Werner Herzog Eats His Shoe

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Movie
Original title Werner Herzog eats his shoe
Country of production United States
original language English
Publishing year 1980
length 20 minutes
Rod
Director Les Blank
script Werner Herzog
production Les Blank (Flower Films)
camera Les Blank
cut Maureen Gosling
occupation

Werner Herzog eats his shoe is a documentary short film by Les Blank from 1980. The main actor Werner Herzog eats one of his shoes as a bet in this film. He had announced that he would eat his shoe if Errol Morris managed to complete his film Gates of Heaven .

Duke cooks his two shoes (which he had worn at the time when he finished the bet) for five hours along with garlic, onion, spices and duck fat in the restaurant Chez Panisse by Alice Waters in Berkeley . He eats one of these before the premiere of Gates of Heaven on April 11, 1980 in front of the audience and the press in the cinema of the UC Theater . Herzog explains to the audience that everyone can relate their experience by eating at the Kentucky Fried Chicken fast food chain . Herzog didn't eat the sole because he wouldn't eat bones with a chicken. In addition, Herzog speaks about the destructiveness of television and advertising and encourages filmmakers to implement their ideas. The remains of his shoes were later preserved in a block made of acrylic glass .

The film shows short excerpts from Herzog's film Also Dwarfs Started Small , and also from Gold Rush (1925) with the scene in which Chaplin is shown eating a shoe. The song played in the film is "Old whiskey shoes" by the Walt Solek Band .

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