Its title sounds like a cross between Steven Spielberg and Orson Welles, and, indeed, it contains fantastical, sci-fi-like elements aplenty, but "Encounters at the End of the World" is just a simple, straightforward documentary.
Well, not "just" -- and maybe not so simple. How could it be, when its director-narrator is Werner Herzog, a man who unfailingly warms -- or in this case, cools -- to his esoteric subject. The German master ("Fitzcarraldo," "Grizzly Man") has made 40 films over four decades. With this one, he becomes the first director to shoot a film on all seven continents.
Antarctica lured Herzog for metaphysical reasons much like those that drew previous explorers, adventurers and misfits to the place. The catalytic converter, for Herzog, was seeing the underwater photography of Henry Kaiser, whose opening footage here -- otherworldly images of upside-down ice sculptures deep below the frozen surface, accompanied by just-as-otherworldly music -- seems to herald a solemn nature film.
- Narrator: Werner Herzog.
- Rating: G in nature.
- Web site: encountersfilm.com
Not really. Nature and solemnity are here, to be sure, but not many cute, cuddly penguins. Herzog is more curious about the curious human animals who inhabit Earth's final, fearsome frontier: "Last stop -- Antarctica!" the conductor would say.
First (and primary) local stop is Ross Island, headquarters of the National Science Foundation's 1,100-member colony on that frozen continent. Herzog wants out of the station there fast. But first, like all visitors, he must attend Survival Camp and pass its blizzard-safety exercises. You learn how to build an igloo, and you must pass the bucket-over-your-head test -- a simulation of zero visibility -- which everybody hopelessly flunks.
From there, it's on to Iceberg B-12, a monolith extending 1,000 feet below the surface, bigger than England. The water it contains would supply the Nile for 75 years; the ice itself is a living, dynamic thing. A more precious liquid is the dense milk extracted (and tested while it's still warm!) by nutritional ecologists from the local seals, who are annoyed but amazingly cooperative.
The dangers are daunting. We watch divers, "like priests preparing for Mass before going down into the cathedral," without tethers or compasses to find their way back to the exit holes. We follow climbers to the edge of the gigantic Mount Erebus volcano and peer down with them into the churning lava lake below.
Herzog's close encounters are of the silly as well as sublime kind. My favorite is the computer expert who does her "human being as hand luggage" act (cramming herself into a 20-inch bag) for the McMurdo talent show.
"All people who want to jump off the map meet here," says one of them.
At one point, the director tries to make conversation with an introspective zoologist: "I heard there are gay penguins?" (No, but we see a tragically disoriented one heading toward the mountains -- and certain death -- instead of the sea.)
Herzog's precise, deliberate, heavily accented English has a wonderfully calming quality. The eerie music (composed by Kaiser) sounds Gregorian at first, then New Age hearts-of-spacey. But the best part of the soundtrack is the underwater recording of seal calls: a great percussive symphony of clucks, whistles, beeps and screams. I personally would have welcomed more deep-sea critter stuff, and elucidation thereof.
"Encounters" lacks the visceral impact of "Grizzly Man's" charismatic central character. But it also lacks global-warming sermonettes, or any other political agenda. Its awesome sights and idiosyncratic dream qualities leave you to your own conclusions.
Mine?
Some like it cold.
Opens Friday at Regent Square Theater.
First Published: August 7, 2008, 8:00 a.m.
