FITZCARRALDO

Germany, 1982, 150 minutes, Colour.
Klaus Kinski, Claudia Cardinale.
Directed by Werner Herzog.

Fitzcarraldo won the Best Director prize for Werner Herzog at the Cannes Film Festival, 1983. Herzog has made quite a number of interesting, sometimes esoteric, films: using hypnosis for Heart of Glass, using a retarded actor for Kaspar Hauser and Stroszek, a story of aboriginal rights and mining, Where the Green Ants Dream.

Fitzcarraldo is Brian Patrick Fitzgerald, pronounced Fitzcarraldo by the Indians of Brazil. Herzog went to the Amazon with Jason Robards and Mick Jagger to film this story. Robards became ill and the material with the two stars was cut. Klaus Kinski, who had appeared in Aguirre and Nosferatu for Herzog, came in. While not in any way Irish, he is an intense actor who carries the film with this intensity. Claudia Cardinale has a supporting role as his friend Molly.

The film is beautifully photographed with the Amazon settings. A high point is the carrying of a boat over a mountain from one river to another. This gives the film some epic proportions. The filming was recorded by American documentarist Les Blank with a feature-length film, Burden of Dreams.

The film is a story of obsession, vision, a European in an alien setting wanting to bring European culture, specifically opera, to the wilds of the jungle.

1. The film's acclaim, awards? Entertaining?

2. A Werner Herzog film - themes: environment, dreams, vision, burdens? A film about obsessions? Terrain and environment? Peoples and myths? Achieving the impossible?

3. The location photography: the Amazon, the rivers, life on the rivers, rapids? The towns, wealth, the shanties? Offices and wharves?

4. The importance of music: the themes, the choral music, the opera selections? The final performance of The Puritans on board the ship? The background of Enrico Caruso and Sarah Bernhardt? Their operatic performance? The classics brought to South America?

5. The plot and character: a journey of vision, the maps, the link of the mountain between the rivers, the voyage in a circle? Fitzcarraldo moving in a circle - yet ... ? The more personal and mystical meanings of Fitzcarraldo's vision?

6. The environment of the Amazon and South America? God and the opening caption about his not finishing Creation, leaving it to be finished when mankind has gone? whites in South America, Conquistadors, exploiters, settlers? The Indians and their status? The world of the Indian and primitive religion and myth? The religious significance of the film? The use of symbols? Primitive stories about rivers and whirlpools? Christian symbolism, e.g. the Indians carrying the wood for the transporting of the ship as a cross?

7. The opening and Fitzcarraldo and Molly rushing 1200 miles to see Caruso and Bernhardt? A hard journey, the hazards? Persuading the usher to let them in? Appreciation of the opera? Caruso seeming to point at Fitzcarraldo? Fitzcarraldo taking this as an omen? The atmosphere of the opera house, the elegant audience, Sarah Bernhardt acting with a dubbed voice? The status of Bernhardt and Caruso? Fitzcarraldo's delight and his hopes to bring such culture to the Amazon?

8. Klaus Kinski's performance as Fitzcarraldo: appearance, manner, benign yet obsessed, Irish background, in South America? His eccentric career e.g. the Andes railway and its not succeeding? His being despised by the officials and the wealthy? Being jeered? The gambling sequences, the visit to Molly's establishment, his being with the businessmen and their spurning him? His ringing the bells and wanting to halt the life of the city? Prison? His being on the outer, dreams and ridicule, the buying of the boat? The hopes for the profits with the rubber?

9. His friendship with Molly - her beauty, laughter. her goodtime girl spirit, support of him. her home, establishment, the girls, society, the photo? Moll as complementary to Fitzcarraldo? The ending and her welcome and exhilaration with his success?

10. The background of rubber growing and marketing? Hopes, money? Fitzcarraldo using business to bring the opera? The buying of the boat, the claim of the land? The preparations for the journey and the rehabilitation of the boat? A new conquistador. a new explorer? The captain of the boat. the cook, the engineer? The range of the crew, the women on board? The possibility of success?

11. The boat as a character of the film? Old, rebuilt. decked out? Molly launching it solemnly with laughter? Sailing. upstream. the exhilaration of the journey? The captain. his control. amiable. co-operative? The engineer and his friendliness? The Indian cook and his moods. seeming contrary, helping, remaining? The details of the journey. life on the river? The crew. their clashes, the women? Their being put ashore? The visuals of the boat. the boat as a character on the river? The visit to the abandoned Andes railway? The map explaining the situation? The boat to be carried over the mountain?

12. The journey and its effect, the use of music, Caruso's singing? The crew and their going? The Indians and stalking, suspicions? Their help? The small group who remained? Fitzcarraldo and his decisions, plans? The clearing of the land for the carrying of the boat, the detonations, the pulley system. the accidents and the injuries? The Indians coming and going? Fitzcarraldo's continually wondering why? The effort of the moving of the boat? The visuals and the audience experiencing the work in lifting the boat? Its moving down the other side and being launched again? An achievement?

13. The Indians and their appearance, language. rituals? Paint? Their solemnity. silence? The celebration and merriment? The cutting loose of the boat? The aftermath - and their appeasing the spirit of the whirlpool?

14. The drinking and the celebration, the drifting to the whirlpool, the battering of the boat, its survival. Fitzcarraldo and the crew coping? The limping back again and completing the circle?

15. Fitzcarraldo's shrewdness in reselling the boat? wondering what to do next? Hiring the opera, the joy and exhilaration of the performance of The Puritans on board? Fitzcarraldo achieving his dream - and being acclaimed?

16. A burden of dreams and obsessions? Achievement?