ZFF’s new program Making Of features an exciting backstage view and takes us behind the scenes of some of the greatest films ever made. Take a sneak peek into Herzog’s iconic Fitzcarraldo in Les Blank’s documentary Burden of Dreams and see how legendary Terry Gilliam was making his unfinished Don Quijote.
Lost in la Mancha follows the attempt of making and the final disintegration of a film. Narrated by Jeff Bridges, this film about director Terry Gilliam’s unfinished project – a screen version of Don Quijote – reveals the fragile nature of filmmaking by painting a portrait of madness and nobility of the creative spirit. What began as another film about filmmaking soon turned into a thrilling record of inevitable disaster. Spine injuries, interpersonal conflicts, sudden storms and floods befell the film crew like an avalanche and the entire endeavour soon became a tilting at windmills. Fortunately, to Gilliam’s request, a camera operated by independent filmmakers Fulton and Pepe was there to make a record of the nightmare. Gilliam gave the filming duo open access to the entire process and throughout the project wore a wireless microphone which he never switched off.
‘If I drop this project I’ll be a man without dreams. This is not a life I want,’ said Werner Herzog while he was making Fitzcarraldo. The story about the making of this film is today already part of popular filmmaking lore. The action focuses on one man’s obsession to build an opera house deep in the Amazonian jungle. Filming in the jungles of South America, away from civilisation, the film crew encountered some of the most incredible and dangerous obstacles in the history of filmmaking.
Burden of Dreams takes us behind the scenes of Fitzcarraldo, following Herzog’s effort to make a film without special effects, including a scene where hundreds of Indians drag a 320-ton steamer across a small mountain. Prepared to sacrifice everything to make his vision come true, Herzog starts to look like his title character, all recorded by Les Blank’s camera. The result is an incredible testimony of the filmmaking process and a unique insight into the obsessive mission of one of the most fearless directors of our time.