Fitzcarraldo

For other meanings, see Fitzcarraldo (disambiguation).

Fitzcarraldo is a 1982 film written and directed by Werner Herzog and starring Klaus Kinski as the title character, the entrepreneur and would-be Irish rubber baron, Brian Sweeney Fitzgerald: Fitzcarraldo.

Story

Fitzcarraldo, a great fan of the famous tenor Enrico Caruso, dreams of building an opera house in the remote Peruvian city of Iquitos. To make his dream a reality, he purchases a steamer, acquires the deed to a rubber-rich, but inaccessible, area of the jungle, and sets off to exploit this area until he earns enough money to build his opera. However, because his newly-acquired territory can only be reached via a tributary of the Amazon River strewn with dangerous rapids, he devises a more creative solution: travel up a parallel tributary; then, with the manpower of helpful natives, physically pull the steamship over a mountain, from one river to the next.

Production issues

Interestingly, although the male and female leads are played by European actors (Claudia Cardinale plays Fitzcarraldo's lover), the original soundtrack was recorded in English, as Cardinale spoke no German.

Jason Robards was originally cast in the title role, but he became ill and was forced to leave. Herzog then considered casting Jack Nicholson, and even playing Fitzcarraldo himself, before Klaus Kinski reluctantly accepted the role. By that point, forty percent of shooting was complete and Herzog insisted on a total reshoot with Kinski. Mick Jagger was originally cast as Fitzcarraldo's assistant, but his shooting schedule expired and he departed to tour with the Rolling Stones. Herzog dropped Jagger's character from the script and reshot the film from the beginning.

The film was an incredible ordeal, and famously involved moving a 340-ton steamship over a mountain—without the use of special effects. Scenes were also shot onboard the ship while it crashed through rapids, injuring three of the six people involved in the filming. Two full-size ships were created for the making of the film.

Herzog was criticized for taking advantage of the hundreds of local people in the jungles near Iquitos (who also appear in the film), a claim that Herzog vigorously denies.

Klaus Kinski was also a major source of tension, as he fought with Herzog and other members of the crew and greatly upset the native extras. In his documentary My Best Fiend, Herzog says that one of the native chiefs offered to murder Kinski for him, but that he declined because he needed Kinski to complete filming.

Les Blank's documentary Burden of Dreams is about the production of the film. And although Blank was around for only part of it, the documentary presents the making of Fitzcarraldo as quite an ordeal.

Werner Herzog, after completing one of the most difficult films ever to be made, won Best Director at the Cannes Film Festival.

Filming locations include

• Iquitos, Peru

Related artworks

"Filming the Making of the Film of the Making of Fitzcarraldo," a short story by Garry Kilworth, speculates about a camera crew following the camera crew of Burden of Dreams as they make a film about the making of "Fitzcarraldo." It was published in 1989 in Omni, and has been republished in "In the Hollow of the Deep-Sea Wave," a collection of the author's fiction.

Trivia

• Was referred to in Simpsons episode "On a Clear Day I Can't See My Sister". The schoolchildren are forced to tow their bus up an icy road, and Üter exclaims "I feel like I'm in Fitzcarraldo." Nelson replies "That movie was flawed!", punching Üter in the stomach.

• The film's title is mentioned in the opening line of Destroyer's "Virgin with a Memory" on the album Streethawk: A Seduction: "Was it the movie or the making of Fitzcarraldo where someone learned to love again?"

• The song "Fitzcarraldo" was written by The Frames frontman, Glen Hansard after watching the film.

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