Herzog/Kinski's Cobra Verde finally has U.S. theatrical premiere
03-25-07, 02:31 PM
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Herzog/Kinski's Cobra Verde finally has U.S. theatrical premiere
It seems that 20 years after the fliming, Cobra Verde is finally getting its US premiere. Many of us have it in the Herzog/Kinski set. Following is an excerpt of the NY Times review.
"Where Heart of Darkness Begets Head of Nuttiness"
Werner Herzog Filmproduktion
By A. O. SCOTT
Published: March 23, 2007
"Werner Herzog’s great subject, or rather his dominant preoccupation — what paranoia was to Alfred Hitchcock or violence to Sam Peckinpah — is mania. The characters in his most memorable films are men who live in a permanent, irrational state of war with themselves, with the rest of humanity, with the wild inscrutability of the natural world. They are loners, conquerors, obsessives. In his recent documentaries, notably “Grizzly Man” and “The White Diamond,” Mr. Herzog observes them with rueful philosophical detachment. There was a time, though, when the grandeur and ferocity of his cinematic ambition marked him as a kindred spirit.
Nowhere is this more apparent than in the films he made starring Klaus Kinski, an actor who has been called many things (not least by Mr. Herzog himself) but never mild-mannered. “Aguirre: The Wrath of God” (1972) is the most celebrated of these, and “Fitzcarraldo” (1982) has a certain notoriety, in part because of “Burden of Dreams,” Les Blank’s fascinating, appalling documentary about its making. But “Cobra Verde,” completed in 1987, was the project that pushed the always volatile relationship between Mr. Herzog and Mr. Kinski (memorialized in Mr. Herzog’s 1999 documentary “My Best Fiend”) to the brink of homicide, and for some reason it has never been released in this country. Connoisseurs of craziness need wait no longer. “Cobra Verde” opens today in all its feral, baffling glory.
Along with “Aguirre” and “Fitzcarraldo,” “Cobra Verde” completes a trilogy of mayhem and megalomania in hot climates. Mr. Kinski is the title character, a Brazilian rancher, originally known as Francisco Manoel da Silva, who turns to banditry after being driven from his land by drought and famine. A solitary, vengeful figure, filmed like the debauched cousin of a Sergio Leone spaghetti-western hero, da Silva roams the dusty 19th-century backlands, shooting, drinking and womanizing."
Opens today in Manhattan.
"Where Heart of Darkness Begets Head of Nuttiness"
Werner Herzog Filmproduktion
By A. O. SCOTT
Published: March 23, 2007
"Werner Herzog’s great subject, or rather his dominant preoccupation — what paranoia was to Alfred Hitchcock or violence to Sam Peckinpah — is mania. The characters in his most memorable films are men who live in a permanent, irrational state of war with themselves, with the rest of humanity, with the wild inscrutability of the natural world. They are loners, conquerors, obsessives. In his recent documentaries, notably “Grizzly Man” and “The White Diamond,” Mr. Herzog observes them with rueful philosophical detachment. There was a time, though, when the grandeur and ferocity of his cinematic ambition marked him as a kindred spirit.
Nowhere is this more apparent than in the films he made starring Klaus Kinski, an actor who has been called many things (not least by Mr. Herzog himself) but never mild-mannered. “Aguirre: The Wrath of God” (1972) is the most celebrated of these, and “Fitzcarraldo” (1982) has a certain notoriety, in part because of “Burden of Dreams,” Les Blank’s fascinating, appalling documentary about its making. But “Cobra Verde,” completed in 1987, was the project that pushed the always volatile relationship between Mr. Herzog and Mr. Kinski (memorialized in Mr. Herzog’s 1999 documentary “My Best Fiend”) to the brink of homicide, and for some reason it has never been released in this country. Connoisseurs of craziness need wait no longer. “Cobra Verde” opens today in all its feral, baffling glory.
Along with “Aguirre” and “Fitzcarraldo,” “Cobra Verde” completes a trilogy of mayhem and megalomania in hot climates. Mr. Kinski is the title character, a Brazilian rancher, originally known as Francisco Manoel da Silva, who turns to banditry after being driven from his land by drought and famine. A solitary, vengeful figure, filmed like the debauched cousin of a Sergio Leone spaghetti-western hero, da Silva roams the dusty 19th-century backlands, shooting, drinking and womanizing."
Opens today in Manhattan.
