#Peter Berling

[adamwatchesmovies]

Aguirre, the Wrath of God (1972)

Aguirre, the Wrath of God is a unique experience. It puts you in the same state as its characters through its deliberately paced, minimalist story. They don’t know where the journey will end. Neither do you. It feels like someone is reading you the old, dusty pages of a journal that’s been dug up after decades of being forgotten. The “unimportant” moments - the kind you wouldn't mention in daily logs - are missing, which makes what’s not shown as important as what is. I wouldn’t want every film to be like Aguirre, but I’m glad this one is.

In 1560, Spanish conquistadors are convinced El Dorado, the legendary city of gold, is hidden deep in the Amazon jungle. With the search going nowhere and supplies running low, Gonzalo Pizarro (Alejandro Repullés) orders Pedro de Ursúa (Ruy Guerra) and a group of forty men (with their indigenous slaves) to build rafts and travel downriver to look for provisions. If they do not return within a week, their expedition will be considered lost.

The opening shot is a stunner. Simultaneously, we see the immeasurable power and folly of the conquistadors. The line of soldiers, noblemen and slaves traveling down the side of the Andes mountains is endless. When the camera zooms in to focus on the individual people, the spaniards look like ill-equipped martians clumsily making their way down the narrow path. In their metal armor (to defend against what?) with their halberds (to attack who?), following slaves who push cannons, wheel carts, and lavish litters carrying women dressed in fancy gowns, the expedition's imminent failure is obvious. Even if El Dorado did exist, how could they find it with this equipment slowing them down? Their quest is made even more foolish-looking by the camerawork. At first glance, the voyage looks epic. Then, reality sets in. Everything is short in a natural, unglamorous way. You "know" how this journey will end even before Don Pedro de Ursúa, his second-in-command Don Lope de Aguirre (Klaus Kinski) and Brother Gaspar de Carvajal (Del Negro) even step foot on their doomed raft.

Aguirre feels much longer than its 94-minute running time because once the journey to unknown places begins, that’s all the movie is. There are no character arcs. In fact, by the end, you barely know any of the characters. Each scene is like the highlights of a long, boring, doomed journey… that includes the sanity of the people in charge slipping away, daily attacks from unknown assailants, starvation, suspected murder, and death at every turn. It feels like journal entries brought to life in that Brother Gaspar wouldn’t have written about the life stories of the conquistadors who disappear in the middle of the jungle, or suddenly fall in the water because there’s an arrow sticking through their neck. All he does is tell us “Today, another man died. His last words were ….” The details aren’t important. What’s important is the way the movie makes you feel. Aboard the raft is a slave who knows how to play music. The only problem is that he only knows a single song, which he plays over, and over, and over. A jaunty tune becomes the sound of your sanity draining away. You see the crew making one bad decision after another, practically begging their journey to end in disaster. It can’t be that they don’t know what they’re doing. You get the impression that the jungle is compelling them to make the worst move possible. With the hallucinations that come in during the final scenes, the sudden bursts of violence that make you wonder if you just saw and heard what you did and the moments that couldn’t possibly have been scripted (they had to just happen while they were shooting), Aguirre feels so eerily real you feel like you're there. Like the men, you have no faith in any sort of satisfying ending but you keep moving forward.

Aguirre, the Wrath of God is a film for people who want something different. The plot is deliberately boring at times. Anywhere else, that would be a major flaw. Here, it enhances the experience. I know that doesn’t make any sense but that’s the thing. This movie doesn’t make any sense. It baffles you completely, which means it's unforgettable. (English dub, November 5, 2021)

[coeurdeverre82]

[superretroworld]

Fitzcarraldo (FITZCARRALDO, 1982)

Um colonialista amante de música e irracional deseja levar cultura aos selvagens com a instalação de uma casa de ópera num matagal fazendo uso de trabalho escravo e sem incentivos da Lei Rouanet!

[erstwhile-punk-guerito]

[ultraozzie3000]

Some Pitiful Melodies

Sigmund Gottfried Spaeth (1885–1965) sought to popularize classical music and improve the musical tastes of the masses by meeting the public wherever he could find them, from vaudeville halls to national radio broadcasts. September 1, 1934 cover by William Steig. Born in a line of three generations of Lutheran clergymen, Spaeth chose a different path and became a musicologist who sought to…

[oldshowbiz]

Buddy Lester is not always the strongest, but at least he isn’t Milton Berle or Henny Youngman.

[papermoonloveslucy]

LUCY & THE WRITERS!

The Wordsmiths of the Lucyverse

Whether Lucy was the writer, or one of the various characters in her universe, the creative output always made us laugh! Novelists, playwrights, screenwriters, journalists, composers, and columnists were all part of the Lucyverse.

"Liz Writes a Song” (1949)

Liz Cooper (Lucille Ball) is convinced that she is a musical talent, but when a music professor (Hans Conried) tells her she'll never be a singer, she decides to take up songwriting instead! 

LIZ: “Carrie Jacobs Cooper writes again!” 

Carrie Jacobs-Bond (1862-1946) was a songwriter who composed some 175 pieces of popular music from the 1890s through the early 1940s. She is perhaps best remembered for writing the parlor song "I Love You Truly", becoming the first woman to sell one million copies of a song.  

“Lucy Writes a Play” (1952)

Lucy writes a play set in Cuba for Ricky to star in, but he refuses the part. She changes her play from Cuba to England and has Fred take Ricky's spot. Once Ricky learns a famous producer will be in the audience, he decides to surprise Lucy and appear in the play, but he has the wrong script. 

Ricky sarcastically calls Lucy “Mrs. Shakespeare.”  Her first play is titled “A Tree Grows in Havana” and the revised version is titled “The Perils of Pamela”. 

“The Publicity Agent” (1952)

Peter Leeds plays the newspaper reporter who asks the Scheherazade, Maharincess of Franistan. 

LEEDS: “Would Her Highness answer a few questions for the press?” LUCY: “Yes.”  LEEDS: “Good. Your highness, is it true that Ricky Ricardo is your favorite vocalist?” LUCY: “Yes.” LEEDS: “Do you like any other American performers?” LUCY: “No.” LEEDS: “Now, let me see if I have this straight... You've never seen Ricky Ricardo in person, you first heard his records two years ago and you fell in love with his voice and decided to come to America to see him. Your father didn't approve, but you came anyway and you can hardly wait to hear him sing. Is that right?” LUCY: “Yes, no, yes, yes, yes, no and yes.” LEEDS: “I see. Now about the political situation in Franistan ---”

“The Operetta” (1952)

The Wednesday Afternoon Fine Arts League is putting on an operetta and Lucy decides to write the show herself!  Needless to say, Ricky and the Mertzes are in the cast as well. The final script is “The Pleasant Peasant” by Ethel 'Romberg' and Lucy 'Friml' and starring 'John Charles' Ricardo. In reality, the songs were written by series composer Eliot Daniel, who wrote the show's theme song.

“Ricky Has Labor Pains” (1953)

To crash Ricky’s ‘daddy shower’ (aka stag party), Lucy and Ethel disguise themselves as Sam and Fred, reporters for the New York Herald Times Tribune, a mash-up of several real New York dailies.

“Lucy Writes a Novel” (1954)

Hearing that a housewife got $10,000 for writing a book, Lucy decides to become a novelist. Much to the chagrin of Ricky, Fred and Ethel, her subject will be a thinly disguised (and outrageously romanticized) version of her own life titled “Real Gone With The Wind”. 

LUCY: “You'll get no more books from me, so go watch television!”

“Fan Magazine Interview” (1954)

Magazine journalist Eleanor Harris doing a feature story on the Ricardo marriage, at the same time that Ricky's agent concocts a publicity scheme inviting women on the Tropicana mailing list to a phony date. 

Eleanor Harris (played by Joan Banks) was the name of a real magazine writer who wrote about Lucy and Desi as early as 1940. She also authored a book titled The Real Story of Lucille Ball published about the same time this episode was first aired.

“Ethel’s Hometown” (1955)

The last stop before Hollywood is Albuquerque, New Mexico, Ethel’s hometown, where she is given the star treatment instead of Ricky. Billy Hackett (Chick Chandler), editor of the Chronicle, is doing a story on Ethel Mae to herald her return on her way to Hollywood. 

“Bullfight Dance” (1955)

Lucy is asked to write an article for Photoplay Magazine about what it’s like to be married to Ricky. Lucy keeps the contents of the article secret until she’s given a plum role in his latest show. 

“The Hedda Hopper Story” (1955) / “Lucy Takes a Cruise to Havana” (1957) 

Both episodes featured Elda Furry, a film actress who turned gossip columnist and renamed herself Hedda Hopper (1985-1966). She was the go-to source for what was going on in the personal and business relationships of Tinseltown. 

She supported Lucy and Desi throughout their careers and they repaid them with these special appearance, as well as mentioning her name in several other episodes. Hopper was recognizable for her elaborate headgear.

“Homecoming” (1956)

Recently returned from Hollywood, Lucy is interviewed by gossip columnist Nancy Graham (played by Elvia Allman) about life as wife to a famous movie star (aka Ricky). The character is probably a tribute to Sheilah Graham, who was an English-born Hollywood journalist. Along with Louella Parsons and Hedda Hopper, Graham wielded sufficient power to make or break Hollywood careers – prompting her to to say that she was "the last of the unholy trio."

“Milton Berle Hides Out at the Ricardos” (1959)

Milton Berle appears here in the capacity of a published author, promoting his first (and only) novel, Earthquake written with John Roeburt. 

Berle had previously written the joke books Laughingly Yours in 1938 and Out of My Trunk in 1948. He wrote his autobiography in 1974 with help from Haskel Frankel. His last book was a 1987 collection of sketches and reminiscences titled B.S. I Love You. 

“Lucy Becomes a Reporter” (1963)

After just three days as the fill-in society reporter for the Danfield newspaper, Lucy’s job is hanging by a thread. The only thing that will save it is an interview with a press-shy financier visiting town.   

 Mr. Foley, the Tribune’s editor, refers to Lucy as Brenda Starr. Brenda Starr is the lead character in a comic strip about an adventurous female reporter. It debuted in 1940. Like Lucy, she had red hair.  Lucy says that she was called ‘Clare Boothe Lucy’ in high school, a pun on Clare Boothe Luce (1903-87), who was a writer and journalist in her own right, in addition to being married to Henry Luce, a powerful publishing magnate in the magazine industry.  Viv calls Lucy ‘Louella’ a reference to gossip columnist Louella Parsons. Lucy later invokes the name of Parsons’ chief rival, Hedda Hopper, another chronicler of Hollywood during the mid-twentieth century.

Critic’s Choice (1963)

Lucille Ball and Bob Hope play husband and wife theatre critics in the film based on the 1960 Broadway play of the same name written by Ira Levin.

“Lucy and the Soap Opera” (1966)

Curious to find out how “Camden Cove,” her favorite soap opera, will turn out, Lucy disguises herself in a number of outrageous get-ups to gain access to the show’s reclusive writer Peter Shannon (Jan Murray). When her efforts fail, she gets herself cast as an extra for a taping of the soap. 

“Lucy and Eva Gabor” (1968)

The author of a controversial novel (Eva Gabor) is in town and needs a quiet place to work so Harry volunteers Lucy's home. Naturally, it is anything but peaceful and far from quiet.  

Eva Von Graunitz (Gabor) is writing a follow-up novel to her successful “Valley of the Puppets”, a title that parodies Jacqueline Susann’s Valley of the Dolls (1966). 

“Lucy the Co-Ed” (1970)

Harry's old flame Gloria (Marilyn Maxwell) is in town to help produce a musical for their college alumni. They resurrect a show Harry wrote in 1928 and cast Lucy, Kim, and Craig in supporting roles. It was written by Harry during his senior year there in 1928. Previous episodes have stated that Harry both performed and wrote shows while in college. The title of his musical is “It's Always Do-Wacka-Do at Bullwinkle U”!

“Tipsy Through the Tulips” (1972)

Lucy is in charge of keeping a mystery novelist (Foster Brooks) sober long enough to finish his next book.  The book David Benton Miller dictates to Lucy is titled “The Killer Wore Wodden Shoes,” a murder mystery set in Holland. 

“Lucy and the Professor” (1973)

Lucy thinks Kim is interested in one of her college professors. She mistakenly believes it is Professor Dietrich (Murray Matheson), author of the best-selling book Sex and the College Girl. It is actually her much younger music professor John Kleindorf (John Davidson). 

“Lucy Goes on Her Last Blind Date” (1973)

Lucy dates eccentric Ben (Don Knotts) who is a prize-winning writer of verses for greeting cards!  

[cherryblossomshadow]

There's LITERALLY WWII propaganda, put out by the US military to raise money, that features drag. It's a musical comedy called This Is The Army. Every one on set, except for good ol Ronnie Reagan and handful of bonafide movie stars, is an active duty soldier and half of them are in heels and a dress. This is the Army was the highest grossing musical film for a solid decade. (comment courtesy of @our-lady-of--singularities)

[edsonjnovaes]

Francesco: A História de São Francisco de Assis - Filme Completo Dublado

Francesco: A História de São Francisco de Assis – Filme Completo Dublado GRÁTIS – Biografia. NetMovies – 23 de out.2023 Nome do Filme: Francesco – A História de São Francisco de Assis Título Original: Francesco Gênero: Biografia, Drama Sinopse: Um dos mais belos filmes sobre a vida de São Francisco de Assis. Mais que uma história de vida, Francesco narra, com muita emoção, a jornada de um…

[peterlorrefanpage]

So we need to find Peter Lorre playing baseball

Because during the filming of "You'll Find Out" (1940), this happened:

The annual charity [baseball] game benefiting Mt. Sinai Hospital and free medical clinic matched the Comedians (including Jack Benny, Fred Allen, Andy Devine, Buster Keaton, the Ritz Brothers, Edgar Kennedy, and Leo Carrillo) against the Leading Men (including Gary Cooper, Tyrone Power, Errol Flynn, Fred Astaire, Randolph Scott, John Wayne, Roy Rogers, Peter Lorre, and others) before a capacity crowd of 37,700 at Wrigley Field on August 8. Paulette Goddard captained the comics and Marlene Dietrich the principals. Milton Berle announced and Kay Kyser, James Gleason, Chico Marx, and Thurston Hall umpired. Lorre apparently lost himself in the 'charity fracas,' which advertised the Jack Benny–Fred Allen rivalry - Allen: “Did you warm up?” Benny: “Yes.” Allen: “I thought I smelled ham burning" - turned 'first-class riot', which was broken up by the Keystone Cops." - The Lost One: A Life of Peter Lorre

Maybe Lorre "lost himself" by managing not to be captured by photograph or film, or managed to stay off the field entirely!

But I am intrigued regardless. He'd look so damn cute in a baseball uniform.

I'm hoping he's at least in the background of pictures from the event - and that those pictures are online.

In the meantime, we do have another person to enjoy:

Boris Karloff's appearance as the Frankenstein Monster was a complete surprise for the crowd; he hadn't been listed on the program!

Buster Keaton was the catcher. As Boris thudded toward home:

"Keaton pretended to faint, keeling over backward, falling to the ground, and allowing Karloff to score the run in dramatic fashion."

Source of above two pictures and great writeup

So: Look for August 8, 1940 pictures, Mt. Sinai Hospital, Wrigley Field, charity baseball game, Leading Men vs Comedians. (It's easier to find pictures from surrounding years, drat.)

Lorre should have been signed up for BOTH teams, to match his talents! That would have been hilarious.

Otherwise, well, we've got him at least holding a baseball bat in this iconic Peter Lorre-Sydney Greenstreet picture. My idle fantasy now is that he absconded with that bat from the charity game and brought it along to the photoshoot. :D

[coeurdeverre82]

[reasoningdaily]

The First Self-Proclaimed Drag Queen Was a Formerly Enslaved Man

In the late 19th century, William Dorsey Swann’s private balls attracted unwelcome attention from authorities and the press

In the late 1880s, a formerly enslaved man named William Dorsey Swann started hosting private balls known as drags, a name possibly derived from “grand rag,” an antiquated term for masquerade balls. Held in secret in Washington, D.C., these parties soon caught authorities’ attention.

As the Washington Criticreported in January 1887, police officers who raided one such gathering were surprised to encounter six Black men “dressed in elegant female attire,” including “corsets, bustles, long hose and slippers.” The following April, the Evening Starreported on a raid that targeted men in “female attire of many colors,” as well as “gaudy costumes of silk and satin.” On both occasions, authorities arrested the party guests and charged them with “being suspicious characters.”

Joseph’s chance find marked the beginning of a yearslong quest to uncover Swann’s story—and, with it, the history of drag in the United States. He chronicles the results of this research in an upcoming book titled House of Swann: Where Slaves Became Queens—and Changed the World. Drawing on extensive archival research, Joseph presents a compelling portrait of the nation’s first self-proclaimed drag queen. The historian proudly positions Swann as the “first queer American hero.”

The identification of Swann as the first reported drag queen in the U.S. is a “major event,” says Jen Manion, a historian at Amherst College. “LGTBQ history is hampered by the lack of diaries and personal letters and family papers, because you just don’t put [those feelings] in writing.” For much of recorded history, Manion adds, being gay or bisexual was considered “a sin; it’s illegal.”

Joseph says his research resurfaces the “experiences of queer people, … historical experiences, not fictionalized experiences, documenting them rather than speculating.” These findings, in turn, helped him pinpoint the birth of “the drag queen.”

The concept of drag “existed for some period of time unknown,” says Joseph. But the term only came into use in 19th-century Great Britain, where Joseph says it referred to “a gathering of people, particularly men, who were dressing as women.” In 1871, two members of the British aristocracy were put on trial after they were caught dressing as women in public. Authorities charged Ernest “Stella” Boulton and Frederick “Fanny” Park with “conspiring and inciting persons to commit an unnatural offense.” A jury found the defendants not guilty but handed down a minor indictment to the men for wearing women’s clothing.

Cross-dressing, which is often a component of drag, has a lengthy history on both the stage and the screen, from Elizabethan-era performances in which men played women to Japanese Kabuki theater. In the early 20th century, performers like Julian Eltinge became stars by impersonating women during the vaudeville craze. In the 1950s, Milton Berle dressed as a woman on his variety TV show, as did comedian Flip Wilson in the early 1970s. In the early 1980s, the sitcom “Bosom Buddies” starred Tom Hanks and Peter Scolari as two young men who disguise themselves as women so they can live in an inexpensive, women-only apartment building.

Historian Kathleen Casey, author of The Prettiest Girl on Stage Is a Man: Race and Gender Benders in American Vaudeville, takes a much wider view of drag. While she includes all manner of cross-dressing performances in her definition, she doesn’t think there will ever be “a stable meaning of the term ‘drag.’” Casey adds, “Drag is about race, class and sexuality as much as it is about gender. If we focus exclusively on only one of these intersections, we fail to see how drag performances are layered across time and space and can have multiple meanings for different audiences.” Drag, she says, is really about a performer’s own perspective of their work, as well as audiences’ understanding of this work.

Many of the “contemporary categories and terms that we use in modern life to describe LGBTQ people or sexual and gender minorities” date to the late 19th century, says Manion. “Lesbian,” for instance, was first used in a medical journal in 1883. The historian adds, “We debate amongst ourselves as scholars when it seems appropriate to use contemporary terms to describe things [in] the past, but in this case, these were terms used by … the people at the time as well.”

Swann was born into slavery in Washington County, Maryland, around 1858. According to a 2021 entry by Joseph in the African American National Biography, Swann was the fifth of 13 children born to enslaved housekeeper Mary Jane Younker and enslaved wheat farmer and musician Andrew Jackson “Jack” Swann. (His biological father may have been a white man, but Joseph hasn’t found definitive evidence confirming this theory.) After the Civil War ended in 1865, Swann’s parents bought a plot of land and started a farm. Encouraged to work as soon as he was old enough, the young Swann found employment as a hotel waiter. In 1880, he relocated to Washington, where he worked as a janitor and sent money back home to his family.

Like Washington more broadly, the capital’s underground queer networks were divided into white and Black communities that rarely intersected. As a 2019 report prepared for the city’s Historic Preservation Office notes, “It was a hushed fact that Lafayette Square in D.C., which is adjacent to the White House, was a known cruising spot for gay men, both Black and white,” but the majority of these individuals were only interested in liaisons with partners of the same race. An exception to this trend was Washington’s drag scene, which often attracted mixed-race audiences.

Forging a place for himself in the city’s queer Black community, Swann held parties that Joseph deems the first documented “drag balls” in American history. Held in secret, they provided a safe space for gender expression but were risky to attend. “A large but undetermined number managed to flee during the police raids, but the names of those arrested and jailed were printed in the papers, where the men became targets of public scorn,” wrote Joseph for the Nation in 2020. “In post-Civil War America, there was very little patience for men who subverted gender norms.” Sentences for those charged with attending drag balls ranged from around three to ten months.

Around this same time, Swann became enthralled by the “queens of freedom” crowned at Washington’s Emancipation Day parades—annual celebrations first held in April 1866. Historically, each neighborhood was represented by a woman who “personified freedom for Black people,” according to Joseph. Inspired by these queens, Swann started crowning the winners of his dance competitions the “queen of the ball,” says Joseph.

Swann also adopted the title for himself. As the Washington Critic noted on April 13, 1888, “William Dorsey, who, by the way, was the ‘queen,’” was one of 13 people arrested during a raid on a “drag party” the previous night.

“There’s this concept of drag, which is separate, and there’s the concept of queens of freedom, and in D.C. in this particular time, post-slavery, post-Reconstruction, these two concepts collide,” says Joseph. “To identify as a drag queen, which is what William Dorsey Swann did, is combining these two strains, these two cultural traditions.”

The 1880s saw a “wave of laws passed in cities all across the country explicitly banning cross-dressing,” says Manion, who adds that the rules were “applied very selectively” and were riddled with inconsistencies and contradictions. The arrests of Swann and his friends were “even more sensationalized in the press and probably drew the attention of authorities because most of the participants were Black,” Manion explains. “And this is in Jim Crow America. For queer … Black Americans to just see so much joy and freedom in their gender expression at this time was definitely seen as a threat.”

The court sentenced Swann to 300 days in prison. After serving three months of his sentence, Swann, who had pled not guilty, filed a petition for a pardon from President Grover Cleveland, says Netisha Currie, an archives specialist at the National Archives, which houses a copy of the petition. In a show of support, 30 of Swann’s friends signed the document. But U.S. Attorney A.A. Birney argued vehemently against the pardon, stating,“The prisoner was in fact convicted of the most horrible and disgusting offenses known to the law; an offense so disgusting that it is unnamed. … His evil example in the community must have been most corrupting.”

Ultimately, Cleveland denied the petition. Still, wrote Joseph for the Nation, Swann’s unsuccessful attempt to clear his name represents the earliest documented example of an American activist taking “specific legal and political steps to defend the queer community’s right to gather without the threat of criminalization, suppression or police violence.”

As Manion says, “What’s unique about [Joseph’s] work is that it captures a collective community. When we have been able to identify queer and trans figures in this era and earlier, we find them in isolation. And we can seldom connect the dots to say, ‘Oh, these two couples were friends. They always hung out.’ … We have very little evidence of collective socializing.”

No known pictures of Swann survive. But his contributions to queer activism in Washington will soon be recognized with the redesignation of a stretch of Swann Street Northwest in his honor. The street was originally named for Thomas Swann, a former Maryland governor and Baltimore mayor who bore no relation to the drag queen.

“We have seen so much anti-trans and anti-drag legislation and rhetoric around the country in a very problematic way,” says Brooke Pinto, a D.C. Council member who introduced the bill. “In Washington, D.C., where we are proud to have so many trans residents, we [need to] speak up and recognize, sometimes through symbolism, sometimes through legislation, how important these issues are.”

The bill also calls for a historic plaque to be posted in Dupont Circle, a Washington neighborhood with a rich LGBTQ history. The plaque will sit at the corner of New Hampshire Avenue, Swann Street Northwest and 17th Street Northwest.

“One of the things that’s so exciting about this case is that it is an African American man who was formerly enslaved,” says Manion. Such individuals “just don’t get … recognition in our histories of LGBTQ people, in part because we usually can’t find them in the archives. But … Swann was hiding in plain sight.”

[sondheims-hat]

A selection of Pseudolus Zero Mostel (1962), Jerry Lester (1962), Frankie Howerd (1963), Dick Shawn (1964),  Sterling Holloway (1965), Jose Ferrer (1965), Dom DeLuis (1965), Phil Silvers (1972), Milton Berle (1975), Sonny Bono (1976), Ray Rayner (1978),  Christopher Hewett (1978),  Arte Johnson (1976), Mickey Rooney (1987), Jason Alexander (Jerome Robbins' Broadway, 1989), Nipsey Russell (1990), Mickey Dolenz (199?), Eddie Mekka (1995), Nathan Lane (1996), Whoopi Goldberg (1997), David Alan Grier (1997), Rip Taylor (1998),  Richard Kind (2008), Lee Wilkof (2010), Christopher Fitzgerald (2010), Geoffrey Rush (2012), Peter Scolari (2013), Frank Ferrante (2017).

[byneddiedingo]

Klaus Kinski in Fitzcarraldo (Werner Herzog, 1982)

Cast: Klaus Kinski, Claudia Cardinale, José Lewgoy, Miguel Ángel Fuentes, Paul Hittscher, Huerequeque Enrique Bohorquez, Grande Otelo. Peter Berling, David Pérez Espinosa, Milton Nascimento, Costante Moret, Jean-Claude Dreyfus. Screenplay: Werner Herzog. Cinematography: Thomas Mauch. Production design: Ulrich Bergfelder, Henning von Gierke. Film editing: Beate Mainka-Jellinghaus.

Why does Werner Herzog's infamously extravagant Fitzcarraldo begin with Fitzgerald/Fitzcarraldo (Klaus Kinski) and his brothel-owner mistress Molly (Claudia Cardinale) attending a performance of Verdi's Ernani that stars not only Enrico Caruso but also, in the role of Elvira, Sarah Bernhardt (played by a man in drag), who mimes while a soprano sings from the pit? Probably to add several more layers of myth to the story, since there is some doubt that Caruso ever sang at the Teatro Amazonas in Manaus and he almost certainly never appeared in a production of Ernani with a lip-synching Bernhardt. If Fitzcarraldo is about anything, it's about obsessions, the more extravagant and, yes, operatic the better. Which is why Herzog's own obsession with actually hauling a steamship over a hill through the jungle, instead of using special effects, models, and montage, is so ironic. If we can believe that Klaus Kinski is an Irishman, we can believe almost anything. Why resort to reality?  Fitzcarraldo is also about the power of illusions, of misguided and conflicting belief systems. Fitzgerald believes, against all evidence to the contrary, in himself. The Indians who labor for him do so because they believe he is some kind of god. So it's entirely appropriate that the central metaphor for a film about extravagantly obsessive belief in illusions should be opera, that most extravagant and illusion-filled of artistic media. (If, that is, you exclude movies.) Is Fitzcarraldo a great film? As fascinating as Kinski's eye-popping is to watch, he never transcends his persona as an actor to create a credible character. And I don't understand what Fitzgerald hopes to achieve by hauling the ship across the isthmus to the rubber plantation. Wouldn't he have to haul it back over again, this time with cargo, to benefit? But such considerations tend to fall by the wayside when viewers encounter the audacity of what's on the screen, and even more so when they learn the behind-the-scenes story of the making of the film. Fitzcarraldo falls into that category of cinematic overreaching occupied by movies like Apocalypse Now (Francis Ford Coppola, 1979) and Heaven's Gate (Michael Cimino, 1980). If it isn't a great movie, it's certainly a unique one. And maybe we should be thankful for that.

[brookstonalmanac]

Events 6.5 (before 1960)

1086 – Tutush, brother of Seljuk sultan Malik Shah, defeats Suleiman ibn Qutalmish, the Turkish ruler of Anatolia in the battle of Ain Salm. 1257 – Kraków, in Poland, receives city rights. 1284 – Battle of the Gulf of Naples: Roger of Lauria, admiral to King Peter III of Aragon, destroys the Neapolitan fleet and captures Charles of Salerno. 1288 – The Battle of Worringen ends the War of the Limburg Succession, with John I, Duke of Brabant, being one of the more important victors. 1610 – The masque Tethys' Festival is performed at Whitehall Palace to celebrate the investiture of Henry Frederick, Prince of Wales. 1644 – The Qing dynasty's Manchu forces led by the Shunzhi Emperor take Beijing during the collapse of the Ming dynasty. 1794 – Haitian Revolution: Battle of Port-Républicain: British troops capture the capital of Saint-Domingue. 1798 – Battle of New Ross: The attempt to spread the United Irish Rebellion into Munster is defeated. 1817 – The first Great Lakes steamer, the Frontenac, is launched. 1829 – HMS Pickle captures the armed slave ship Voladora off the coast of Cuba. 1832 – The June Rebellion breaks out in Paris in an attempt to overthrow the monarchy of Louis Philippe. 1837 – Houston is incorporated by the Republic of Texas. 1849 – Denmark becomes a constitutional monarchy by the signing of a new constitution. 1851 – Harriet Beecher Stowe's anti-slavery serial, Uncle Tom's Cabin, or Life Among the Lowly, starts a ten-month run in the National Era abolitionist newspaper. 1862 – As the Treaty of Saigon is signed, ceding parts of southern Vietnam to France, the guerrilla leader Trương Định decides to defy Emperor Tự Đức of Vietnam and fight on against the Europeans. 1864 – American Civil War: Battle of Piedmont: Union forces under General David Hunter defeat a Confederate army at Piedmont, Virginia, taking nearly 1,000 prisoners. 1873 – Sultan Barghash bin Said of Zanzibar closes the great slave market under the terms of a treaty with Great Britain. 1883 – The first regularly scheduled Orient Express departs Paris. 1888 – The Rio de la Plata earthquake takes place. 1893 – The trial of Lizzie Borden for the murder of her father and step-mother begins in New Bedford, Massachusetts. 1900 – Second Boer War: British soldiers take Pretoria. 1915 – Denmark amends its constitution to allow women's suffrage. 1916 – Louis Brandeis is sworn in as a Justice of the United States Supreme Court; he is the first American Jew to hold such a position. 1916 – World War I: The Arab Revolt against the Ottoman Empire breaks out. 1917 – World War I: Conscription begins in the United States as "Army registration day". 1940 – World War II: After a brief lull in the Battle of France, the Germans renew the offensive against the remaining French divisions south of the River Somme in Operation Fall Rot ("Case Red"). 1941 – World War II: Four thousand Chongqing residents are asphyxiated in a bomb shelter during the Bombing of Chongqing. 1942 – World War II: The United States declares war on Bulgaria, Hungary, and Romania. 1944 – World War II: More than 1,000 British bombers drop 5,000 tons of bombs on German gun batteries on the Normandy coast in preparation for D-Day. 1945 – The Allied Control Council, the military occupation governing body of Germany, formally takes power. 1946 – A fire in the La Salle Hotel in Chicago, Illinois, kills 61 people. 1947 – Cold War: Marshall Plan: In a speech at Harvard University, the United States Secretary of State George Marshall calls for economic aid to war-torn Europe. 1949 – Thailand elects Orapin Chaiyakan, the first female member of Thailand's Parliament. 1956 – Elvis Presley introduces his new single, "Hound Dog", on The Milton Berle Show, scandalizing the audience with his suggestive hip movements. 1959 – The first government of Singapore is sworn in.

[monotarok2]

𝘼𝙜𝙪𝙞𝙧𝙧𝙚 , 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙒𝙧𝙖𝙩𝙝 𝙤𝙛 𝙂𝙤𝙙

𝘼𝙜𝙪𝙞𝙧𝙧𝙚 , 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙒𝙧𝙖𝙩𝙝 𝙤𝙛 𝙂𝙤𝙙 ( 𝙂𝙚𝙧𝙢𝙖𝙣 : 𝘼𝙜𝙪𝙞𝙧𝙧𝙚 , 𝙙𝙚𝙧 𝙕𝙤𝙧𝙣 𝙂𝙤𝙩𝙩𝙚𝙨 ) 𝙞𝙨 𝙖 𝟭𝟵𝟳𝟮 𝙒𝙚𝙨𝙩 𝙂𝙚𝙧𝙢𝙖𝙣 𝙛𝙞𝙡𝙢 . 𝙏𝙝𝙚 𝙙𝙞𝙧𝙚𝙘𝙩𝙤𝙧 𝙞𝙨 𝙒𝙚𝙧𝙣𝙚𝙧 𝙃𝙚𝙧𝙯𝙤𝙜 .

Peter Berling and Edward Roland

A

𝙨𝙩𝙤𝙧𝙮 𝙄𝙣 𝟭𝟱𝟲𝟬, 𝙖 𝙎𝙥𝙖𝙣𝙞𝙨𝙝 𝙚𝙭𝙥𝙚𝙙𝙞𝙩𝙞𝙤𝙣 𝙡𝙚𝙙 𝙗𝙮 𝙂𝙤𝙣𝙯𝙖𝙡𝙤 𝙋𝙞𝙯𝙖𝙧𝙧𝙤 𝙝𝙚𝙖𝙙𝙚𝙙 𝙛𝙧𝙤𝙢 𝙌𝙪𝙞𝙩𝙤 𝙩𝙤 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝘼𝙣𝙙𝙚𝙨, 𝙝𝙤𝙥𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙩𝙤 𝙙𝙞𝙨𝙘𝙤𝙫𝙚𝙧 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙡𝙚𝙜𝙚𝙣𝙙𝙖𝙧𝙮 𝙘𝙞𝙩𝙮 𝙤𝙛 𝙀𝙡 𝘿𝙤𝙧𝙖𝙙𝙤 .

cast Lope de Aguirre - Klaus Kinski Deputy commander of the detachment.

Inés de Atienza - Helena Rojo Mistress of detachment leader Ursua.

Gaspar de Carvajal - Del Negro _ _ _ A monk who accompanied the detachment.

Pedro de Urzua - Louis Guerra Detachment leader.

Fernando de Guzman - Peter Berling A nobleman who was added to the detachment to represent the Spanish royal family.

Flores - Cecilia Rivera Aguirre's daughter. She is 15 years old.

Director     Werner Herzog

Herzog and Kinski embrace on the beach

Filming location