Scenarios II:

German auteur Herzog returns to print in this second collection of film scenarios, essentially prose screenplays, including Signs of Life, Even Dwarfs Started Small, Fata Morgana, and Heart of Glass. These pieces represent the vast imagination and varied interests of one of the most original and prolific filmmakers of a generation. In Herzog's cinema, nature, society, and individuals are all involved in a precarious balancing act between sanity and madness, and the mundane and bizarre. Without the aid of images, Herzog's stage directions provide the drama, particularly in Heart of Glass. Herzogisms are sprinkled throughout, such as "now we behold the most dismal abyss of all." Among the highlights is the scenario for his first feature film, Signs of Life, in which a straightforward style and dusty Greek island setting lend a Hemingway-esque quality to the story of three German soldiers during World War II. But the denouement is pure Herzog as the protagonist Stroszek succumbs to madness owing to the boredom of his post as a munitions watchman.