17 Apr 2009

And here I thought release dates...

... were just a continental Europe problem (particularly in Spain).

And now I discover (via a Guardian interview) that Werner Herzog's latest Oscar-nominated documentary film Encounters at the End of the World is only now being released in the U.K.!!! Hmmm... that explains why I haven't been able to order the dvd off Amazon yet! :p

I saw this back in December (thankfully in VO, love Herzog's quirky german-accented English narration!) and thoroughly enjoyed it! So if anyone reading this is in the U.K. then head over to catch it on the big screen (those polar views deserve the big screen treatment). For those in the U.S. Netflix! And I'll keep on waiting for a zone 2 dvd to be available... I want to watch it again (and again and again) and then dive into the (hopefully) plentiful extras.

It's not another penguin-friendly film (although there's a potential penguin "suicide" sequence that is goose-bump inducing). Herzog says it himself in the introduction, he's interested in people, in what makes them tick, in what is it about them and about the Antarctic that makes them want to spend so much time in such a harsh and isolated environment. The cinematography is grandiose (with those landscapes how could it be otherwise?!). The underwater sequences are creepy. The film is moving, poetic and amusing; and speaking as one who has spent time on an Antarctic base... very real!

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