The Phoenix Network:
 
 
About  |  Advertise
Adult  |  Moonsigns  |  Band Guide  |  Blogs  |  In Pictures
 
Features  |  Reviews
FIND MOVIES
Find a Movie
Movie List
Loading ...
or
Find Theaters and Movie Times
or
Search Movies

Wheel of Time

Rating: 3.5 stars
By MATTIAS FREY  |  January 25, 2006
3.5 3.5 Stars
Werner Herzog’s hypnotic documentary attends to the Kalachakra initiation for Tibetan Buddhist monks in 2002 in Bodh Gaya, India. Herzog’s work is always preoccupied with exotic and improbable physical undertakings, and despite its spiritual milieu, this film is unexceptional in that regard. He interviews one pilgrim who has walked on hands and knees for three and a half years to the event and whose dialect is so provincial he needs two interpreters in order to be understood. As attendees succeed in erecting a giant prayer mast, one can’t help recalling Fitzcarraldo. The thick German accent of Herzog’s overdub narration both irritates and comforts. The commentary often comes in the subjunctive, speculating on the thoughts of both Buddha and the figures in his images alike. This ironic historiography will be Herzog’s legacy, one to which Wheel of Time does justice.
Related: Meaningful moves, 10 Questions for the Dalai Lama, Renewal, More more >
  Topics: Capsule Reviews , Culture and Lifestyle, Religion, Werner Herzog,  More more >
  • Share:
  • Share this entry with Facebook
  • Share this entry with Digg
  • Share this entry with Delicious
  • RSS feed
  • Email this article to a friend
  • Print this article
Comments

ARTICLES BY MATTIAS FREY
Share this entry with Delicious
  •   LIGHT SHOW  |  April 02, 2008
    The biggest stars of this year’s Berlin Film Festival were neither actors nor directors.
  •   PEACEFUL WARRIOR  |  July 12, 2006
    The wise-elder/insolent-apprentice story has been so durable in Hollywood that many scriptwriting manuals teach it as a paradigm. Watch the trailer for Peaceful Warrior (QuickTime)
  •   WHO KILLED THE ELECTRIC CAR?  |  July 05, 2006
    In 1993, California passed a mandate that in 10 years 10 percent of cars sold in the state would have to produce zero emissions. Watch the trailer for Who Killed the Electric Car (QuickTime)
  •   OUR BRAND IS CRISIS  |  June 30, 2006
    Boynton’s restrained vérité reveals the consultants’ video-game mentality — and the violent consequences of their meddling.
  •   THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA  |  February 20, 2007
    If Lauren Weisberger’s bestseller was a Starbucks espresso — overall bland, but hot and quick — then David Frankel’s adaptation is the decaf version. Watch the trailer for The Devil Wears Prada (QuickTime)

 See all articles by: MATTIAS FREY

MOST POPULAR
RSS Feed of for the most popular articles
 Most Viewed   Most Emailed 



  |  Sign In  |  Register
 
thePhoenix.com:
Phoenix Media/Communications Group:
TODAY'S FEATURED ADVERTISERS
Copyright © 2009 The Phoenix Media/Communications Group