"Herz aus Glas" or "Heart of Glass" is an award-winning (German Film Award) 95-minute movie from 1976, which means it has its 40th anniversary this year. The writer and director is Werner Herzog and this is why this film is among the most known works from 1970's West Germany. The lead actor here is Josef Bierbichler (in his 20s) who is still acting successfully these days in German film and worked with Herzog on other occasions too ("Woyzeck"). And while I like Bierbichler and think he has great physical presence in his films (similarly to Mario Adorf), I must say that his film here did very little to me. This surprised me as I am usually a big Herzog fan. But to me, this felt more like a Schlöndorff movie perhaps. Yes, these almost 100 minutes are full of beautiful shots as always with Herzog and also some nice metaphors, but somehow I would have expected a Herzog film on ruby glass to be a lot more memorable. The action was very slow and I felt it was difficult to really get interested in the characters or the story in general. For me, this was definitely one of the worst Herzog films I have seen. I cannot recommend the watch here and I have zero interest to ever see it again. Thumbs down.
Review of Heart of Glass
