For Some Reason,

I awoke with a Caruso tune in my head,

one of the songs in Fitzcarraldo a favourite film of mine, where a ship is transported by the producer and the hero of the film over a mountain, although the name Brian Sweeney Fitzgerald is used, or Fitzcarraldo as he was known in the film, (the locals could not pronounce the name), he was known in real life as Carlos Fermin Fitzcarrald, a rubber baron who lived in Iquitos, they both did indeed transport a ship over a mountain, the difference being in real life it was taken to pieces, in the film hauled up by ropes and pulleys and under it's own steam power from the front anchor winch,

the film had a back drop of war between Peru and Ecuador, oil wells, arguments and huge problems with both local and imported extras, well worth buying for the story behind the making of the film Burden of Dreams, which came with the DVD I purchased, for me a great film, so the film was a part real life adventure and part fiction, in real life a boat was taken apart moved over a mountain and reassembled on the other side, in the film a 340 ton boat was hauled without special effects up a 40 degree incline, the film maker Werner Herzog had more than a few problems in making the film, it took 3 years, two of the lead actors dropped out, Jason Robards in the title role, Mick Jagger of Rolling Stones as his assistant, so the film had to be re shot, Klaus Kinski stepped in as the lead role, there were plane crashes, 5,000 extras, a brutal attack by the Amahuaca tribe saw an arrow pierce a man’s throat (he survived) and his wife needing an urgent operation after being “hit in the stomach, necessitating eight hours of emergency surgery on a kitchen table, ‘I assisted by illuminating her abdominal cavity with a torchlight,’ recalled Herzog, ‘and with my other hand sprayed with repellent the clouds of mosquitoes that swarmed around the blood.’” the gruesome incidents piled up, at one point a logger took the drastic step of chainsawing his foot off to deal with a snake bite, with only a crew of 16 to film it, 6 of who were in the boat scene, 3 of which were injured as it goes down the rapids, worse still Klaus Kinski was known as a temperamental actor, he constantly argued with Herzog and he threatened to leave the film set before finishing, he was also a constant source of tension as he argued with the other members of the film crew and locals as well, alienating the local population, one of the local chiefs told Herzog he would kill him if Herzog so wished! this unique and difficult film, won Best Director at the Cannes Film Festival, it was a difficult film to film! 

above a trailer for the film, for critics like the great Roger Ebert, the making of Fitzcarraldo and the end product are part of the same convention-shattering entity, in what is perhaps the definitive word on the subject, he described the film as “one of the great visions of the cinema, and one of the great follies, one would not have been possible without the other, if you have the chance take a look, all of this from waking with a tune in my head!