Werner Herzog and Darren Aronofsky Think You Should Read These Ten Books
In a conversation with Errol Morris at last year’s Toronto International Film Festival, Werner Herzog stated that you can’t be a filmmaker without reading books. More recently, Black Swan director Darren Aronofsky shared a list of his own favorite books. Taking their suggested reading lists in tandem, we now have a list of ten “must read” books from a pair of auteurs; the first five are Aronofsky’s selections and are on the topic of movies, and the second five are Herzog’s and aren’t limited to a particular topic. I’ve only read three of the ten; how about you?
- Making Movies by Sidney Lumet
- The Writers Journey by Christopher Vogler
- Easy Riders, Raging Bulls by Peter Biskind
- The Ragman’s Son by Kirk Douglas
- Hitchcock by Francois Truffaut
- Georgics by Virgil
- The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber by Ernest Hemingway
- The Warren Commission Report
- Gargantua and Pantagruel by Francois Rabelais
- The Poetic Edda translated by Lee M. Hollander
- True History of the Conquest of New Spain by Bernal Diaz del Castillo
The hawk-eyed among you will note there are actually eleven books in the above list; I never was very good at math. For more on the Aronofsky selections — or to check out Herzog’s “Rogue Film School,” where his selections were culled from — see the links below.
Links:
[via Filmmaker Magazine]
Herzog photo by erinc salor; Aronofsky photo by Niko Tavernise
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10 COMMENTS
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patriot on 02.17.11 @ 4:50PM
This is the reason Aronofsky cant make movies. ppppffffhhhhhhh Come On!!!!!
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Zanz on 02.17.11 @ 5:32PM
Oh! Must… stifle… YAWWWWNNN. Sorry. Couldn’t do it.
Herzog’s wealth-building efforts may require impassioned disciples to complete such a list (and learn lock-picking and “how to travel by foot”) but I’m not so easily shorn.
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For folks who are interested in Herzog I’d like to throw in Paul Cronin’s “Herzog on Herzog”, its an amazing read – about 200 page interview with him talking about all of his films up to 2002.
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David on 02.20.11 @ 8:44PM
Having taken part in last years Rogue Film School I cannot recommend Hemingway’s story enough. If that doesn’t make you want to become a filmmaker I don’t know what will.
I also second max’s recommendation of the Cronin book. A substantial amount of what I learned at the Rogue Film School can actually be absorbed by reading that book.
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Thanks, David. How did you find the rest of the Rogue Film School experience?
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Yes the Macomber story is a gem!
So far Herzog has not steered me wrong with his book recommendations. I’d love to check out a RFS one day, but in the meantime I will dive into the massive Rabelais tome.
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David on 02.20.11 @ 10:58PM
I found it to be an invaluable experience really, and probably learned more about filmmaking in those 3-4 days than in 4 yrs of film school. The people attending were all very talented and a pleasure to talk to. As a whole it was all more motivational than anything. One of the biggest things that I took from the whole experience was understanding that in order to be a filmmaker you must be completely self-reliant, and not be afraid of solitude when the going gets rough.
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Jeffrey on 07.22.11 @ 11:05PM
And I suggest 1 book. Called “Rebel without a Crew” by Robert Rodriguez. I think it tops them all.
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oh! both ignored “sculping time” (i hope this is the name of the book in english) from andrei tarkovski!!! wow!
ps: pardon my bad english. :)