Two months since my last posting? Time flies when you're having fun. It's been busy here at the House of Constantly Filling DVR Que. I went to Ireland for a week, I've been working as much as possible, and in a few short hours my wife and I will be driving to Chicago to catch one of The Jesus Lizard's last reunion shows. So exciting things have been afoot.
And now on to some capsule reviews.
Burden of Dreams
I'll admit right now that I've not seen Werner Herzog's film Fitzcarraldo and I'm sure this documentary would be more enlightening if I had. But I get the gist of it from this documentary and can only wonder what it would have been like if Jason Robards and Mick Jagger were the leads. But Robards got dysentery and Mick had to go on tour with The Stones so enter Klaus Kinski.
And we don't see Klaus in this doc too often. I was expecting him to be in full on freak mode but the strangest thing he does is be grossed out by the offer of the natives' liquor which they ferment with their own spit. Fair play to him.
The real story is in how it took two years for Herzog to get the film in the can and the incredibly frustrating things he had to do to get it there. He's either an insatiable masochist, a genius, or both. IFilming was stopped several times by either weather (rainy seasons that last for months) or man (warring tribes, illness).
The centerpiece is in the struggle to film a steam ship crossing from one river to another by dragging it over a hill by a system of ropes and pulleys. Herzog is obsessed with them filming it using no special effects. It's all done by man-power and by the end of it, he's so drained from the experience that he wonders if it was even worth it.
That's very German of him.
A real life Sisyphean tale of ambition and futility and a gripping film. Now I definitely need to see Fitzcarraldo.
No Subtitles Neccessary: Laszlo & Vilmos
An incredible documentary about the personal bond between cinematographers Laszlo Kovacs and Vilmos Zsigmond. I'm a fan of both and this documentary made me realize how little I knew about them.
As photography students in Budapest they filmed anti-Communist rebels fighting in the Hungarian Revolution of 1956. In order to get their film developed they had to flee to Austria and then to the US. Here they worked any odd jobs until they made it to Hollywood, working on any z-grade films they could. We're talking Arch Hall Jr. stuff here. Soon Kovacs has his break through shooting Easy Rider. Zsigmond follows suit with McCabe & Mrs. Miller.
And from there they work on many of the "American New Wave" films of the 70's and become two of the most respected cinematographers of the modern age.
What's really touching is how a few years after they escaped from Hungary, Laszlo goes back to Hungary to find his girlfriend, only to learn that she has already escaped to Austria. So he finds Vilmos's girlfriend and and helps her escape to America.
We get plenty of anecdotes from Laszlo and Vilmos themselves as well as Dennis Hopper, Bob Rafelson, Richard Donner, Peter Bogdanovich, and even Karen Black(!). A great documentary for anyone interested in the 70's American New Wave era.
What else...well, I thought maybe it'd be explained here and maybe someone can tell me how Jean Luc Godard happened to use the name "Laszlo Kovacs" as an alias for Michel Poiccard in Breathless and why it pops up again I think in Weekend. I thought it was because of the revolution footage that Laszlo and Vilmos smuggled out of Hungary in 1956 but a quick search tells me that no one saw that until Walter Cronkite aired it in 1961, two years after Breathless was made.
Oh yes, and Bob Rafelson looks like a real life John Marley/Jack Woltz these days.
And now on to some capsule reviews.
Burden of Dreams
I'll admit right now that I've not seen Werner Herzog's film Fitzcarraldo and I'm sure this documentary would be more enlightening if I had. But I get the gist of it from this documentary and can only wonder what it would have been like if Jason Robards and Mick Jagger were the leads. But Robards got dysentery and Mick had to go on tour with The Stones so enter Klaus Kinski.
And we don't see Klaus in this doc too often. I was expecting him to be in full on freak mode but the strangest thing he does is be grossed out by the offer of the natives' liquor which they ferment with their own spit. Fair play to him.
The real story is in how it took two years for Herzog to get the film in the can and the incredibly frustrating things he had to do to get it there. He's either an insatiable masochist, a genius, or both. IFilming was stopped several times by either weather (rainy seasons that last for months) or man (warring tribes, illness).
The centerpiece is in the struggle to film a steam ship crossing from one river to another by dragging it over a hill by a system of ropes and pulleys. Herzog is obsessed with them filming it using no special effects. It's all done by man-power and by the end of it, he's so drained from the experience that he wonders if it was even worth it.
That's very German of him.
A real life Sisyphean tale of ambition and futility and a gripping film. Now I definitely need to see Fitzcarraldo.
No Subtitles Neccessary: Laszlo & Vilmos
An incredible documentary about the personal bond between cinematographers Laszlo Kovacs and Vilmos Zsigmond. I'm a fan of both and this documentary made me realize how little I knew about them.
As photography students in Budapest they filmed anti-Communist rebels fighting in the Hungarian Revolution of 1956. In order to get their film developed they had to flee to Austria and then to the US. Here they worked any odd jobs until they made it to Hollywood, working on any z-grade films they could. We're talking Arch Hall Jr. stuff here. Soon Kovacs has his break through shooting Easy Rider. Zsigmond follows suit with McCabe & Mrs. Miller.
And from there they work on many of the "American New Wave" films of the 70's and become two of the most respected cinematographers of the modern age.
What's really touching is how a few years after they escaped from Hungary, Laszlo goes back to Hungary to find his girlfriend, only to learn that she has already escaped to Austria. So he finds Vilmos's girlfriend and and helps her escape to America.
We get plenty of anecdotes from Laszlo and Vilmos themselves as well as Dennis Hopper, Bob Rafelson, Richard Donner, Peter Bogdanovich, and even Karen Black(!). A great documentary for anyone interested in the 70's American New Wave era.
What else...well, I thought maybe it'd be explained here and maybe someone can tell me how Jean Luc Godard happened to use the name "Laszlo Kovacs" as an alias for Michel Poiccard in Breathless and why it pops up again I think in Weekend. I thought it was because of the revolution footage that Laszlo and Vilmos smuggled out of Hungary in 1956 but a quick search tells me that no one saw that until Walter Cronkite aired it in 1961, two years after Breathless was made.
Oh yes, and Bob Rafelson looks like a real life John Marley/Jack Woltz these days.
