Heart of Glass

An 18th-century Bavarian community falls apart when the local glassmaker dies, in Werner Herzog's mesmerising drama for which he famously directed his actors under hypnosis.

Audaciously different even by Herzog's standards - the cast are under hypnosis throughout the film - but in no way impenetrable as it relates the fable of a pre-industrial community falling apart when a formula for making the glass on which its economy depends is lost with the death of a factory owner. The acting is memorably intense, the imagery - inspired by the painter Georges de La Tour - extraordinarily beautiful and the whole thing is as resonant as a great myth.