Burden of Dreams
Director: Les Blank
Year Released: 1982
Rating: 3.0
Documentarian Blank and collaborator Maureen Gosling follow maverick director Werner Herzog and his crew into the Amazon to shoot his super-fantasy Fitzcarraldo, determined to draw parallels between the Klaus Kinski character's mania and that of Herzog's. I think Fitzcarraldo is a deliriously fantastic movie, every bit the triumph Aguirre was, and as a fan of that film, find this to be mandatory viewing - it's an intriguing peek at some of the risks Herzog took to bring his ideas to the screen, his regret (at the time) for being a filmmaker and perhaps most enlightening of all, his ruminations on the cruel and violent nature of the uncivilized jungle. Blank's picture isn't always the most focused and neglects to get multiple perspectives (Herzog himself would do much better with My Best Fiend) but this is predominantly about the German auteur's strident mythmaking and off-kilter creative process.
