Every Night the Trees Disappear Werner Herzog and the Making of Heart of Glass

Alan Greenberg first showed up at Herzog's Munich home at age twenty-four. At the end of their evening together Herzog urged Greenberg to work with him on his film Heart of Glassand everything thereafter. He clinched his plea by assuring the young American that "On the outside we'll look like gangsters, while on the inside we'll wear the gowns of priests." What Greenberg didn't know at the time was how unusual Herzog's filmmaking methods could be. In Heart of Glass,Herzog exercised control over his actors in a unique way: he hypnotized them before shooting their scenes. The result was one of the most haunting movies ever made. Not since Lillian Ross's classic 1950 book Picture,about John Huston directing The Red Badge of Courage,has an American writer given such a close, firsthand, book-length account of how a director makes a movie. But Every Night the Trees Disappearis not a conventional, journalistic account; instead it presents a unique vision with the feel of a novelintimate, penetrating, and filled with mystery.

Alan Greenberg is a writer, film director, film producer, and photographer. His film Land of Look Behind won the Gold Hugo Award at the Chicago International Film Festival. He is also the author of Love in Vain: A Vision of Robert Johnson. He has known and frequently collaborated with Werner Herzog for more than 35 years, helping him write the screenplay of Fitzcarraldo, among others. Werner Herzog is considered one of the world’s greatest filmmakers. His films include Aguirre, the Wrath of God; The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser; Grizzly Man; Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans; Cave of Forgotten Dreams; and Into the Abyss. His books include Conquest of the Useless and Of Walking in Ice.