Every Night the Trees Disappear ─ Werner Herzog and the Making of Heart of Glass

When Alan Greenberg first showed up at Werner Herzog’s Munich home at age twenty-four, he was, according to the director, the first outsider to seek him and recognize his greatness. At the end of their first evening together, Herzog urged Greenberg to work with him on his film Heart of Glass—and everything thereafter. He clinched his plea by assuring the young American, “On the outside we’ll look like gangsters, but on the inside we’ll wear the gowns of priests.”

Every Night the Trees Disappear is an intimate chronicle of how this visionary filmmaker directed a masterwork. Greenberg’s observations, interwoven with Herzog’s original screenplay, elucidate just how unusual Herzog’s filmmaking methods could be. By hypnotizing his actors before shooting each scene, Herzog led his crew into a veritable cinematic netherworld, resulting in one of the most haunting movies ever made.

Rather than a conventional, journalistic account of how a director makes a movie, Every Night the Trees Disappear instead presents a unique vision with the feel of a novel—intimate, penetrating, and filled with mystery.

Alan Greenberg is a writer, film director, film producer, and photographer. His film Land of Look Behind won the Gold Hugo Award at the Chicago International Film Festival. He is also the author of Love in Vain: A Vision of Robert Johnson. He has known and frequently collaborated with Werner Herzog for more than 35 years, helping him write the screenplay of Fitzcarraldo, among others. Werner Herzog is considered one of the world’s greatest filmmakers. His films include Aguirre, the Wrath of God; The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser; Grizzly Man; Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans; Cave of Forgotten Dreams; and Into the Abyss. His books include Conquest of the Useless and Of Walking in Ice.