Thursday, February 09, 2012
The production designer of Fitzcarraldo about his time on set in the mysterious jungle
In a conversation with James Sholto Douglas, lecturer in film at the British Institute, production designer Ulrich Bergfelder talked about what was going on behind the scenes of the renowned movie Fitzcarraldo.
- The despair was permanent, but so was the hope, he said.
Production designer Ulrich Bergfelder has worked with the director Werner Herzog on several films, frequently involving exotic locations and enormous logistic difficulties. Fitzcarraldo (1982) tells the story not only of one man's obsession to bring opera to the Amazonian jungle but also of the director's parallel obsession to bring his vision to the screen.
The conversation, held in the Harold Acton Library, started with Ulrich Bergfelder describing the movie set - the deep Amazonian jungle. He remembers excursions with the film team, leaving the town of Iquitos for adventures in the jungle. "We took the road going somewhere, but we ended up in nowhere. It was muddy, dark, quiet.." He described a world that went from pitch dark to bright sunlight in a second. "It is a very mysterious place".
James Sholto Douglas showed a behind-the-scenes video clip with director Werner Herzog talking about the jungle. "We are challenging nature itself, and it hits back. We have to accept that it's much stronger than us. Kinski says that it is full of erotica, but I see it more as it is full of obscenity. I see fornication, asphyxiation, choking and fighting for survival, growing and just rotting away. The trees here are in misery, the birds are in misery. I don't think they sing, I just think they screech in pain. There is some sort of a harmony, the harmony of overwhelming and collective murder. We have to become humble in front of this overwhelming misery. Even the stars here look like a mess". Despite Herzog's somewhat dark take on the jungle, he also expresses his admiration, for at the end of the clip: "I love it against my better judgment".
The diva of the movie was without doubt the star Klaus Kinski, famous for his ferocious talent and equally ferocious temper. "Other actors step out of their role off set, but Kinski was always Kinksi", said Bergfelder. He further explained that no one wanted to be around Kinski and that he never felt at ease around him. The journal of Herzog documents several of Kinski's outbursts over trivial matters- for example when he "started shouting like a mad man only because his coffee was lukewarm". However, the ones getting scared of Kinski were the Indians. "They were not used to the yelling, they don't shout - it's not their way of solving problems", said Bergfelder.
In one scene of Fitzcarraldo, Klaus Kinski drinks masato, a local drink made from yucca and saliva. Ulrich Bergfelder said that in the Hollywood films the actors would drink something that looks like actual liquid. "But in a Herzog film, you really drink masato."
Moving the conversation forward, the theme fell upon the original actors of the movie. In the original edition, Mick Jagger and Jason Robards were the stars. Almost half the movie was already shot when Jason Robards had to drop out due to illness. Mick Jagger was also unable to continue, since he had an upcoming concert tour and a new album to launch. To lose Mick Jagger, Herzog described, was "the biggest loss of my career".
The conversation ended with a video greeting from Herzog himself, specially recorded for the event. He mentioned how the misery of the jungle shocked him to the core, and then he gave the visitors his best wishes.
After the conversation, the visitors were served an aperitivo before the screening of the movie (shown in the director's preferred German-dubbed version) in the Harold Acton library.