Nessieldwi Very interesting film. Was caught on the premise when seeing the trailer but unsure as to what the outcome would be for the showing. As it turns out, it was a very good film.

MusicChat It's complicated... I really like the directing, acting and writing but, there are issues with the way it's shot that I just can't deny. As much as I love the storytelling and the fantastic performance but, there are also certain scenes that didn't need to exist.

Cooktopi The acting in this movie is really good.

Nayan Gough A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

gavin6942 The foreman of a small village glassworks dies without revealing the secret to the famous "Ruby Glass".This is very much a Werner Herzog film. Although the plot itself is interesting, and allows us to see a small village collapse in on itself because f its failure to diversify its economy, it really is not about the plot at all. It is a collection of unusual characters -- and sometimes just strange faces -- that make up Herzog's world. Not having been to Germany, I can't say, but I suspect his view and the real world are very much in opposition! What lessons are we to draw from this film? I have no idea. I mean, you know, besides the idea that it's important to write things down in case of our untimely demise!

chaos-rampant Everything in this film is ritualized, solemn and somnabulent, a state of meditation. It works like a mandala, a symbol that represents in Buddhist lore a sacred space for the concentration of the mind.This goes beyond a stylization, indeed in a manner that defies our knowledge of Herzog, a man of the impromptu and the adventurous, here I discern a certain ceremonial importance. That is, if the film is important, it's because it derives power from the congregation, its audience. It's up to us to be devout or flippant, be absorbed or laugh it off. I mean this is a film where prophecies are fulfilled.It starts with a creation myth, almost by necessity born of destruction, and ends with a diluvian suggestion, with one of those unforgettable Herzogian images that haunt with the futility and madness of human struggle in a yawning indifferent universe. There's a quest here to discover the lost recipe of a glasswork masterpiece, the Ruby, to which we can read all manner of existential parables. Individually, as allegory, this is nothing new. Like meditation, the insight is not intellectual, if we approach it that way the film may seem ponderous, rather it flows from living an experience.There's a marvelous scene where we see glassworkers at work, blowing life into vials or glass horses. Herzog gives us a sharp contrast here between the sheer beauty of creation and the mundanity of it, one of the workers putting down his glasswork to take a sip of beer from a glass jug. The owners of the factory, son and disabled old father, don't even have that spontaneity to enjoy, they waste away in decadence and futile ruminations.How the unforgettable finale ties up to this is a guess, does it merely frame or does it mythically abstract.Like Tibetans work tirelessly day and night on mandalas only to destroy them upon completion as a palpable reminder that all things are transient, so is Heart of Glass a kind of vehicle, an artifice that serves a purpose only if we work on it. If we arrive anywhere by the finale, it's because we walked.

Chad Beattie (bgnish_rv) Being a huge Herzog fan, normally loving all his films for the absurdity, I found this particular film being my least favorite. First of all, the plot is about the sacred ruby glass, in which the only person with the ability to make this infamous ruby glass dies without revealing the secret. You discover the plot within the first ten minutes, and it grows interest in you, but as the movie goes on, you drastically lose interest. As much potential as the plot had, it didn't really expand into all it was worth.To me, the plot didn't play an important role in the film. I was much more fascinated by the cast of the film, being hypnotized by Herzog (I'm still curious as to how Herzog hypnotized them.) It almost became hilarious during points of the movie. I found my mind sometimes wandering off the subtitles to focus on the minor characters in the background.Unlike other Herzog films, I didn't get much out of this one. Although it did have Herzog's favorite Man vs. Nature theme, I just couldn't take it for what it was. Of course, it did have some beautiful shots that could have been perfect if it wasn't for the horrible quality of the 16mm camera used. Not that I'm blaming Herzog for the lack of funds, just making a point.The whole atmosphere of the film was very "lynchian." The dialog, mostly. It was very obvious that David Lynch (Blue Velvet, Eraserhead) got a lot of inspiration from "Heart of Glass." In conclusion, I would ONLY recommend this movie to fans of Herzog (especially his older films: "Aquirre, the Wrath of God", "Even Dwarfs Started Small", etc) for the reason that they will understand it and get more out of it. However, to people who are unfamiliar with Herzog's older films, I would stay away from this one.

mstomaso Each of Herzog's films is an experiment in one way or another. Heart of Glass is one of the most overtly experimental of the lot. Like almost all of Herzog's films, Heart of Glass makes the most of spectacular landscapes and visual context - every scene is, in its own way, a beautiful still-life. However, in Heart of Glass, the effect of the visual context is compounded by the fact that almost every member of the cast - throughout the entire film - is in a state of hypnosis. Predictably, the acting is, to say the least, avant-garde. Nevertheless, characterization is strong, and more importantly, this bizarre, somewhat jarring method of execution creates the film's time and place just as much as the gorgeous landscape shots.Heart of Glass takes place in 19th century Bavaria. The Director's comments (always worth hearing after viewing a Herzog film) indicate that Herzog grew up in a place very much like this. This doesn't stop Herzog from turning his keen analysis of the human condition and modal personalities to attack the central problems of life in this time and place. The story involves a small town in crisis. The one person who holds the secret that is the key to the town's prosperity has taken that secret to his grave, and the master of the glass factory in which he worked is losing his mind looking for a solution. Meanwhile, one of the film's more sympathetic character's, a deeply insightful prophet/lunatic shepherd (with no sheep), Hias, predicts an even greater crisis.Herzog's most consistent theme - his view of human nature - is powerfully illustrated in Heart of Glass. As the great director has often done, Herzog universalizes his view by giving us an essentially alien, dream-like setting and atmosphere. The effect of the cast's hypnotic state is even more jarring than the sheer intensity of Klaus Kinski's performances in many of Herzog's films from this period, and Heart of Glass is as avant-garde as some of his later efforts (such as The Great Blue Yonder). In other words, the average cinema-goer will have a difficult time with this one.Recommended for Herzog, avant-garde and art-film fans. Not recommended for anybody else.