How Much Wood Would a Woodchuck Chuck (film)
How Much Wood Would a Woodchuck Chuck (German: Beobachtungen zu einer neuen Sprache, literally "Observations of a New Language") is a 1976 documentary film by German director Werner Herzog, produced by Werner Herzog Filmproduktion.[2] It is a 44-minute film documenting the World Livestock Auctioneer Championship held in New Holland, Pennsylvania. The film also contains a section about the Amish and shows Amish speaking Pennsylvania German.
How Much Wood Would a Woodchuck Chuck | |
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Title card | |
Directed by | Werner Herzog |
Produced by | Werner Herzog |
Written by | Werner Herzog |
Starring | Werner Herzog Steve Liptay Ralph Wade Alan Ball Abe Diffenbach |
Narrated by | Werner Herzog |
Cinematography | Thomas Mauch[1] |
Edited by | Beate Mainka-Jellinghaus[1] |
Production company | |
Distributed by | Werner Herzog Filmproduktion |
Release date | February 14, 1977 (West Germany) |
Running time | 45 minutes |
Country | West Germany |
Language | English German |
Herzog has said that he believes auctioneering to be "the last poetry possible, the poetry of capitalism."[3] Herzog describes the auctioneering as an "extreme language ... frightening but quite beautiful at the same time."[4]
Herzog used two of the featured auctioneers as actors in his later film Stroszek.
Cinematographer Edward Lachman got his start working with Herzog on this film; he would work on La Soufrière (1977) shortly after.[5]
References
- Cronin, Paul (2014). Werner Herzog: A Guide for the Perplexed. London: Faber and Faber. p. 524. ISBN 9780571259779. Retrieved 14 January 2016.
- Aitken, Ian (2013). The Concise Routledge Encyclopedia of the Documentary Film. New York: Routledge. p. 363. ISBN 9780415596428. Retrieved 14 January 2016.
- DVD audio commentary for Stroszek
- Herzog, Werner; Cronin, Paul (2002). Herzog on Herzog. London; New York: Faber and Faber. p. 140. ISBN 9780571207084.
- LoBrutto, Vincent (1999). Principal photography : interviews with feature film cinematographers. Westport, Conn. : Praeger. p. 122. ISBN 9780275949549. Retrieved 13 January 2016.
External links