Why the homage to David Lynch at the beginning of the

film? Don't read too much into it.

Okay.

It was simply when I was editing the film.

It occurred to me, I said to the editor, I would like David Lynch to be the first one to sit in the first screening with me.

So tonight at the world premiere, I would love to have him on my right side.

But he died and I miss him.

What does this film say about the era we are living, the times we are living, Mr. Herzog?

Constantly.

Yeah.

And here, this, I, I like this here, for example.

This is very much for real.

They carry a piece of a winch, the central piece, and it was so awfully heavy.

And, and here, you, you sense this is for real.

There's, that this is not a joke anymore.

I mean, we still had a long time to go, but this is about a year into the production.

Yeah

... where we are going and why.

And, uh, of course, insanity [laughs] and palace intrigues and rebellions will take place.

So it's a nonsensical idea to move, to travel to these planets.

A robot is much better.

And Mars, it, well, I would love to be on Mars, and there will be eventually some, a handful of astronauts.

But the problem is it's very unfriendly there.

Not by looking for some ideal world behind appearances, but somehow we have to... through appearances that we approach this ecstatic truth.

Werner, um, h- how is Steve's mission here and what you've done redemptive to that?

The gi- gigantic elephant, Henry, 1955, was shot dead by a Hungarian-born, uh, uh, big game hunter, Fenyőkövy.

It took him nineteen bullets to bring this giant down, pursuing the elephant over fifteen kilometers in a, in a Land Rover, shooting, shooting, shooting until it was down.

And, uh, remarkably so, of course, the media took notice of this event, of this gigantic elephant, but it was Sports Illustrated, 1955, celebrating the world record of the hunter, the sportsman.

Thanks God our attitude is changing and has changed.

And I'm showing in the film right after Carolyn Costa speaks about this terrifying slaughter, I show excerpts of a 1965 Italian film, Africa Addio, a very repulsive film, racist, and you just name it.

But they managed to shoot footage of unspeakable terror of helicopters pushing the elephants right in front of the hunter who is waiting with his rifle and, and then he shoots it down.

in any work that you do?

In what way?

First and foremost, cultural substance, but don't forget that there's a huge amount of industry there.

When you fly into Los Angeles, you see all these industrial areas, flat roofs, gigantic factories.

Reusable rockets are being built within the perimeter of the city.

You don't have this factory in the Bronx.

You don't have it near Wall Street.

Of course, people immediately think the superficial side, glitz and glamour of Hollywood.

When you say take it seriously, do you mean that as a political direction, an artistic direction?

Really, why do we even bother?

I think because we enjoy the feeling of futility and, uh, w- then we can complain to our friends, uh, that, like, you see a popular bumper sticker that says, uh, "Don't blame me.

I experienced the futility of voting for the other guy."

... where nothing is what it seems to be.

Good point.

Um, I cry because the earth, uh, it's so far away.

I provide it with light at night, uh, and people look up at me and they become so sad because they pine for lost lovers or they, uh, make wishes that will never come true, or they think I'm some big, uh, blob of cheese.

Mm-hmm.

... that makes us distinct from the, from the cows in the field.

And in all my work, whoever is an artist, a filmmaker, is always confronted with a question of truth.

It's something very, very deeply inherent in us, and I always have struggled with it, always have tried to define it and find the deepest stratum of truth in filmmaking, in writing.

And, uh, it makes it meaningful what I do.

And yet, I do not claim that I'm in possession of the truth.

However, I have found ways to approximate what we think may be truth, as that something deeply known in us.

Younger people- Yeah.