Even Dwarfs Started Small

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Even Dwarfs Started Small

Helmut Döring as Hombré
Directed by Werner Herzog
Produced by Werner Herzog
Written by Werner Herzog
Starring Helmut Döring
Music by Florian Fricke
Cinematography Thomas Mauch
Editing by Beate Mainka-Jellinghaus
Release date(s) 1970
Running time 96 min.
Language German
Budget $200,000[1]

Even Dwarfs Started Small (German: ''Auch Zwerge haben klein angefangen'') is a 1970 film by German director Werner Herzog.

Contents

[edit] Plot

A group of dwarfs confined in an institution on a remote island rebel against the guards and director (all dwarfs as well) in a display of mayhem. The dwarfs gleefully break windows and dishes, abandon a running truck to drive itself in circles, engineer food fights and cock fights, set fire to pots of flowers, kill a large pig, torment some blind dwarfs, and crucify a monkey.

[edit] Production

The film was shot on the Canary Islands, at Lanzarote. The film was produced during the same time period as Herzog's Fata Morgana and The Flying Doctors of East Africa, and there are visual and thematic connections between the three works. Notably, the goggles worn by the blind dwarfs are the same goggles which appear repeatedly in Fata Morgana. [1]

During the filming, Herzog gave some strange direction to elicit particular performances from the actors. In directing one dwarf who continually struggles not to laugh, Herzog repeatedly told the actor that he must not laugh, but then made funny faces at him as soon as he started filming.[1]

While filming the scene where a van drove in circles with no one at the wheel, one of the actors was run over, but immediately stood up uninjured. During the flower burning scene, the same actor caught fire and Werner Herzog raced over and beat the fire out. The actor only had minor injuries from the fire. After these two accidents, Werner Herzog promised the actors that if they made it through the rest of filming without any more injuries he would jump into a cactus patch and allow the actors to film him doing so. The film was finished without any further injuries and the director made good his promise and dove into the cacti. Herzog has said, "Getting out was a lot more difficult than jumping in."[2]

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b c Werner Herzog, DVD audio commentary for Even Dwarfs Started Small
  2. ^ Herzog, Werner (2001). Herzog on Herzog. Faber and Faber. ISBN 0-571-20708-1. 

[edit] External links

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