Werner Herzog fashions a sci-fi fantasy of paradise lost around actor Brad Dourif, recutting amazing NASA footage and gorgeous submarine imagery. An unclassifiable oddity.
Screened as part of NZIFF 2006
The Wild Blue Yonder 2005
No fan of Werner Herzog should miss this unclassifiable oddity. Amazing NASA footage and gorgeous submarine imagery is recut around the unlikely figure of actor Brad Dourif to construct a sci-fi fantasy of paradise lost.
“When Brad Dourif stares at the camera... and says, ‘I come from the outer reaches of Andromeda. I am an alien,’ you're inclined to believe him... Over ten numbered chapters, beginning with ‘1. Requiem For a Dying Planet’, Herzog relates the story of aliens who fled a planet far away in the wild blue yonder, hoping that Planet Earth would provide safe harbor... As Dourif, with great conviction and considerable humor, tells what happened, Herzog splices archived news sequences, interviews with scientists, NASA footage of astronauts on the Space Shuttle and some extraordinary film shot under what appears to be a polar ice-cap, to illustrate it... It's a triumphant mix of great imagination, hypnotic images and an extraordinarily haunting score.” — Ray Bennett, Hollywood Reporter