8 Arthouse Filmmakers You Didn’t Notice Released Films In 2016

Werner Herzog is not what he used to be either. The German filmmaker who once jumped into cactus plants to prove that even dwarfs started small, ate his own shoe, made Klaus Kinski the second greatest Nosferatu in film history, arranged for the transport of a 320-ton steamship over a hill from one river into another and even gave Nicolas Cage one of his last good roles, faces a time of decadence which began to spread since the 1990s.

Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans was probably his ultimate imperfect masterpiece, and it was wrongly accused of being merely a remake. A few years after he released the lame Queen of the Desert; the straw that broke the camel’s back. His credibility was practically declared dead.

As a result, there weren’t big expectations for Salt and Fire. It had its premiere at the Shanghai International Film Festival and had a special presentation at the Toronto Film Festival, with a mostly tepid reception. But, hey, tepid is just fine.