Werner Herzog Retrospective: Get the ultimate education on one of documentary's greatest auteurs.
The story of a young impresario obsessed with bringing an opera house to the deepest jungles of the Amazon so Caruso could perform against the stark wilderness, Fitzcarraldo is an astonishing and totally consuming vision of man’s ambition. Playing eccentric dreamer Brian Sweeney Fitzgerald (a.k.a. "Fitzcarraldo"), Kinski is undeniable with messy shock-blonde hair and wide-eyed devotion to his cause. Sponsored by a devoted socialite, he pilots his ship down an uncharted tributary, securing the inexplicable collaboration of local Indigenous groups for the ludicrous task of hauling the ship manually over a hill so he can continue on his path. Werner Herzog boldly embarked on a similarly fraught journey in making the film, as stunningly captured by Les Blank in Burden of Dreams (screening here Sunday, August 7). Perverse and tense, but also irresistibly beautiful, Fitzcarraldo brings a new meaning to operatic excess.
Fitzcarraldo makes a great companion piece to Aguirre, the Wrath of God (screening here Saturday, August 6), another Herzog/Kinski collaboration about an impossible task set against an unforgiving landscape in Peru.
Catch four films in the Herzog retrospective for only $40 (Members: $28, $20, Free) with our package deal.