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Werner Herzog explains why he won’t speak French, arguing language bears emotional weight and shapes one’s perspective. He says using a non-native tongue feels inauthentic and undermines the work’s integrity.
- Herzog refused to answer in French at the Berlin Film Festival even when translation was offered, insisting each language carries its own worldview that gets diluted in translation.
- He compares German to a Wagnerian horn (raw, majestic power) and English to an alto sax or clarinet (flexible but less rooted), while calling French too smooth for his dark, obsessive subject matter.
- Though he learned English on 1970s film sets and uses it out of necessity, he treats it as a borrowed tool and reserves German for crafting his personal narratives.
werner herzog
+ language and identity
+ translation
+ filmmaking philosophy
authenticity
linguistics