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German filmmaker Werner Herzog](Werner Herzog | Moviefone) is one of those larger than life characters – a man with a personality so pronounced that it threatens to overshadow his work. With his heavy accent, distinctive delivery and penchant from grand philosophical pronouncements, the director is always on the short list when the question about what five people, living or dead, you would invite to a dinner party comes up.
Ryan Iverson’s YouTube channel clearly agrees that Herzog is a fascinating individual, but rather than track down interview footage or share famous quotes, he’s crafted a series of videos with the German auteur reading classic children’s literature as only he can. It’s not really Herzog reading Where’s Waldo](Amazon.com: Where's Waldo? The Complete Collection: 9780763641672: Handford, Martin, Handford, Martin: Books) or Madeline](Amazon.com: Madeline: 9780670445806: Ludwig Bemelmans: Books), but it’s a decent enough impersonation and the tone of his observations is hilariously spot-on. There are currently four videos in the series, one each for the two previously mentioned titles, plus the director’s take on Curious George](The Complete Adventures of Curious George, Anniversary Edition: Rey, Margret, Rey, H. A.: 9780618164417: Amazon.com: Books) and Mike Milligan and His Steam Shovel](Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel: Burton, Virginia Lee: 9780395259399: Amazon.com: Books). You can’t go wrong with any of them – each is hysterical.
The Herzog actor starts out reading the stories in a relatively straightforward fashion, but then he abruptly shifts gears, pointing out the philosophical conundrums of Where’s Waldo: “In searching for Waldo, did we find ourselves? No, probably not.” And he waxes on about the secret meaning of Madeline’s appendectomy: “This is an obvious metaphor for menstruation and sexual maturity.” Each of the videos is roughly less than four minutes long and filled with even funnier lines than the ones highlighted. I leave those for you to discover on your own.
If you ever wondered what Herzog did in his downtime when he wasn’t making films like Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call - New Orleans](Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call - New Orleans (2009) - Movie | Moviefone), wonder no more. Hit the jump to see how the filmmaker has been moonlighting.
Continue reading Werner Herzog Ponders the Philosophy of ‘Where’s Waldo’