Director Werner Herzog is one of the most versatile film
makers working in the industry today and he is also one of the most
infamous. His onset escapades with both
actors and crew members are legendary and most infamous on the set of his film Fitzcarraldo which went through complete
cast changes, controversy with the locals, and natural disasters that prolonged
the film’s production. So much drama
went into the making of the film that he released his onset diary as a novel
called Conquest of the Useless: A Reflection
from the Making of Fitzcarraldo.
Herzog’s odyssey with
Fitzcarraldo begins in 1979 and will not come to an end until 1984 so the
book covers a huge span of time in which things on a film set can go
wrong. The book is meticulous with details
in regards to the process and needs of the filmmaking but Herzog doesn’t dwell
on those details. He is more concerned
with the minutiae of living in an exotic place filled with an exotic people and
culture and trying to bring all this together to complete his massively
ambitious film.
Herzog’s reflections are very much like a catalogue of what
happens each day on set whether it is important or not and most of the time
it’s just his simple observation of things that never seem to change on a day
to day basis over the many years of production.
With all of the problems and obstacles put in the way of the production
you’d think he would’ve given up on the film.
There were major cast changes, sets were destroyed and lost in the
swamp, crew members quit on a daily basis not to mention the locals and their
many cultural differences. The amazing
thing is that Herzog never gives up (although there were several times where he
thought about it) but instead uses each obstacle as a means to push forward in
order to complete the film. It’s an
amazing look at how life can imitate art since the major obstacle in the film
is a man who tries to move a ship up a mountain (no easy feat since Herzog and
crew were doing this practically whereas in today’s world it would just be a
CGI effect).
This is like a written behind the scenes documentary which
Herzog is very familiar with since he has produced a plethora of
documentaries. If you are a fan of
Herzog’s work and want to know how the man truly thinks while making a film
then this is a book right up your alley.
It’s also a great means to get into Herzog’s mind during his early years
as a film maker.
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