Encounters at the End of the World

Yesterday after work went to see Encounters at the End of the World, by Werner Herzog. They're having an enormous Herzog thing-- had had no idea that the Northwest Film Forum extends to here, but it does. I've seen pretty much all the rest of the ones being shown, except for a couple, and that was one of them.

This film takes place in Antarctica.
I loved it. Many gems... from the penguin conversations to the echoes of Bells from the Deep (another favorite of mine) as the scientists prostrate themselves on the ice to listen to the seals below, to the spiritual experiences of diving beneath the ice and collecting creatures, to the linguistics ex-PhD who had to end his research because the last speaker of the dying language he was studying died. Herzog focuses a little on global warming, but then turns it into a focus on the death of humans, dying languages and dying cultures. Also echoes of White Diamond. He does in fact show some cultural awareness when he discusses these things, such as the aztec indian guy, but pretty much everyone is a curiosity object to him as Herzog tries to show how McMurdo is filled with oddballs, and constantly striving oddballs with extreme worldviews. He also gets bored with his subjects and their tales, often interrupting them while filming them to do a voice over "to make a long story short... this, this and this happened." Cut. Next. I pretty much laughed my ass off through the entire thing. The humor is not coming off very well here as I tell about it. I did in fact inspire me briefly to want to go to Antarctica, but I think there are many good reasons to stay in this hemisphere now.

The theater was packed and then when I stood up at the end (I had come about 5 minutes late and sat down in the dark), it was very strange because I found I was surrounded by people speaking German. At first I thought I was hallucinating, but then I asked them in German who they were, it's some group affiliated with the German-American preeschool here. That encounter reminded me of wine and wisdom events, especially when I then went home and had a glass of wine, but it was fun and totally unstressful and I didn't feel any pressure to pimp the field.

Today is one of those times I wish to have a cat curl up on my lap and rest there for awhile. Meow.