Werner Herzog, 1982.In my opinion this is Werner Herzog’s best film. Fitzcarraldo is about an eccentric, ego driven, European entrepreneur who is consumed with building a grand baroque opera house in the middle of the Amazon Jungle. The film chronicles his journey up the Amazon River looking for an ideal place to start building his opera house. The off camera drama between Klaus Kinski and Werner Herzog give the movie another interesting dimension. It is rumored that at one point in the film, Herzog was directing Kinski at gun point, threatening to kill him if he did not finish the scene. This story is a classic, and although Herzog denies threatening to kill him, he does admit to pointing a loaded rifle at Kinski. For more information about the drama between Herzog and Kinski see My Best Fiend (6.9/10). I was so impressed with Kinski’s performances in Fitzcarraldo and Aguirre: Wrath of God (7.5/10) that I decided to see his self proclaimed masterpiece Paganini (5.0/10). Initially Herzog was supposed to direct Paganini, but he said that it was too crazy and could not be done. So Kinski went ahead writing and directing the film him self. Paganini is about a troubled perverted classical violinist, loosely based on Kinski’s own life. The finished product is a film that is absolutely crazy, somewhat disgusting, and very poor overall.
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