A Big Ape, Horses, Cowboys, Crooks and Mad Germans
Fitzcarraldo
Life imitates art; director Herzog’s crazy idea for a film about a man with a crazy idea to move a ship over a mountain. This is probably his most enjoyable film, no doubt due to the similarities between the Fitzcarraldo character and Werner himself; in essence Kinski is playing Herzog.
Fitzcarraldo is a huge opera lover and will do anything to raise the money to bring music to the jungles of Peru. He comes up with an incredible scheme to avoid the rapids of the Amazon River by hauling a huge river boat over a mountain in order to make a fortune from the areas rubber trees.
It’s an insane idea and one they followed through in real life, they actually pulled the boat over the mountain. If that idea alone isn’t enough to show how determined (or mad?) Herzog was to make the film the fact it took three years to make should give you some idea.
Kinski seems to enjoy playing Fitzcarraldo, possibly because he knows he’s really playing his great friend/enemy Herzog. In any case it’s one of his best performances and one of his happiest as well
Cobra Verde
The Kinski/Herzog teams final pairing is very disappointing. Kinski plays the titular bandit who goes to Africa as a slave trader only to find the slave trade outlawed before he can return home to claim his rewards.
