''Heart of Glass'' (german: Herz aus Glas) is a 1976 German film directed and produced by

Werner Herzog Werner Herzog (; born 5 September 1942) is a German film director, screenwriter, author, actor, and opera director, regarded as a pioneer of New German Cinema. His films often feature ambitious protagonists with impossible dreams, people with u ...

, set in 18th century

Bavaria Bavaria ( ; ), officially the Free State of Bavaria (german: Freistaat Bayern, link=no ), is a state in the south-east of Germany. With an area of , Bavaria is the largest German state by land area, comprising roughly a fifth of the total l ...

. The film was written by Herzog, based partly on a story by

Herbert Achternbusch Herbert Achternbusch ( Schild; 23 November 1938 – 10 January 2022) was a German film director, writer and painter. He began as a writer of avant-garde prose, such as the novel ''Die Alexanderschlacht'', before turning to low-budget films. He h ...

. The main character is Hias, based on the legendary Bavarian prophet, Mühlhiasl.

Plot

The setting is an 18th-century

n town with a

glassblowing Glassblowing is a glassforming technique that involves inflating molten glass into a bubble (or parison) with the aid of a blowpipe (or blow tube). A person who blows glass is called a ''glassblower'', ''glassmith'', or ''gaffer''. A '' lampworke ...

factory that produces a brilliant ruby glass. When the master glass blower dies, the secret of producing it is lost. The local Baron, who owns the factory, is obsessed with the ruby glass and believes it to have magical properties. With the loss of the secret, he descends into madness along with the rest of the townspeople. The main character is Hias, a seer from the hills, who predicts the destruction of the factory in a fire.

Production

During shooting, almost all of the actors performed while under

hypnosis Hypnosis is a human condition involving focused attention (the selective attention/selective inattention hypothesis, SASI), reduced peripheral awareness, and an enhanced capacity to respond to suggestion.In 2015, the American Psychologica ...

. Every actor in every scene was hypnotized, with the exception of the character Hias and the professional glassblowers who appear in the film. The hypnotized actors give very strange performances, which Herzog intended to suggest the trance-like state of the townspeople in the story. Herzog provided the actors with most of their dialogue, memorised during hypnosis. However, many of the hypnotised actors' gestures and movements occurred spontaneously during filming.Werner Herzog, DVD commentary for ''Heart of Glass'' The majority of the film was shot in Bavaria, just a few miles from where Herzog was raised in the remote village of Sachrang (nestled in the Chiemgau Alps), and also at a nearby village in Switzerland. Other brief shots of landscape scenes were filmed in various locations around the world that Herzog scouted out, including

Yellowstone National Park Yellowstone National Park is an American national park located in the western United States, largely in the northwest corner of Wyoming and extending into Montana and Idaho. It was established by the 42nd U.S. Congress with the Yellowst ...

. The conclusion of the film was shot on the Skellig Islands. Herzog, along with other members of the crew, has a cameo as one of the men carrying a load of ruby glass to the river.

References

;Notes ;Bibliography * "Heart of Glass" (Skellig Edition, 1976) by Alan Greenberg, including the screenplay by Herzog. English adaptation by Greenberg, with black and white photos also by him.

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Heart Of Glass (Film) 1976 films 1970s avant-garde and experimental films 1976 drama films German avant-garde and experimental films German drama films West German films 1970s German-language films Films directed by Werner Herzog Films scored by Popol Vuh (band) Films set in the 18th century Films set in Bavaria Films about hypnosis 1970s German films