De Niro may have coined the term "method acting". But his achievement seem to be dwarfed in light of Werner Herzog's endeavour - or torture - when doing Fitzcarraldo, the story of a Western rubber Baron in 19th century Peru, who's childlike dream is to produce an entire Opera in the Amazonian jungle.
This vision includes a 50 ton steamboat that has to be lifted over a mountain in order to access a far-flung arm of the river - and here comes Herzog's heroic accomplishment: all the props are real, so is the (at times) life-threatening river as well as the indians, and they lift that monster of a ship over that mountain for real - think method shooting! No studio, no stuntmen, no frills. Instead, real danger, tropical weather, malaria mosquitos - and above all - the world-famous tantrums of notorious Klaus Kinski, who threatened to kill Herzog in another iconoclatic movie: Aguirre - Wrath of God. Before embarking on the 5 movie lasting partnership with Herzog (Grizzly) Kinski role modeled as THE German Villain in noir movies of the sixties.
Granted, the story is simple, but you should see this movie - in my opinion one of the top 10 most important movies ever - for the sheer fascination of Kinskis outburst which are surely for real and often didn't stop after the cut, and of course you have to see it to believe it: everything is really real, no fake, it all really happened that way, back in that year in the 70s.
Film History!
On 10, 16, 22 and 30 June at the ICA
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