''La Soufrière – Warten auf eine unausweichliche Katastrophe'' ("La Soufrière – Waiting for an Inevitable Disaster") is a 1977
documentary film
A documentary film (often described simply as a documentary) is a nonfiction Film, motion picture intended to "document reality, primarily for instruction, education or maintaining a Recorded history, historical record". The American author and ...
in which
German
German(s) may refer to:
* Germany, the country of the Germans and German things
**Germania (Roman era)
* Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language
** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...
director
Werner Herzog
Werner Herzog (; né Stipetić; born 5 September 1942) is a German filmmaker, actor, opera director, and author. Regarded as a pioneer of New German Cinema, his films often feature ambitious protagonists with impossible dreams, people with unusu ...
visits an evacuated town on the island of
Guadeloupe
Guadeloupe is an Overseas departments and regions of France, overseas department and region of France in the Caribbean. It consists of six inhabited islands—Basse-Terre Island, Basse-Terre, Grande-Terre, Guadeloupe, Grande-Terre, Marie-Galant ...
, where the volcano
La Grande Soufrière
La Grande Soufrière (; ), or simply Soufrière (), is an active stratovolcano on the French island of Basse-Terre, Guadeloupe. It is the highest mountain peak in the Lesser Antilles, rising high.
The last magmatic eruption was in 1530±30 du ...
is predicted to
erupt.
Background
The pretext of this film was provided when Herzog "heard about the impending volcanic eruption, that the island of
Guadeloupe
Guadeloupe is an Overseas departments and regions of France, overseas department and region of France in the Caribbean. It consists of six inhabited islands—Basse-Terre Island, Basse-Terre, Grande-Terre, Guadeloupe, Grande-Terre, Marie-Galant ...
had been evacuated and that one peasant had refused to leave,
eknew
ewanted to go talk to him and find out what kind of relationship towards death he had" (Cronin). Herzog explores the deserted streets of the towns on the island. The crew of three treks up to the
caldera
A caldera ( ) is a large cauldron-like hollow that forms shortly after the emptying of a magma chamber in a volcanic eruption. An eruption that ejects large volumes of magma over a short period of time can cause significant detriment to the str ...
, where clouds of
sulfur
Sulfur ( American spelling and the preferred IUPAC name) or sulphur ( Commonwealth spelling) is a chemical element; it has symbol S and atomic number 16. It is abundant, multivalent and nonmetallic. Under normal conditions, sulfur atoms ...
ous steam and smoke drift like "harbingers of death" (Peucker), an example of the
sublime Herzog seeks to conjure in his films. Herzog converses in French with three different men he finds remaining on the island: one says he is waiting for death, and even demonstrates his posture for doing so; another says he has stayed to look after the animals. In the end, the volcano did not erupt, thus sparing the lives of those who had remained on the island, including Herzog and his crew.
See also
Related Werner Herzog films
* ''
Into the Inferno,'' a 2016
documentary film
A documentary film (often described simply as a documentary) is a nonfiction Film, motion picture intended to "document reality, primarily for instruction, education or maintaining a Recorded history, historical record". The American author and ...
exploring active volcanoes from around the world
* ''
Salt and Fire'', a 2016 thriller film about the imminent eruption of a
supervolcano
A supervolcano is a volcano that has had an eruption with a volcanic explosivity index (VEI) of 8, the largest recorded value on the index. This means the volume of deposits for such an eruption is greater than .
Supervolcanoes occur whe ...
in
Bolivia
Bolivia, officially the Plurinational State of Bolivia, is a landlocked country located in central South America. The country features diverse geography, including vast Amazonian plains, tropical lowlands, mountains, the Gran Chaco Province, w ...
* ''
The Fire Within: A Requiem for Katia and Maurice Krafft'', a 2022 documentary about the two French volcanologists who died on
Mount Uzen, Japan
References
* Paul Cronin, ''Herzog on Herzog'' (London:
Faber and Faber Ltd., 2002, ) p. 148.
*
Brigitte Peucker
Brigitte Peucker (born 13 April 1948, in Berlin, Germany) is the Elias Leavenworth Professor of German Languages and Literatures and Professor of Film Studies at Yale University. A disciple of Yale University's Geoffrey Hartman, she has written on ...
, "In Quest of the Sublime," ''New German Filmmakers: From
Oberhausen
Oberhausen (, ) is a city on the river Emscher in the Ruhr Area, Germany, located between Duisburg and Essen ( ). The city hosts the International Short Film Festival Oberhausen and its Gasometer Oberhausen is an anchor point of the European Rout ...
Through the 1970s'', edited by Klaus Phillips (New York: Frederick Ungar Publishing Co., 1984, hardcover: and paperback: ) p. 168.
External links
*
''La Soufriere''at
Allmovie
AllMovie (previously All Movie Guide) is an online database with information about films, television programs, television series, and screen actors. , AllMovie.com and the AllMovie consumer brand are owned by RhythmOne.
History
AllMovie was ...
Werner Herzog on filming ''La Soufrière''(Video interview from ''
Capturing Reality: The Art of Documentary'')
1977 films
1977 short documentary films
German short documentary films
West German films
Documentary films about disasters
Films directed by Werner Herzog
Films set in Guadeloupe
Films shot in Guadeloupe
Documentary films about volcanoes
1970s German films
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