FITZCARRALDO - While I am familiar with Werner Herzog from funny things like BOONDOCKS and his latest appearance in Mandalorian, I really (besides GRIZZLY MAN) have never seen any of the films he's actually directed. This seemed like a very apropos place to start given his eccentricities. It sweeping and beautiful, with very long shots with silence or stills on Kinski's and others faces that remind me a lot of PT Anderson's THERE WILL BE BLOOD. The clashing of two very different worlds is brought to life in Fitzcarraldo himself, as he wants to bring opera to the jungle and later become the first overland boatman. The adventures and failures of Fitzcarraldo are sometimes genius and sometimes pure lunacy, and while our (sad) hero swings much farther toward the latter, I found it beautiful in its own way. I guess this charisma is what Claudia Cardinale's character sees in her paramour, blindly funding his adventures with pure confidence this new scheme will make them 'rich.' The rest of the characters are a display of archetypes of boat captain (I mean this guy could be the real-life Bluto from POPEYE), double-crossing heavy (and of course he's brown guy, but that is a different topic that is unnecessary to delve into to enjoy this), and a drunk heathen who has one foot in both worlds, Herqueque who does represent a lot of what I love of the mixing of cultures (and who reminds me of a few family members). I thought they were all great, a boat trip of follies with traces of APOCALYPSE NOW and DON QUIXOTE. That moment when they arrive at the place of their destiny and Herqueque comes up with the idea (clearly the more intelligent and likely much easier idea) to dig a tunnel, and everyone shrugs it off and goes forward with the great overland crossing was comedy gold. I am unfamiliar with the backstory on the production, but from the little I've picked up on, it seems Herzog had some Fitzcarraldo in himself in actually dragging that boat around. This is likely a film I would not return to, but it has its moments with gorgeous shots of Peru and the Natives and Cardinale are worth the view. Very good.