Macclesfield / London 1980

There's an interesting coincidence regarding your great film Stroszek. Reading about the suicide of Joy Division singer Ian Curtis in the book Touching from a Distance we learn that he watched Stroszek before killing himself. While reading Faber's Lynch on Lynch, David Lynch talks about being in the UK filming The Elephant Man and seeing Stroszek on TV. Curtis and Lynch appear to have been watching the transmission of the same film at the same time. Although it's a huge simplification, the reactions of the two viewers appear to swing between a complete enchantment of life and self-destruction. Do you find this reveals something about your work?

Werner Herzog It is a very heavy question. There is no frivolity in answering this. I cannot really argue. It is as it is. I wish this singer was still alive and hadn't seen Stroszek at that moment. But deep at the bottom of my heart I do believe that Stroszek was not the reason that he killed himself. I do believe that he must have had some very, very serious deeper other reasons and he may have, and I'm very cautious, he may have used the film as a ritual step into what he was doing. Regarding David Lynch when he was doing Elephant Man, which is a wonderful film, I do not know. I actually know David Lynch personally and I should speak to him and ask him. There's no real answer to that question, only regret that a young man committed suicide. That's a fact that is sad which is very, very serious and is very disquieting.

BBC Four This is a more light-hearted question.

Piers What became of all the grey rats you used in Nosferatu?

Werner Herzog We sold them and even made some profit!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcfour/documentaries/storyville/ask-herzog.shtml