:Fitzcarraldo is also the name of an album and a song by Irish rock band, The Frames.

Fitzcarraldo is a 1982 film written and directed by Werner Herzog starring Klaus Kinski as the title character, the entrepreneur and would-be rubber baron Brian Sweeney Fitzgerald (nickname: Fitzcarraldo).

The film is roughly based on the true story of Fitzgerald, who was a railroad owner living in the frontier city of Iquitos, Peru. A fan of the great tenor Enrico Caruso, Fitzgerald's dream was to bring the opera to Iquitos rather than having to travel down the Amazon to the Teatro Amazonas in Manaus, Brazil, another rubber-boom town. Fitzgerald, relying on the support of investors and the local madam, attempts to harvest rubber in an area of the jungle previously thought to be inaccessible.

Interestingly, although the male and female leads are played by European actors (Claudia Cardinale plays Fitzgerald's lover), the original soundtrack was recorded in English, as Cardinale spoke no German.

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Jason Robards was originally cast in the title role, but he became ill and was forced to leave. Herzog considered playing Fitzcarraldo himself, but Kinski reluctantly accepted the role. By now, forty percent of shooting was complete and Herzog insisted on a total reshoot with Kinski. Mick Jagger was originally cast as Fitzcarraldo's assistant, but his shooting schedule expired and he departed to tour with the Rolling Stones. Herzog dropped Jagger's character from the script and reshot the film from the beginning.

The film was an incredible ordeal and famously involved moving a 340-ton steam ship over a mountain without special effects. Scenes were also shot on board the ship while it crashed through rapids, injuring three of the six people involved in the filming. Two full-size ships were created for the making of the film.

Herzog was criticized for taking advantage of the hundreds of local people in the jungles near Iquitos (who also appear in the film), a claim that Herzog vigorously denies.

Klaus Kinski was also a major source of tension as he fought with Herzog and other members of the crew and greatly upset the native extras. In his documentary My Best Fiend, Herzog says that one of the native chiefs offered to murder Kinski for him, but that he declined because he needed Kinksi to complete filming.

Werner Herzog, after completing one of the most difficult films ever to be made, won Best Director at the Cannes Film Festival. The documentary Burden of Dreams is about the making of the film. Herzog also discusses the making of the film in a section of his own documentary, My Best Fiend.

Filming locations include

* Iquitos, Peru

Related artworks

"Filming the Making of the Film of the Making of Fitzcarraldo," a short story by Garry Kilworth, speculates about a camera crew following the camera crew of Burden of Dreams as they make a film about the making of "Fitzcarraldo." It was published in 1989 in Omni, and has been republished in "In the Hollow of the Deep-Sea Wave," a collection of the author's fiction.

Trivia

* Was referred to in Simpsons episode "On a Clear Day I Can't See My Sister". The schoolchildren are forced to tow their bus up an icy road, and Üter exclaims "I feel like I'm in Fitzcarraldo." Nelson replies "That movie was flawed!", punching Üter in the stomach.

External links

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Category:1982 films
Category:German films
Category:Films directed by Werner Herzog