Sitting on a shelf since 2015, this is Werner Herzog’s first narrative feature in six years. On paper, impassioned archaeologist Herzog and real-life subject Gertrude Bell (Nicole Kidman) — a writer, world-traveler, photographer, and all-around eloquent nomad whose heart belonged to the desert — would appear to have the makings of cinematic soulmates. Bell worked closely with Winston Churchill in drawing the borders of what is today Saudi Arabia, Iraq, and Jordan, but instead of focusing attention on her visionary accomplishments, Herzog inches his Florence of Arabia in the direction of David Lean pictorialism. And Bell’s ill-fated romance with married soldier Charles Doughty-Wylie (Damian Lewis) reveals a side of the director that can best be described as the merchant of Merchant and Ivory. Is this the same Herzog who directed Aguirre, the Wrath of God and Grizzly Man? With Robert Pattinson and James Franco. (2015) — Scott Marks
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