Fitzcarraldo
is loosely based on real stories - there were rich rubber barons who
built opera houses in the jungle and imported European Opera singer
s,
and there was a man named Fitzcarrald who moved a boat across land
between two rivers - but in true Werner Herzog style, the film's
storyline is a wonderfully exaggerated and stylised version of history.
The plot is surprisingly detailed, giving a plausible explanation for
the entire boat moving operation, and giving the Fitzcarraldo character
a very good backing - there are enough twists and turns to keep the audience
interested, with it all ends fittingly. The pacing is surprisingly quick, and despite the
2 hour plus runtime, the film does seem almost rushed in places.
Although Herzog was criticized by
some elements of the media for his use of natives in the film, the
script treats them and their customs with a great deal of respect.
Herzog's
direction is decent here, with a mix of fixed and handheld camera-work
that helps to give a very realistic feel to much of the film, although
not quite the documentary feel that boosted
Aguirre
(1972). The editing is rather more Hollywood style than the langurious
pace of many of
Herzog's 1970s films, although this does help to keep the film moving
faster than normal. A scene where the crew of the ship visit
Fitzcarraldo's abandoned rail terminal plays out in under 5 minutes,
yet it has enough detail to have lasted up to 20 minutes in one his
classic films. The most important part of the production was the
fact that Herzog and crew really had the boat pulled over the mountain,
giving effects that could never be replicated in a studio. The
soundtrack is a mix of opera and incidental music from Herzog regular
Florian Fricke which boasts some of his most haunting musical themes.
Klaus
Kinski was not originally cast in the film, but when actor Jason
Robards had to withdraw when he fell ill, Herzog managed to persuade
the notoriously tempramental Kinski to take on the lead role -
fortunately for him, and for the us, Kinski accepted. His performance
is fantastic, although rather atypical, Fitzcarraldo may be bordering
on insane, but less the raving lunatic of
Augirre (1972) than a visionary man, driven by his passion for music,
and for possibly the only time in his entire film career, Kinski's character looks
really happy and even smiles. The remaining footage of Jason Robards (with a sidekick played by
Rolling Stones
singer Mick Jagger) shows his performance to be quite different, more a
straight forward adventure picture. Claudia Cardinale gets second billing,
but only has
a minor role as Fitzcarraldo's friend/lover and financial
backer. Miguel Ángel Fuentes is probably most recognisable
as the Aztec from the MST3k favourite,
Puma Man (1980), he plays the engineer, and certainly has the physical size and stregth for the role. The rest of the cast look fine.
Fitzcarraldo is
the fourth Herzog/Kinski partnership, and although ostensibly a more
mainstream style production than the surreal and dream-like
Aguirre (1972) and
Nosferatu (1979), it still boasts hints of the respective documentary and stylised feels of these two films.
Fitzcarraldo
is an entertaining film and recommended to all Kinski and Herzog fans,
anyone wanting to experience these two for the first time will probably
find this very accessible film a good place to start. Recommended.
