Jonathan Cott is a master of the interview, a form that is much less a matter of gathering quotes than of inspiring a thoughtful conversation. Cott gathered several of his published several of his conversations between hardcovers as Listening: Interviews 1970-1989.
The material represents Cott’s discussions with 22 leading figures in the fields of music, science, children’s literature and psychology. His subjects also include two of Europe’s major filmmakers of the late 20th century Warner Herzog and Federico Fellini.
Cott caught up with Herzog in 1975 and ’76, a time when the director was still making visionary masterpieces (Aguire, The Wrath of God), not the quirky documentaries he’s known for in recent decades. Cott’s wide-ranging intellect embraced the literature and mysticism of many nations. He identified Herzog with German predecessors such as the poet Novalis and mystical theologian Meister Eckhart as well as Expressionist director F.W. Murnau. Tellingly, Herzog said to Cott that Murnau’s Nosferatu (1922) was “the most incredible film ever made in Germany. Once I make a film on that level, I’ll be able to step back and be satisfied with my work.” Three years later Herzog produced his own exquisite version of Nosferatu, which marked the beginning of the end of his cycle of art house films with the maniacal Klaus Kinski in lead roles.
According to Fellini, his formative experience occurred the day he ran away from school to hang around a traveling circus. He insisted that his films be viewed through eyes of childhood, “the possibility of maintaining an equilibrium between the unconscious and the conscious, between ‘real life’ and the life of memory.” Not unlike Herzog but along entirely different avenues, Fellini searched for “the expression of the visionary” in the extreme subjectivity that leads to “absolute reality.”
Although not devoted to film as such, Listening is a feast for film buffs. Also included are interviews with Richard Gere, Elizabeth Taylor and Sam Shepard. Cott’s 1977 discussion with Bob Dylan occurred just after the release of his epic, Renaldo and Clara, a film deemed impenetrable by most of the few who ever sat through it.
