Bells from the Deep (1993)

The best place to see ecstatic truth in action, because Herzog has admitted the trick. This survey of faith and superstition in Russia turns in its second half to the legend of Kitezh, a city said to lie beneath a lake, and its famous image is of pilgrims lying on the ice, listening for the drowned city's bells. Herzog later said he hired two drunks from the next town and put them on the ice. Knowing that does not spoil the image; it makes the film a perfect test of how you feel about his method, and a strange, beautiful watch either way.