Hear Werner Herzog Analyze Kanye West’s ‘Famous’ Video
Who better than experimental filmmaker and existential ponderer Werner Herzog to dissect Kanye West‘s controversial “Famous” video? The German director analyzed the clip for The Daily Beast, marveling, “I have never seen anything like this.”
Herzog was fascinated by the video’s wax facsimiles of celebrities – including Taylor Swift, Rihanna, Chris Brown and Donald Trump – who are displayed in a bed post-orgy.
“The most interesting thing for me as a storyteller is … in a movie, yes, you do have a story, and you develop a story,” he said. “But at the same time you have to be very careful and think about and organize a parallel story, a separate, independent story that only occurs in the collective mind of the audience. And when you hear the rap, which is very well done, all of a sudden it gives you more time than anything else just to reflect on it.
“And this video gives you space for creating your separate parallel story,” he continued. “And you keep thinking, are these people for real? Are they doppelgängers? And what could be the story of them? What are they doing? How have they partied? What brought them together? So all of a sudden, the rapper gives me the chance to completely go wild on my own story. On the collective audience that he has out there. It’s very very interesting. … I see something very wild here, which is essential in real deep storytelling.”
Herzog recently marveled at the deeper meanings behind Pokémon Go in an interview with The Verge.
Find out what TV show creator Lena Duham’s reaction was to Kanye West’s controversial video here.