Burden of Dreams
Directed by Les Blank
Written by Michael Goodwin
1982/USA
Flower Films
Repeat viewing/FilmStruck
[box] Werner Herzog: It’s not only my dreams, my belief is that all these dreams are… are yours as well… and the only distinction between me and you is that I can articulate them… and that is what poetry or painting or literature or film-making is all about, it’s as simple as that… and I, I make films because I have not learned anything else and I know I can do it to a certain degree… and it is my duty because this might be the inner chronicle of what we are… and we have to articulate ourselves otherwise we would be cows in the field.[/box]
Perhaps the best “making-of” documentary ever made focuses on the mad dreams of a great filmmaker.
In 1977, German director Werner Herzog travelled to the Amazon to scout out locations for his long-planned project “Fitzcarraldo”. That film tells the story of an Irish Caruso lover who decides to build an opera house in the middle of the jungle where his idol can sing. No financing being available, Fitzcarraldo decides to raise money by harvesting rubber. To get his product to port he must move it from one tributary to another. This he decides to do by dragging a steamboat about a mile over a steep hill to the other river.
Herzog being Herzog there was nothing to do but to actually have hundreds of indigenous people physically drag the boat over the hill, with a little help from a faulty bulldozer. The filming was plagued by one disaster after another. Malfunctioning equipment, drought, illness, and discontent among the Indians stretched the process into a five-year ordeal.
Herzog selected documentarian Les Blank to record the shoot. The result captures both the passion of the director and the beauty of the jungle and its people.
No complaints about this wonderful film. If you have ever seen or hope to see Fitzcarraldo (1982) or have any interest in dreamers, this is a must-see film. It really should be on The List.
The FilmStruck film came with a really good audio commentary with Les Blank, editor Maureen Gosling, and Werner Herzog.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UOn28VA62ss
Trailer
Herzog’s rant
