|
Cinemateca April 7–13, 2008
José Luis Pick’n’tip
The Picks:
Herzog Offbeat Film Festival
He was born Werner Stipetic in Munich. He adopted his father’s name Herzog, which means “duke” in German, when his father returned from a prisoner of war camp after World War II. His family moved to a remote village in Austria after the house next to theirs was destroyed during the bombing at the close of World War II. When he was 12, he and his family moved back to Munich and shared an apartment with Klaus Kinski in Elisabethstraße in Munich-Schwabing. About this, Herzog recalled, “I knew at that moment that I would be a film director and that I would direct Kinski.”
That same year, Herzog was told to sing in front of his class at school and he adamantly refused. He was almost expelled and until the age of 18 listened to no music, sang no songs and studied no instruments. He later said that he would easily give 10 years of his life to be able to play an instrument. At 14 he was inspired by an encyclopedia entry about film-making which he says provided him with “everything I needed to get myself started” as a film-maker—that, and the 35 mm camera that the young Herzog stole from the Munich Film School. He studied at the University of Munich and despite earning a scholarship to Duquesne University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania he supposedly dropped out in a matter of days and made his way to Mexico where he worked in a rodeo. In the early sixties Herzog worked night shifts as a welder in a steel factory to help fund his first films. He has been married three times and has three children. In 1967, Herzog married Martje Grohmann, with whom he had a son in 1973, Rudolph Amos Ach
med. In 1980 his daughter Hanna Mattes was born to Eva Mattes. In 1987, Herzog married Christine Maria Ebenberger. Their son, Simon David Alexander Herzog, was born in 1989. In 1999 he married Lena Pisetski. They now live in Los Angeles.
The Tip: Important: In order to provide the best viewing experience, the show times for some movies may be adjusted to accommodate their length. Be sure to check the schedule carefully. I also want to remind you of our new ticket price: 50 pesos and discount cards buy 12 shows for 450 pesos. Starting Monday, after 11am, buy your tickets in advance for any movie or show of the week. If you have a discount card, collect your pass to secure a seat; don’t take the risk of being locked out…Nos vemos en el Cine… Would you like to receive this info by email? Write to José Luis at
alephamour@hotmail.com . Thank you.
The Movies
Herzog Offbeat Film Festival
Werner Herzog’s films have received considerable critical acclaim and achieved popularity on the art house circuit. They have also been the subject of controversy in regard to their themes and messages, especially the circumstances surrounding their creation. A notable example is Fitzcarraldo, in which the obsessiveness of the central character was mirrored by the director during the making of the film. His treatment of subjects has been characterized as Wagnerian in its scope, as Fitzcarraldo and his later film Invincible (2001) are directly inspired by opera, or operatic themes. He is proud of never using storyboards and often improvising large parts of the script, as he explains on the commentary track to Aguirre: The Wrath of God. Herzog directed five films starring Klaus Kinski: Aguirre: The Wrath of God, Nosferatu, Woyzeck, Fitzcarraldo and Cobra Verde. In 1999 he directed and narrated the documentary film My Best Fiend, a retrospective on his often rocky relationship with Kinski.
Little Dieter Needs to Fly (1998)
Monday, April 7 at noon
English, 74 minutes.
Cast: Dieter Dengler.
As a young boy, Dieter Dengler watched as Allied planes destroyed his village; from that instant, he knew he wanted to fly. At 18, he moved to America, enlisted in the Navy and was promptly shipped to Vietnam. During one of his first missions, however, Dengler was shot down over Laos and taken prisoner; although he escaped and returned home, the experience still haunts him. Werner Herzog directs this affecting documentary.
Burden of Dreams (1982)
Monday, April 7 at 3pm
English, 95 minutes.
Cast: Claudia Cardinale, Mick Jagger, Klaus Kinski.
This feature-length documentary from filmmaker Les Blank paints a riveting portrait of megalomaniacal German director Werner Herzog as he worked against almost insurmountable odds in the Amazon jungle to craft his epic movie Fitzcarraldo. Besides capturing the seemingly hexed production's myriad adversities, Blank's camera exposes Herzog as a man obsessed with his art and pressed to the brink of insanity to see his cinematic vision fulfilled.
Fitzcarraldo (1982)
Tuesday, April 8 at 2pm
German with English subtitles, 157 minutes.
Cast: Claudia Cardinale, Klaus Kinski.
In this intoxicating, one-of-a-kind film, obsessed opera lover Klaus Kinski dreams of building a concert hall in the middle of the Amazon jungle. To realize his vision, he must haul a huge riverboat up (and down) a mountainside with help from a local Indian tribe. Fitzcarraldo is another weird gem.
Land of Silence and Darkness (1971)
Tuesday, April 8 at 5:30pm
German with English subtitles, 88 minutes.
Cast: Heinrich Fleischmann, Fini Straubinger, Vladimir Kokol.
Werner Herzog lenses this documentary about 56-year-old Fini Straubinger, who was blind and deaf since her late teens and confined to her bed by her mother for three decades before fighting to overcome her isolation. Included are some harrowing scenes of people who encounter a daily struggle against the confines nature has imposed on them, making the film a wonderful testament to the triumphant nature of the human spirit.
The White Diamond (2004)
Wednesday, April 9 at 3pm
English, 90 minutes.
Cast: Dr. Graham Dorrington.
In this penetrating documentary about the nature of obsession, Dr. Graham Dorrington, a visionary scientist and aeronautics expert, has designed a helium-filled airship for the purpose of exploring the Guyanese rainforest canopy. But Dorrington’s motivations are not entirely scientific. A friend’s death—which occurred years earlier during a similar experiment—still haunts him, driving him to atonement.
Grizzly Man (2005)
Wednesday, April 9 at 5:30pm
English with Spanish subtitles, 100 minutes.
Cast: Timothy Treadwell, Amie Huguenard.
Renowned nonfiction director Werner Herzog chronicles the tragic and untimely death of outdoorsman Timothy Treadwell, who devoted his life to studying grizzly bears living in the Alaskan wilderness—only to have one of them maul him to death. Pieced together mainly from Treadwell’s own video footage, this fascinating documentary goes deep into the wilderness of one man’s mind to uncover how he spent his final days.
Gesualdo: Death for Five Voices (1995)
Thursday, April 10 at 3pm
English, 60 minutes.
One of the masters of the New German Cinema, Werner Herzog is known for his love of Wagnerian dramatics and epic struggles. His television documentary tells the story of the Italian composer Carlo Gesualdo, who lived during the Renaissance and is considered by many to foreshadow the work of Herzog’s beloved Wagner.
Wheel of Time (2003)
Friday, April 11 at 3pm
English, 81 minutes.
Cast: Dalai Lama.
Werner Herzog captures the faith of thousands on an annual pilgrimage to Bhod Gaya, the Indian village in which Buddha is thought to have attained enlightenment. Structuring his documentary around the Kalachakra initiation—a fascinating 12-day ordainment process for Buddhist monks involving the creation of a large “wheel of time” out of sand—Herzog traces the foundation of a lifelong spiritual journey.
Aguirre: The Wrath of God (1972)
Friday, April 11 at 5pm
German with English subtitles, 94 minutes.
Cast: Klaus Kinski, Peter Berling, Helena Rojo, Cecilia Rivera.
After annihilating the Incan empire in the mid-sixteenth century, Gonzalo Pizarro leads his army of conquistadors over the Andes in search of the fabled City of Gold, El Dorado. As Pizarro’s soldiers battle starvation, Indians, the forces of nature and each other, Don Lope de Aguirre (Klaus Kinski), “The Wrath of God,” is consumed with visions of conquering all South America and leads his own army on a doomed quest into oblivion.
Short Film Festival Award Winner
Lost and Found in Mexico
Monday, April 7 at 5:30pm
Documentary, English, 53 minutes
Writer/director/producer: Caren Cross.
All proceeds will benefit the Mexican kid’s scholarships.
Lost and Found in Mexico explores the question: What lies on the other side of the American dream? This quirky documentary explores the lives of Americans who chose to leave their hard-working, successful and fast-paced lives to live in San Miguel de Allende, where leisurely conversations take place in the main square, burros walk the streets and people find their hearts engaged in living once again. While many Mexicans are leaving families behind and risking their lives to cross the border to a better life, this film focuses on the Americans who have decided to cross in the other direction—for a simpler life. Questions and Answers with the filmmaker following the show.
Alice Neel
Thursday, April 10 at 5pm
Director: Andrew Neel
Art documentary, English, 81 minutes.
Alice Neel was one of the great portrait painters of the twentieth century. She reinvented the genre of portraiture by expressing the inner landscape of her varied sitters, among them Andy Warhol, Annie Sprinkle, Bella Abzug and Allen Ginsberg. Painting a diverse cross-section of humanity, from Communist Party leaders to art world personalities to her neighbors in Spanish Harlem, Neel created a body of work that serves as a social document of New York and America in the twentieth century. The film, directed by her grandson, tells the story of Neel’s life, exploring the struggles she faced as a woman artist, a single mother and a painter who defied convention.
Kids Movies: Cartoons
Saturday, April 12 at noon
Musical Saturdays:
Tales of Hoffman
Saturday, April 5 at 2:30 pm
In a tavern in Nuremberg, the young Hoffmann (Robert Rounseville) tells three stories of past loves. He recounts the stories during the interval of a ballet, which stars his new love Stella. Ballet dancers Léonide Massine and Robert Helpmann have roles in each story. This is not just a film of a staged opera, but a truly filmic opera that makes use of cinematic techniques not available to a staged opera. The production team included cinematographer Christopher Challis, Sir Thomas Beecham as musical director and Hein Heckroth as production and costume designer. Heckroth was nominated for two 1952 Academy Awards. Tales of Hoffmann is widely regarded by many Powell-Pressburger fans as their last great film together.
|