Werner Herzog
German film director, producer, screenwriter, actor and opera director (born 1942)
A director's score is the sum of their films' composite canon scores — methodology.
- Born
- September 5, 1942 · Munich
- Nationality
- Germany
- Work
- film director, film producer, screenwriter, film editor
- Movement
- New German Cinema
Films in our library, ranked
Ranked by composite canon score across 20+ authoritative lists, awards and polls — our ordering, with every placement citing its evidence on the film's page.
- 1
1972 · Germany / Mexico / Peru · drama, adventure
Sight & Sound 2022 critics' poll #118 · Kinema Junpo Best Ten (International) 1983 #9 · TIME All-TIME 100
1.929 citations - 2
1982 · Germany / Peru · drama, adventure
Kinema Junpo Best Ten (International) 1983 #5 · Empire 500 (2008) #111 · Ebert's annual top 10 1982 #4
1.417 citations - 3Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New OrleansThe Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans
2009 · United States · crime, drama
Cahiers du Cinéma annual top 10 2010 #2 · Ebert's annual top 10 2009 #1 · Film Comment year-end poll 2009 #34
1.333 citations - 4The Enigma of Kaspar HauserJeder für sich und Gott gegen alle
1974 · Germany · biography, drama
Cannes Grand Prix winner 1975 · Scorsese's 39 essential foreign films · Empire 500 (2008) #428
1.284 citations - 5
2005 · United States · documentary, biography
Film Comment year-end poll 2005 #5 · Cahiers du Cinéma annual top 10 2005 #8 · Rolling Stone 100 Best of the 21st Century #69
1.164 citations - 6
1977 · Germany · drama, comedy
Ebert's annual top 10 1978 #4 · NYT Best 1,000 Movies · Sarris's annual top 10 1977 #10
0.664 citations - 7Lessons of DarknessLektionen in Finsternis
1992 · Germany / United Kingdom / France · documentary
Hoberman's annual top 10 1995 #1 · Hoberman's annual top 10 1999 #null
0.642 citations - 8Nosferatu the VampyreNosferatu – Phantom der Nacht
1979 · France / Germany · drama
Siskel's annual top 10 1979 #7 · Ebert's annual top 10 1979 #9 · Roger Ebert's Great Movies
0.453 citations - 9Heart of GlassHerz aus Glas
1976 · Germany · drama
Ebert's annual top 10 1978 #3 · Roger Ebert's Great Movies
0.382 citations - 10
2010 · France / Canada / United States · documentary
Film Comment year-end poll 2011 #23
0.221 citation - 11
2007 · United States · documentary
Film Comment year-end poll 2008 #31
0.201 citation - 120.171 citation
- 130.141 citation
- 140.111 citation
Complete filmography
All 69 directorial credits recorded on Wikidata, in chronological order; films in our library link to their canon-score page.
- 1962Herakles
- 1964Game in the Sand
- 1966The Unprecedented Defence of the Fortress Deutschkreuz
- 1967Last Words
- 1968Precautions Against Fanatics
- 1968Signs of Life
- 1969The Flying Doctors of East Africa
- 1970Even Dwarfs Started Small
- 1970Fata Morgana
- 1971Handicapped Future
- 1971Land of Silence and Darkness
- 1972Aguirre, the Wrath of God
- 1974The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser
- 1974The Great Ecstasy of Woodcarver Steiner
- 1976Heart of Glass
- 1976How Much Wood Would a Woodchuck Chuck
- 1976No One Will Play with Me
- 1977La Soufrière
- 1977Stroszek
- 1979Nosferatu the Vampyre
- 1979Woyzeck
- 1981God's Angry Man
- 1981Huie's Sermon
- 1982Fitzcarraldo
- 1984Ballad of the Little Soldier
- 1984The Dark Glow of the Mountains
- 1984Where the Green Ants Dream
- 1986Portrait Werner Herzog
- 1987Cobra Verde
- 1988The French as Seen By...
- 1989Wodaabe – Herdsmen of the Sun
- 1990Echoes from a Somber Empire
- 1991Jag Mandir
- 1991Scream of Stone
- 1992Lessons of Darkness
- 1993Bells from the Deep
- 1994The Transformation of the World into Music
- 1995Death for Five Voices
- 1997Little Dieter Needs to Fly
- 1999My Best Fiend
- 2000Christ and Demons in New Spain
- 2000Wings of Hope
- 2001Invincible
- 2001Pilgrimage
- 2002Ten Minutes Older: The Trumpet
- 2002Ten Thousand Years Older
- 2003Wheel of Time
- 2004The White Diamond
- 2005Grizzly Man
- 2005The Wild Blue Yonder
- 2006Rescue Dawn
- 2007Encounters at the End of the World
- 2009Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans
- 2009La bohème
- 2009My Son, My Son, What Have Ye Done?
- 2010Cave of Forgotten Dreams
- 2010Happy People: A Year in the Taiga
- 2011Into the Abyss
- 2013From One Second to the Next
- 2015Queen of the Desert
- 2016Into the Inferno
- 2016Lo & Behold, Reveries of the Connected World
- 2016Salt and Fire
- 2018Meeting Gorbachev
- 2019Family Romance, LLC
- 2019Nomad: In the Footsteps of Bruce Chatwin
- 2020Fireball: Visitors from Darker Worlds
- —Ghost Elephants
- —The Fire Within: A Requiem for Katia and Maurice Krafft