Assignment Description:
In the short film, Werner Herzog Eats His Shoe (1980) directed by Les Blank, the filmmaker Werner Herzog is quoted as saying: “Our civilization doesn’t have adequate images. And I think our civilization is doomed, is going to die out like dinosaurs if it does not develop an adequate language or adequate images.”
He also mentions that we need to declare “holy war on commercials, holy war on talk shows”.
What does the phrase adequate images mean to you? Do you agree or disagree with this sentiment?
The phrase adequate images mean a lot to me. In the short film, Werner Herzog Eats His Shoe (1980) directed by Les Blank have an ironic salute to Chaplin. The video is about that the man thinks he does not enjoy his life because a man like his age needs to cook something at home to enjoy their life. But he does not have time and the skill to cook at home, so he is filming this video that he actually cook something. But really ironically, he put his shoes in the boiling pot. And these adequate images have a lot of creativity inside that.
It is hard for me to understand that why he put his shoes in the boiling pot, and I think it is also hard for people to understand what is the real meaning to do this and film all of his action of boiling the shoes out. So maybe I think that’s why people call it art? But I disagree with this sentiment, because I think it does not have a lot of meaning behind his action, and this kind of art will make people laugh and circuses, but without thinking over what is going on to this kind of art, and the film have no relation to politics, art, and other stuff, so the only thing which we can call the artist is a behavior artist.
