This blog entry is part of my “movie year countdown round #2”. Read more about that here.
Burden of Dreams
For a moment I was almost thinking about rating this movie lower than what I actually did: a 9 out of 10. Maybe that was because the movie didn't exactly exceed my expectations, but it certainly was what I expected. And since I had seen Fizcarraldo and have listened to Werner Herzog speak about many different things I had been expecting a lot.
I have said that I could listen to Herzog talk about almost anything. He is by far my favorite director to listen to his commentary tracks on DVDs of his movies. In fact I wish every DVD had a commentary track by Herzog, even if he had nothing to do with the film. It's partially his strange yet soothing accent, but mostly his amazing outlook on life and art. Even if I don't find all of his films the greatest, I am always fascinated by whatever he is doing and have so much respect for what he tries to do. And in this movie you certainly get a lot of him talking and his viewpoint on art and film. I'm sure if I'd never heard him speak before seeing this, I would have been even more blown away!
I also think I was expecting some more tantrums from Kinski. I had seen a clip of him raving on the set of Fitzcarraldo before seeing this film, and I thought it would be in here. In fact it wasn't, but it was shot by Les Blank this film's director. I guess Herzog used it later in My Best Fiend. Maybe that's the movie I should be looking to for my Kinski tantrums.
The criterion DVD for his movie also features the interesting short Werner Herzog Eats His Shoe. Just in case you can't get quite enough of the man.
Rating 9/10