When it comes to a Werner Herzog movie, stories surrounding its production can be just as interesting as the film itself. Case in point is the newly restored Aguirre: The Wrath of God (1972) which makes a return to cinemas from 7th June as part of the BFI’s season dedicated to the Bavarian film-maker. Using just one single [and stolen] camera, Herzog filmed on location in the Peruvian rainforest to tell the fictionalised story of Conquistador Don Lope de Aguirre (Klaus Kinski).
Aguirre is the second in command of a small party assigned to scout ahead in their quest for the, unbeknownst to them, make-believe city of immense riches, El Dorado. The group contains leader Don Pedro de Ursua (Ruy Guerra), his mistress Inez (Helena Rojo), Brother de Carvajal (Del Negro) and Aguirre’s 15 year old daughter Flores (Cecilia Rivera) along with Don Fernando de Guzman (Peter Berling), there to represent the Spanish crown. The principle characters float down the Amazon on makeshift rafts dreaming of self-rule and wealth beyond wealth. Slowly the band of arrogant would-be-conquerors descends into hunger and mutiny.
There is an astounding audacity of ambition demonstrated by Herzog with his opening scene of hundreds of extras snaking down a misty mountainside path, down into the infernal tropical heat of the jungle. Herzog’s filming style creates a documentary-style intimacy, with Kinski as the volatile solider manifesting an unsettling believability in his conviction towards his character’s mad visions. The fragility of the two female characters in their mid-16th Century European dress markedly plays out amongst the sweat and rusting iron costuming of the men.
Though at times, Aguirre: The Wrath of God slips into Monty Python levels of absurdist humour – it is a classic of the cinema for its vision through adversity of location, leading actor, budget and sheer directorial temerity.
Mairéad has awarded Herzog’s Aguirre: The Wrath of God five Torches of Truth
{ 0 comments… add one now }