Meeting Gorbachev. (PG.)
Directed by Werner Herzog and Andre Singer.
Featuring Mikhail Gorbachev, Mikos Nemeth, George Schultz, Horst Teltschik and Werner Herzog. 91 mins.
Though it's overly hero-worshipping, this record of three meetings between Herzog and the last President of the USSR is a corrective to his portrayal in Chernobyl (The Greatest TV Show Ever!) as just another soviet bad guy. Being an unbalanced obsessive, Herzog doesn't come at it with an even hand, but if you overlook his little quirks this is a really fascinating look at 20th Century geopolitics.
Gorbachev doesn't look like Rod Steiger any more and the wine stain seems to have faded with age. He talks about his part in ending the Cold War, signing nuclear non-proliferation treaties, the fall of the Iron Curtain and how his attempts to reform the state were hijacked by a self-interested populist buffoon. There's something monumental in him recalling that his grandmother was in charge of a collectivist farm. That was some vast slice of history he was served.
Herzog starts the film by apologising for being German. As an interviewer, he has a touch of the Richard Madeley about him. When Gorbachev talks about the loss of his beloved wife Raisa, Herzog presses him on How Much do you still miss her? To an 89-year man who has just come out of hospital, asking what you would like on your headstone is foot-in-mouth bluntness.
Directed by Werner Herzog and Andre Singer.
Featuring Mikhail Gorbachev, Mikos Nemeth, George Schultz, Horst Teltschik and Werner Herzog. 91 mins.
Though it's overly hero-worshipping, this record of three meetings between Herzog and the last President of the USSR is a corrective to his portrayal in Chernobyl (The Greatest TV Show Ever!) as just another soviet bad guy. Being an unbalanced obsessive, Herzog doesn't come at it with an even hand, but if you overlook his little quirks this is a really fascinating look at 20th Century geopolitics.
Gorbachev doesn't look like Rod Steiger any more and the wine stain seems to have faded with age. He talks about his part in ending the Cold War, signing nuclear non-proliferation treaties, the fall of the Iron Curtain and how his attempts to reform the state were hijacked by a self-interested populist buffoon. There's something monumental in him recalling that his grandmother was in charge of a collectivist farm. That was some vast slice of history he was served.
Herzog starts the film by apologising for being German. As an interviewer, he has a touch of the Richard Madeley about him. When Gorbachev talks about the loss of his beloved wife Raisa, Herzog presses him on How Much do you still miss her? To an 89-year man who has just come out of hospital, asking what you would like on your headstone is foot-in-mouth bluntness.
