the main attributes of Herakles as a hero to come to terms with the director’s interest in this mythical figure. We will continue with the analysis of the short’s content, locating in it the labours described in Apollodorus’ Library and examining their contemporary reconfiguration. We will proceed with the comparison of Herzog’s Herakles with the peplum Herakles as well as with some of the filmmaker’s later characters to conclude defining an idea of a particular strongman that appears throughout Herzog’s filmography and that is directly related to his own vision of his creative career.
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