Fitzcarraldo is a dreamer who plans to build an opera house in Iquitos, in the Peruvian Amazon, so, in order to finance his project, he embarks on an epic adventure to collect rubber, a very profitable product, in a remote and unexplored region of the rainforest.
Credits: TheMovieDb.
Film Cast:
- Fitzcarraldo: Klaus Kinski
- Molly: Claudia Cardinale
- Don Aquilino: José Lewgoy
- Cholo: Miguel Ángel Fuentes
- Orinoco Paul: Paul Hittscher
- Huerequeque: Huerequeque Enrique Bohórquez
- Station Master: Grande Otelo
- Opera Manager: Peter Berling
- Campa Chief: David Pérez Espinosa
- Opera House Blackman: Milton Nascimento
- Rubber Baron: Ruy Polanah
- Old Missionary: Salvador Godínez
- Young Missionary: Dieter Milz
- Notary: William L. Rose
- …: Leoncio Bueno
- Opera ‘Ernani’ – Ernani (voice): Veriano Luchetti
- Opera ‘Ernani’ – Ernani: Costante Moret
- Opera ‘Ernani’ – Silva: Dimiter Petkov
- Opera ‘Ernani’ – Elvira (voice): Mietta Sighele
- Opera ‘Ernani’ – Orchestra Pit Singer: Lourdes Magalhães
- Opera ‘Ernani’ – Sarah Bernhardt: Jean-Claude Dreyfus
- Opera ‘I puritani’ – Doña Elvira: Isabel Jiménez de Cisneros
- Opera ‘I puritani’ – Arturo: Liborio Simonella
- Opera ‘I puritani’ – Giorgio: Jesus Goiri
- Opera ‘I puritani’ – Walton: Christian Mantilla
Film Crew:
- Producer: Werner Herzog
- Production Manager: George Sluizer
- Original Music Composer: Popol Vuh
- Director of Photography: Thomas Mauch
- Editor: Beate Mainka-Jellinghaus
- Makeup Designer: Stefano Fava
- Executive Producer: Walter Saxer
- Costume Designer: Gisela Storch
- Producer: Lucki Stipetić
- Thanks: Les Blank
- Associate Producer: Renzo Rossellini
- Assistant Director: Jorge Vignati
- Production Design: Ulrich Bergfelder
- Special Effects: Miguel Vázquez
- Assistant Camera: Beat Presser
- Sound: Zezé d’Alice
- Makeup Designer: Gloria Fava
- Production Design: Henning von Gierke
- Sound: Juarez Dagoberto Costa
- Gaffer: Raimund Wirner
- Gaffer: Hans-Peter Vogt
- Production Assistant: Gustavo Cerff Arbulú
- Production Secretary: Nancy Ríos
- Production Secretary: Claire André
- Thanks: José Koechlin von Stein
Movie Reviews:
- Wuchak: _**Apocalypse Now in the Amazon headwaters**_
Called Fitzcarraldo by the Indians, an Irishman (Klaus Kinski) living in Iquitos, Peru, dreams of bringing Grand Opera to the jungle city in the Amazon Basin. It’s the early 1900s and there’s a rubber boom. To fund his dream he decides to exploit a considerable area of rubber trees growing beyond the impassable Ucayali Falls. To get to this remote area he incredibly has his steamboat lifted over a hill from another branch of the Amazon with the assistance of notorious headhunters. Claudia Cardinale plays his girlfriend, a successful brothel owner.
Werner Herzog’s “Fitzcarraldo” (1982) is superior to his “Aguirre, the Wrath of God” (1972), which was shot in the same general area, the Amazon basin east of the Andes Mountains. It’s longer by just over an hour, but it has a more compelling story. “Aguirre” influenced Coppola’s “Apocalypse Now” (1979) but “Apocalypse Now” likely influenced “Fitzcarraldo.” The difference is that “Apocalypse Now” took advantage of its infamous setting, the Vietnam War, whereas few people know of the rubber boom of the early 20th century in the Iquitos area.
There’s also less thrills in “Fitzcarraldo.” It’s more impenetrable and all-around curious, a cinematic oddity. Yet it has its highlights, including the core cast, e.g. the burly captain, the impressively hulking indigenous engineer and the drunkard cook. What’s it all about? The beauty of art, great dreams, indomitable will, mysterious cultures, devastating failure and… winning anyway.
The film runs 2 hours, 37 minutes, and was shot in the Iquitos area, Peru, and Amazonas, Brazil, including a couple Tribal Regions.
GRADE: B+/A-