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| Werner
Herzog, Klaus Kinski, Walter Saxer, Jason Robards, Mick
Jagger |
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Anamorphic
widescreen |
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Dolby Digital
5.1 |
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DTS |
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Trailer(s) |
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Featurette(s) |
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Documentary |
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Audio commentary
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Deleted scenes
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Concept art
/ storyboards |
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Multi-angle
feature |
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Werner Herzog: I shouldn't
make movies anymore. I should go to a lunatic asylum.
A documentary on the chaotic production
of Werner Herzog's film Fitzcarraldo.
 Independent
writers
and documentary filmmakers are rarely welcome guests on movie sets:
nobody involved with the mammoth undertaking that is any film production
wants a large audience to witness the chaos, the rampant egotism,
and the general madness that typify the film industry. Even as
the production of 'featurettes' for DVD has become an industry
itself, most material that general audiences get to see about the
industry consists of studio-orchestrated promotional featurettes:
self-congratulatory hagiographies in which the stars and director
let us know how wonderful it was to work together and what a terrific
time they had making this film. Only rarely are outsiders granted
a convincingly true look inside the insane world of film production.
Burden of Dreams is one such rare event, and all the more
extraordinary for being the chronicle of one of the most notoriously
troubled productions as well. German director Werner Herzog - a
unique filmmaker who continues to explore the fine line between
genius and utter madness - spent years trying to realize his metaphorical
vision of a steamship being pulled up an impossibly steep hill,
and in this mesmerizing documentary, we become witnesses to parts
of this mad quest. Like a few other films that chronicle troubled
film productions (Hearts of Darkness, The Hamster
Factor, Lost in La Mancha), the documentary is in
many ways more successful than the film it's about: Fitzcarraldo became
one of Herzog's most successful films, but its strong points shine
through in this documentary more clearly than they do in the finished
feature, while Les Blank broadens the scope of his film by including
generous attention for the indigenous tribes and the rich environment. |
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Available as a Region 1 DVD
release from the Criterion Collection.
The fullscreen image is
framed at its original aspect ratio of approx. 1.33:1. The
grainy nature of the source material proves problematic for
the DVD transfer of this fine film, resulting in frequent
minor compression artifacts in the backgrounds of shots,
and a general haziness to the frame.
The mono sound
mix is presented in Dolby Digital 1.0, and offers an adequate
and intelligible representation of the dialogues.
 Although
the film would seem to be 'merely' a kind of making-of documentary
about another, better-known film, one would expect this feature
to be included on a Special Edition DVD release of Fitzcarraldo itself
rather than being given its own release by The Criterion
Collection. But not only was it deemed worthy of standing
on its own legs, but the film has been graced with several
terrific supplements as well. Firstly, an excellent audio
commentary track features Les Blank, Maureen Gosling and
Werner Herzog, who was recorded separately from the other
two. Blank and Gosling provide detailed bits of information
on the minutiae of the production and their involvement,
while Herzog fills out the track with his perspective, which
he clearly feels was insufficiently presented in the finished
film. Even better is the half-hour interview with Herzog,
in which he discusses both Blank's film and his own, and
how both affected his personal and professional life. Especially
painful is his recollection of how a suggestive phrase of
his in the film helped create the malicious and untrue but
long-lived myth that Herzog had sacrificed other people's
lives for the production of his film.
The other extras on the disc consist of the short film Werner
Herzog Eats His Shoe, a humorous look at how Herzog
made good on his promise to actually eat his shoe if his
protégé Errol Morris would ever make a feature-length film,
also shot and edited by Les Blank. A nice selection of stills
from the jungle locations of Fitzcarraldo is also
on-board, as are two deleted scenes, which feature the two
extremes of Klaus Kinski's behavior, and which are provided
with commentary from Herzog. The trailer rounds out the extras
on the disc, but the handsome cardboard slipcase also includes
a printed version of Maureen Gosling's diary from during
the production, which is a treat to read.
Dan
Hassler-Forest
Reviewed:
July 27, 2005
Click
here for IMDB info on Burden
of Dreams .
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