What does Werner Herzog think of complaints?

Vice magazine:

Would you say that living in Los Angeles makes it easier to deal with the business aspects of filmmaking?

It’s not making anything easier. Filmmaking has always had its complications, but I’m not in the culture of complaint. Los Angeles is just a very exciting city. There’s great excitement, there’s vibrant culture, and there are a lot of things going on here that I wouldn’t relate to filmmaking, but yet they trigger films.

CNN.com:

Herzog, whose films often contain animals doing strange things and long, extended landscape shots, said he was tired of hearing complaints from young filmmakers.

"Everyone is complaining, 'nobody wants to have my films.' So what? There is no culture of complaint I would accept."

"You have to go out and do it," he told the master class. "That's one of the basic things you have to know about the profession."

James Fry:

So, how does a maverick film artist like Herzog get the money he needs to make films? I start with a preamble about how hard it is to find money, how the involvement of financial partners, distributors and broadcasters ends up compromising the film, how hard it is to get those muddy boot prints out of my clothes.

He cuts me off, “I don’t like the culture of complaint. It’s difficult to make films everywhere but if you have a project of substance that you believe in, it will create its own dynamic and money will ultimately follow you through the streets like a common cur with its tail between its legs.”

Austin Chronicle:

The professional-grade tools of filmmaking are now within financial reach of nearly anyone who wants to make a film.

Yes, the role of the filmmaker has not changed but for one difference. How shall I say it? "They can't complain anymore." Just go and do it. I would not allow the culture of complaint. You just grab a camera and go do it.

Germany.info:

"It doesn’t make me nervous that we will disappear from the face of the earth. It has happened to others. The presence of life on this planet has been in constant change, a chain of cataclysmic events. Trilobites came and went after hundreds of millions of years of existence, and dinosaurs came and went. Humans came relatively recently and they will relatively quickly disappear because we are more vulnerable than for example, a sponge. And whether it takes 20,000 years or 200,000 years until we are gone doesn’t really matter that much.

So that’s more the tone of the film. It’s not pessimistic, but just stating facts that seem inevitable. I’m not in the culture of complaint."

Downtown Express:

How are you enjoying doing publicity for your new film?

It’s been non-stop since 8 this morning. I would never complain about it because it is part of my profession. Once you have made a film you have to communicate through the media to an audience. I hear so many filmmakers complain about it, but I’m not in this culture of complaint. It’s part of what we have to do.

Moviemaker:

You’ve been quoted as saying that “humiliation and strain” are essential parts of moviemaking. Is that accurate?

You have to take it in the proper context. It sounds at first like [a comment by] someone who is out for something masochistic, but I only said it because I don’t like glamorizing film shooting. There is nothing glamorous or glorious about making a film. It’s hard work, and much of it is a chain of banalities. It’s natural that there are defeats and humiliations along the way if you’re making films seriously, and you shouldn’t be frightened of that. Putting the quote in another context, you hear the complaint — in Germany, in Hollywood, everywhere —that the production companies are stupid, the studios don’t understand what filmmaking is about. But you shouldn’t go into this culture of complaint. Roll up your sleeves, understand what’s coming at you and do it!

Herzog on Herzog:

"I am not into the culture of complaint. Everyone around the world, whomever I meet, starts to complain about the stupidity of money. It seems to be the very culture of filmmaking. Money has only two qualities: it is stupid and it is cowardly. Making films is not easy; you have to be able to cope with the mischievous realities around you that do everything they can to prevent you from making your film. The world is just not made for filmmaking. You have to know that every time you make a film you must be prepared to wrestle it away from the Devil himself. But carry on, dammit! Ignite the fire. Create something that is so strong that it develops its own dynamic. Ultimately, the money will follow you like a common cur in the street with its tail between its legs."

Entertainment Weekly:

You sound more optimistic about Hollywood than I expected you would be.

I've never been in the culture of complaint. You look around here and even very accomplished filmmakers who earn a lot of money are constantly complaining. Just roll up your sleeves. You are Hollywood. Do it better. Many of them have so much money they could make 10 feature films for the cost of Aguirre from their own pocket money. Aguirre cost a grand total of $360,000.

Reverse Direction:

The shadows of criminality are Herzog’s own way of doing things and, therefore, his personal way of living and working. As a young German, he moved on from the Nazi era, unlike so many of his contemporaries, and that, perhaps, is the root to his message to students who now find themselves in modern world. Herzog’s advice? Accept it and move on.

“Create your own values of culture and put it against the values that you do not like,” said Herzog. “Just don’t complain, don’t lapse into the culture of complaint — roll up your sleeves and create your own art, create your own values, create your own cultural values, that’s what going to change things.”

This is not, I suspect, unimportant.

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[Ted Mills]

You know where that Culture of Complaint starts? My students.

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