Coastside Film Society shares an insane obsession Friday

Friday, November 18, at 8pm, the Coastside Film Society presents a classic film about insane obsession.

Werner Herzog is one of our most obsessive directors. When he heard the tale of an opera lover who built a concert hall in middle of the Amazon jungle he knew it to be a story he had to tell. To realize his vision, the opera buff had to haul a riverboat across a mountain.  Herzog decided he had to duplicate this insane endeavor.  So the film was shot in and around a real 300 ton steamship as it was dragged up a real mountain by the sweat labor of local Indians. The conditions under which the film was shot proved to be too harrowing for the first crew.  So filming started all over again with Klaus Kinski, an actor who matched Hertzog obsession for obsession.  The end result is a visually arresting trip through the jungle that feels insanely real because it is insanely real.

"Fitzcarraldo" is a movie in the tradition of grandiose cinematic visions. Like Coppola’s "Apocalypse Now" or Kubrick’s "2001".—As a document of a quest and a dream, and as the record of man’s audacity and foolish, visionary heroism, there has never been another movie like it.—I would not have missed for the world." Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times

Fitzcarraldo
1982, 157 mins.
$6.00 donation per person
Friday, Nov 18, 8pm

Community Methodist Sanctuary
777 Miramontes, Half Moon Bay
Corner of Johnston & Miramontes.
Half Moon Bay