FITZCARRALDO

The thoroughly absorbing Werner Herzog jungle epic Fitzcarraldo is playing at the IFC Center, perhaps only through Thursday.

Showing in a good-looking albeit uneven new 35mm print featuring some gorgeous cinematography, Fitzcarraldo follows the exploits of the titular opera fanatic (well-played by the otherwordly Klaus Kinski after Jason Robards became unavailable) as he desperately strives to bring an opera house to an outpost on the Amazon about a century ago. Like Herzog's Rescue Dawn, this is a movie about a fanatically obsessive modern man plunged into a raw environment, but whereas the protagonist of Rescue Dawn can find a path to freedom in the workings of a tiny lock, Kinski's Fitzcarraldo is macrocosmic, barely able to see trees for the forest. And forget about him considering topography when using a map. He is the type of opera fan who would surely have little or no patience for anything on the puny scale of chamber music—unless, perhaps, it involved a great such his idol Caruso. Fitzcarraldo's adventure involves some fascinating engineering work that arguably lends a new meaning to the cinematic term "tracking shot." See it.



Source (3:08)