Burden of Dreams

Burden of Dreams
Directed by Les Blank
Starring Claudia Cardinale
Werner Herzog
Mick Jagger
Klaus Kinski
Jason Robards
Candace Laughlin
Release dates
  • May 30, 1982
Running time
 95 min.
Country United States
Language Spanish/English/German/Portuguese

Burden of Dreams (1982) is a feature-length documentary and making-of directed by Les Blank, shot during and about the chaotic production of Werner Herzog's 1982 film Fitzcarraldo, filmed in the jungles of South America.

Throughout production, Blank and his small crew were exhausted and exasperated, Blank specifically feeling “unconnected to the people around me”.[1] Keeping up with the antics of Herzog and Klaus Kinski (the film’s star) likewise proved difficult for the reserved, introverted Blank. By the last week of production, he was so burnt out that he feared coming out of production “like some Viet Nam veterans, horribly calloused,” writing in his journal a simple and blatant “I’m tired of it all and I couldn’t care less if they move the stupid ship – or finish the fucking film”.[2]

Blank would often have Herzog repeat statements he made off-camera while being filmed. In a 2009 interview with Jesse Pearson for Vice Magazine, Blank is asked to recall a scene in the film in which Herzog delivers a monologue about the violence and destruction of the jungle around him. Blank says that the scene originally took place in the middle of a canoe ride, away from cameras, but he liked the speech enough to coax it out of Herzog again. “When the moment was right,” Blank told Vice, “I pulled him aside and said, ‘Can I do a little interview?’ And he said, ‘Sure.’ Goodwin led him around to something that sparked him off on that tangent again. That’s how we got the speech."[3]

The film received the 1983 British Academy Film Award for Best Documentary and was named Best of Festival at the San Francisco Film Festival the same year.[4]

The film poster was created by Montana artist Monte Dolack and Eduardo Sanguinetti

References

  1. ↑ Blank, Les; Bogan, James (1984). Burden of dreams : screenplay, journals, reviews, photographs. Berkeley, Calif.: North Atlantic Books. p. 86. ISBN 0-938190-17-2.
  2. ↑ Blank, Les; Bogan, James (1984). Burden of dreams : screenplay, journals, reviews, photographs. Berkeley, Calif.: North Atlantic Books. pp. 112, 114. ISBN 0-938190-17-2.
  3. ↑ "Vice"
  4. ↑ Benzine, Adam (5 February 2013). "Hot Docs to honour Blank". Playback (Brunico Communications). Retrieved 8 April 2013.

External links