Two weeks after Werner Herzog was born in Munich, during W.W. II, an Allied bomb destroyed the house next door. His mother moved the family to Sachrang, a small Bavarian village. Things in the Alps were dire. The family didn’t have running water, heat, or a telephone. When Herzog was 12, the family moved back to Munich, At 19, just a year after his first phone call, Herzog started work on his first movie, Herakles (1961). Now 80, Herzog is considered one of the pioneers of New German Cinema. The French filmmaker François Truffaut called him “the most important film director alive.” This comprehensive retrospective tells his story, pulling from more than 70 features, documentaries, and shorts. —Elena Clavarino