S4E47.5 Fitzcarraldo

Devon (0:00)

Fitzcarraldo?

Alice Caldwell-Kelly (0:01)

What an interesting name.

Devon (0:02)

How do you spell it?

November Kelly (0:22)

Hello and welcome to another bonus episode of Kill James Bond. I am November Kelly. I am joined, as always, by my friends Abigail Thorn and Devon.

Alice Caldwell-Kelly (0:31)

Guten Tag, meine Liebling-Listener.

November Kelly (0:34)

Cowabunga.

Devon (0:37)

Which is how I imagine a German surfer. God, can you imagine that?

November Kelly (0:41)

That's how they were sort of- Like the silver surfer, but German? Terrifying. Yeah.

Devon (0:45)

Or any other color of surfer, you care the name, I suppose.

November Kelly (0:48)

Der Silbersurfer?

Devon (0:50)

Der Silbersurfer.

November Kelly (0:52)

Terrifying. Anyway, no, this is a highly November-ous bonus pick.

One that I would like to introduce to you with the words, two hours, thirty-seven minutes of Werner Herzog. You're so welcome.

Alice Caldwell-Kelly (1:07)

It does clip by, though. It does go at a decent pace. When I saw that big number, I was like, oh god. But actually, it does go.

November Kelly (1:14)

This is my hope.

Devon (1:16)

I love this shit so much. It was so good.

November Kelly (1:18)

This was great.

Alice Caldwell-Kelly (1:18)

I went in completely blind and was like, oh my word, this is fantastic.

November Kelly (1:24)

Yeah. I mean, Fitzcarraldo, which is the subject of tonight's episode, is one of my favorite films. It's a film that moves me to tears every time I see it.

I'm just really excited to share it with both of you and with the listener as well. We can just really get straight into it. Klaus Kinski was a monster.

Devon (1:47)

Klaus Kinski is an interesting figure.

Alice Caldwell-Kelly (1:49)

I know nothing about this man. Although, my note here says Klaus Kinski looks like he's wearing a rubber mask of Klaus Kinski's face over Klaus Kinski's face.

November Kelly (1:58)

He does, yes.

Alice Caldwell-Kelly (1:58)

He looks incredible in this movie. But who is this man?

November Kelly (2:02)

Yeah, so Klaus Kinski was a sort of early collaborator with Werner Herzog. We may be familiar with Werner Herzog, the German director you may remember from Grizzly Man, or getting shot mid-interview and kind of shrugging it off with a, it is not significant.

Devon (2:20)

Or the Mandalorian.

November Kelly (2:21)

Yes, I would like to see the baby.

Devon (2:23)

You might be familiar with him from The Mandalorian.

Alice Caldwell-Kelly (2:25)

Had a voice cameo in Rick and Morty one time.

November Kelly (2:28)

Better known for other work.

Alice Caldwell-Kelly (2:30)

I would like to see the baby meme, that guy.

November Kelly (2:32)

Voice cameo in Rick and Morty, yeah, that guy, Werner Herzog, the German existentialist director.

Devon (2:38)

Yeah, Werner Herzog.

November Kelly (2:39)

So, Klaus Kinski was, for a while, his muse, but in a way that they had, I think, Herzog called Kinski a great pestilence. This is the film where, in the course of making it, some of the cast offered, in all earnest, to have Kinski murdered, and Herzog had to turn them down.

Alice Caldwell-Kelly (3:01)

Wow.

Devon (3:02)

I wanted the clip of him saying that, but I only had him saying it in German. Yeah, it's like, some of the native people were like, do you want us to kill Kinski for you? Like, you're arguing with him a lot, and he goes, no, for the love of God, let me take care of him.

November Kelly (3:15)

They only wanted to kill him because of his actions on the set, right?

Devon (3:20)

They only knew him for the course of filming the movie.

November Kelly (3:23)

Yeah, whereas the sort of rest of Klaus Kinski's life, I think we can sum up with, if we can put in here, the drop of Curtis Slee was saying later on he was a pedophile.

Alice Caldwell-Kelly (3:35)

Oh, wow.

Devon (3:36)

Okay.

November Kelly (3:37)

Yeah.

Devon (3:38)

Okay.

November Kelly (3:39)

So, personally, a very bad man, however, a great actor. And I think we're gonna have to talk about a lot of moral compromise in this movie, right? Because it was a nightmare to make, it's very much of the same tradition as Apocalypse Now, where a director sort of goes into the jungle, and, you know, making a movie is often a very exploitative process.

And in the course of making this very, you know, sort of grand artistic vision, you know, has to sort of, well, I say has to, chooses to brutalize and exploit a lot of people in order to make the art. And if you think that there's an interesting sort of...