“At Family Romance, we are not allowed to love or be loved.”

Are illusions as or more fulfilling, than reality? The illusions of relationships mediated by whatever mechanisms available in modernity, such as commerce and the internet – and how those illusions compose a heartbreaking, alienated reality. As Herzog says in the post-film zoom interview, “Everything is not true, but is strangely, true enough… it makes us examine what is illusory and performative in our own lives.”

In the interview, Herzog also refers to his walk from Munich to Paris to save Lotte Eisner’s life. It is both striking and strange, especially as I just watched Selfportrait to which this walk is central, to see how this one event has so deeply pervaded the grand philosophy Herzog is probing.

Though this is a vastly different setting and theme from previous films, the music of previous films is reproduced here: composed by Ernst Reijseger, with the voice of Mola Sylla, and the twisty strings. I found an incredible post about the history of Herzog’s music from the blog In Sheep’s Clothing:

The Music of Werner Herzog