The Girl Who Played with Fire/Flickan Som Lekte med Elden (2009) - Sloppy, overlong seconds

♥♥

 

An assured Noomi Rapace as Lisbeth Salander in dark, punky robes and hair smokes a cigarette against a car in flames, seemingly unworried, on this poster for Daniel Alfredson's The Girl Who Played with Fire

Renegade hacker Lisbeth Salander returns to Stockholm after a year abroad and is soon accused of 3 murders. They are related to Mikael Blomkvist's new, controversial edition of the Millennium magazine, which sheds light on human trafficking.

 

The Girl Who Played with Fire is written by Jonas Frykberg (Detaljer (2003)), adapting the same-titled 2006 novel by Stieg Larsson (The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo/Män Som Hatar Kvinnor (2005)), and directed by Daniel Alfredson (Roseanna (1993)). It is the 2nd film in the Millennium tilogy, based on Larsson's novel trilogy. The English title is a literal translation of the original Swedish title.

If you watch the extended 180 minute version of this, available on home video, beware that it is not only almost an hour longer than the original theatrical cut, it is also at least an hour overlong! It completely loses its suspense in its second half. Here the plot also grows foolish, SPOILER as we recognize that the film's villain is the blond ex-boxer, who is not very frightening. Along comes Salander's face-melted father, - and a half-brother who can't feel pain. The dad turns out to be a Russian spy, while Lisbeth herself can get buried alive and shot again and again - yet live!

The good opening maneuvers are lost on a fatally loose grip on the thriller, with just about every shot in the film labored with some 'fat' that should have been cut from it. Also cinematically, Alfredson's sequel is a far step from the quality and wealth of detail that enriched the fine first film. 

 

Related post:

 

Millennium trilogy: The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo/Män Som Hatar Kvinnor (2009) - An exciting adult ride in sadism and mystery from cold cold Sweden

 

Watch a trailer for the film here

 

Cost: Reportedly 4 mil. €, approximately 4.35 mil. $

Box office: 67.1 mil. $

= Mega-hit (returned 15.42 times its cost)

[The Girl Who Played with Fire was released 18 September (Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Finland) and runs 129 minutes. Shooting took place in Portugal and Sweden, including in Stockholm. The film opened #11 to a 904k $ first weekend in 108 theaters in North America, where it peaked in 178 theaters but didn't achieve a higher ranking, grossing 7.6 mil. $ (11.3 % of the total gross). The film's 3 biggest markets were Sweden with 14.4 mil. $ (21.5 %), Denmark with 11.9 mil. $ (17.7 %) and Norway with 7.8 mil. $ (11.6 %). It was nominated for a European Film award. Roger Ebert gave it a 3.5/4 star review, translating to 3 notches over this one. Alfredson returned with The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest/Luftslottet Som Sprängdes (2009), the final film in the Millennium trilogy. Noomi Rapace (Bright (2017)) returned in that film; Michael Nyqvist (Colonia (2015)) first in Bröllopsfotografen (2009). The Girl Who Played with Fire is fresh at 69 % with a 6.20/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of The Girl Who Played with Fire?

Our Daily Bread/Unser Täglich Brot (2005, documentary) - Meditative portrait of modern food production

♥♥♥♥

 

Two scenes of modern, commercial food production make up this poster for Nikolaus Geyrhalter's Our Daily Bread

An observant investigation of modern farming and food production on the industrial scale: Rape seed fields, fish farms, poultry, pork and beef production, dairy, insemination, slaughter.

 

Our Daily Bread is written by co-writer/co-producer/editor Wolfgang Widerhofer (Elsewhere (2001, documentary)) and co-writer/co-producer/director/cinematographer Nikolaus Geyrhalter (Eisenerz (1992)).

For a while the film frustrates the fact-connected beholder, who will naturally want to know where this or that footage was shot, and maybe other facts as well. But Our Daily Bread is without any kind of narration or informative texts or even music to accompany the images, which are well-made and interesting in themselves. They invite meditation over our relationship to the things we eat and how they come about.

One can only speculate that the film is meant to inspire outrage, but the film still leaves it open for the viewer to decide for himself what to think about these miracles of capitalism (in my eyes) and the hard-working people in their labors, which Geyrhalter luckily doesn't neglect to portray also. The film in other words steers clear of appreciation of the business of mass food production, barred by the conventions of  'good taste', but a lot is left up to the eyes that see here in Our Daily Bread.

 

 

Watch a 5-minute clip from the film here

 

Cost: Unknown

Box office: 72k $

= Box office disaster (projected return of 0.07 times its cost)

[Our Daily Bread premiered 28 November (Amsterdam International Documentary Film Festival) and runs 92 minutes. While the food companies depicted are deliberately not named, a list of them is available on the film's Wikipedia page that includes companies in a long list of European countries. The film had a small release in New York as its only North-American release with the gross unreported. Its 3 biggest reported markets were Belgium with 35k $ (48.6 % of the total gross), Spain with 11k $ (15.3 %) and Taiwan with 9k $ (12.5 %). If made on a small 1 mil. $ budget, the film would rank as a box office disaster. It was nominated for a European Film award, among other honors. Geyrhalter returned with 7915 Km (2008, documentary). Our Daily Bread is fresh at 94 % with a 7.30/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

 

What do you think of Our Daily Bread?

Heart of Glass/Herz aus Glas (1976) - Industrialized apathy explored in Herzog's odd art drama

♥♥

A somber and introspective, water-painted poster for Werner Herzog's Heart of Glass

We are introduced to a German village in the 18th century, where fanciful theories of blowing glass - the local industry - and the ruby glass created there dictate the odd inhabitants' doings.

Heart of Glass is written by Herbert Achternbusch (Der Neger Erwin (1981)) and co-writer/producer/director, great German filmmaker Werner Herzog (Signs of Life/Lebenszeichen (1968)). The original title is directly translated as the English title.

It is an inordinately bizarre film. The content of the story is strange in itself, but the acting performances, all (except for the factory workers and the character Hias) achieved under hypnosis are particularly unique and weird in a trance-like, out-of-the-body way. This also brings some fun to the film, which is otherwise a dreary affair, despite its high strangeness quality, bereft of an actual plot. 

The nonsense-poetical lines coming out of the hypnotized actors seem suspect as the works of a drug-affected filmmaker, - but I have no proof of course. Heart of Glass is not a good film, but it must rank among the strangest of all time. Featuring a beautiful and thrilling sequence of glassblowing.

 

Related posts:

Werner Herzog: Jack Reacher (2012) - Highly entertaining, dark hero-vehicle for Tom Cruise (supporting actor) 
2010 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I] 
Happy People: A Year in the Taiga (2010) - Herzog and Vasyukov invite us to meet a remote, tough Siberian people 

My Son, My Son, What Have Ye Done (2009) - Herzog and Shannon take us down the rabbit-hole 
The Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans/Bad Lieutenant (2009) or, Werner Herzog's Bad Lieutenant
Cobra Verde/Slave Coast (1987) - Herzog and Kinski's final work delves into the madness of slavery   

Fitzcarraldo (1982) - Herzog's mad Amazonian opera monument 
Even Dwarfs Started Small/Auch Zwerge Haben Klein Angefangen (1970) - Herzog teases us to react with uniquely odd experimental drama 

 

 

Watch a trailer for the film here

 

Cost: Unknown

Box office: Unknown

= Uncertain

[Heart of Glass premiered 13 November (Paris Film Festival) and runs 94 minutes. Shooting took place in Switzerland, Ireland, Germany and in Wyoming, Alaska, New York and Utah. The film had a fairly small release in a handful of countries, and cost and gross details are regrettably not available online. It won a German Film award. Roger Ebert gave the film a 4/4 star review, translating to 4 notches over this one. Herzog returned with Mit Mir Will Niemand Spielen (1976, short) and theatrically with Stroszek (1977). Heart of Glass is fresh at 92 % with a 7.60/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Heart of Glass?

Noi the Albino/Nói Albinói (2003) - Kári's personal, escape-themed debut

♥♥♥♥

 

+ Best Icelandic Movie of the Year

 

The title character sprints through a winter landscape on this poster for Dagur Kári's Noi the Albino

When Nói doesn't get up for school, his grandmother goes out and gets the shotgun and fires a shot off out through his window. Nói may be a wunderkind, as his psychologist announces, - but he is also preoccupied and lazy, and a bit of a rascal.

 

Noi the Albino is written and directed by debuting, great Icelandic filmmaker Dagur Kári (The Good Heart (2009)).

It is an unpredictable film that Kári has made, marking the arrival of the Icelandic Jim Jarmusch-reminiscent auteur. He stylishly serves us a mercilessly cold and undesirable portrayal of Icelandic life, which is only uplifted by harsh absurdly comical scenes, SPOILER such as Nói's dropping pig's blood all over his grandmother and father, or when he has to dig a grave in the middle of a blizzard.

Ultimately Noi the Albino is a tragedy that celebrates the eternal dance with the idea of escape, poignantly understandable here in a small Icelandic fishing village.

 

Related posts:

Dagur Kári: 2009 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]
2009 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]
2009 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]  

The Good Heart (2009) - Cox/Dano paired again in Kári's financially disastrous, original, warm and great dramedy 

2003 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II] 

Watch a 1-minute clip from the film here

 

Cost: 1.1 mil. €, approximately 1.28 mil. $

Box office: 1.3 mil. $

= Big flop (returned 1.18 times its cost)

[Noi the Albino premiered 24 January (Angers European First Film Festival, France) and runs 90 minutes. Shooting took place in Iceland, including in Reykjavik, and in Cuba. The film opened #92 to a 4k $ first weekend in North America (New York), where it peaked at #81 and in 7 theaters, grossing 60k $ (4.7 % of the total gross). The film sold 5,511 tickets in co-producing country Denmark, coming to approximately 418k DKK or 65k $ (5.1 %). The film won 6/11 Edda awards, Iceland's Oscar, was nominated for 3 European Film awards and several other honors. Kári returned with Dark Horse/Voksne Mennesker (2005). Tómas Lemarquis (Blade Runner 2049 (2017)), who plays Nói, returned in Nina's House/La Maison de Nina (2005). Noi the Albino is certified fresh at 87 % with a 7.00/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Noi the Albino?

Age of Uprising: The Legend of Michael Kohlhaas (2013) - Mikkelsen simmers in stern historical drama

♥♥♥

 

Mads Mikkelsen with silvery hair, a sword and a sheepskin in a dramatic landscape on the poster for Arnaud des Pallières' Age of Uprising: The Legend of Michael Kohlhaas

 

Kohlhaas is a merchant in France in the 16th century, who is dealt an injustice by the court and then rejected redress by the legal system, which makes him go his own way and hire a smaller army.

Age of Uprising: The Legend of Michael Kohlhaas is written by Christelle Berthevas (Orpheline (2016)) and co-writer/director/co-editor Arnaud de Pallières (Drancy Avenir (1997)), adapting Heinrich von Kleist's (The Broken Jug/Der Zerbrochne Krug (1808)) novella Michael Kohlhaas (1808), based on the real Michael Kohlhase.

How much should one risk to get satisfaction, and are there limits to what can be forgiven? What is the Christian's relationship to justice in general? These are some of the large themes that this very European film raises. - Very European in that it is littered with long silences, has almost no music and only observes bloodshed from a far away distance. It attracts with a peculiar combination of beautiful nature-set photography and a strong cast led forcefully by good and very photogenic Mads Mikkelsen (Doctor Strange (2016)). His scenes with Denis Lavant (Journey to the West/Xi you (2014)) are the film's best: Here Kohlhaas (Mikkelsen) is questioned spiritually; are you only out for revenge?

Even still the mysterious reality in Age of Uprising: The Legend of Michael Kohlhaas is very distant from ours, and the film is hard to fully warm up to. SPOILER There is also the matter of the ending, in which the now otherwise satisfied Kohlhaas has his head removed, which seems inscrutable, and makes one leave the film with a 'why?' feeling.

Watch a trailer for the film here with English subtitles

Cost: Unknown

Box office: 813k $

= Uncertain - but certainly a box office disaster

[Age of Uprising: The Legend of Michael Kohlhaas premiered 24 May (Cannes Film Festival, in competition) and runs 122 minutes. No less than 18 companies and support organs were involved with the financing and production of the film. Shooting took place in France. The film opened #90 to a 3k $ (0.3 % of the total gross) first and only week in 4 theaters in North America, where it was pulled directly from distribution. The 3 biggest markets were France with 371k $ (45.6 %), Germany with 303k $ (37.3 %) and Austria with 54k $ (6.6 %). If made on a scant 5 mil. $ budget, the film the film would have returned 0.16 times its cost. The film won 2/6 César award nominations, among other honors. Pallières returned with Orpheline (2016). Mikkelsen returned in The Salvation (2014). Age of Uprising: The Legend of Michael Kohlhaas is rotten at 47 % with a 5.20/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Age of Uprising: The Legend of Michael Kohlhaas?

Department Q: The Absent One/The Absent One/Fasandræberne (2014) - Nørgaard's second Q movie picks up some slack

♥♥♥

At least three elements are ominously superimposed on this dark poster for Mikkel Nørgaard's Department Q: The Absent One

Special investigator Carl and his work partner Assad get engaged in a 20 year-old double murder case, as new evidence makes indicate that the wrong individual was punished.

Department Q: The Absent One is written by Nikolaj Arcel and Rasmus Heisterberg (Fighter (2007), both), with great Danish director Mikkel Nørgaard (Klown Forever/Klovn Forever (2015)) supplying concept elements, adapting The Absent One/Fasandræberne (2008) by Jussi Adler-Olsen (The Scarred Woman/Selfies (2016)).
It is the second in the Department Q franchise, which spans 4 films so far, and as such another loud crime thriller without psychological or thematic depths worth mentioning.
Nikolaj Kaas (Parterapi (2010)), Fares Fares (Fakiren fra Bilbao (2004)) and Danica Curcic (Nobel (2016, miniseries)) do well, and the plot is a good deal better than the one from the first film, Department Q: The Keeper of Lost Causes/Kvinden i Buret (2013).
The big problem is again that we get no explanation of Carl's enormous personal investment in his job and in the case in this film. The film draws on cliches: The new secretarial colleague to Carl and Assad is a well-organized and caring younger woman; Carl smokes like a chimney nonstop; and one of the rich, evil villains is into bondage and is a violent psychopath. The original Danish title translates to 'the pheasant killers', a title which is pointless and silly: No pheasants are killed in the film, and what should be egregious about it, if there were?

Related posts:

Mikkel Nørgaard: 2015 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess
Klown Forever/Klovn Forever (2015) - A raunchy laugh smash
The Keeper of Lost Causes/Kvinden i Buret (2013) or, Grumpy and Ethnic Find a Woman in a Pressure Chamber
2010 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]
2010 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]
2010 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]
2010 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess     
Klown/Klovn - The Movie (2010) - Nørgaard, Hvam and Christensen strike comedy gold

Watch a teaser for the film here

Cost: 5.2 mil. €, approximately 5.72 mil. $
Box office: 11.5 mil. $
= Flop (returned 2.01 times its cost)
[Department Q: The Absent One premiered 18 September (Austin Fantastic Fest, Texas) and runs 120 minutes. 7.15 mil. DKK, or approximately 1.05 mil. $, was awarded the film as co-financing from the Danish Film Institute; total financing came from 14 companies. Shooting took place in Germany and Denmark, including Copenhagen, from September 2013-?. The film had a simultaneous  limited theatrical and VOD release in North America in 2016 but all of its gross numbers are from European markets: In main production country Denmark the film set a new opening record for a Danish film and sold 753,837 tickets in total, the year's best-selling movie in the country, making up the vast majority of the gross, 11.1 mil. $ (96.5 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were Poland with 120k $ (1 %) and Norway with 118k $ (1 %). It won 2/13 Robert nominations. The Department Q franchise returned with Department Q: A Conspiracy of Faith (2016) by Hans Petter Moland, with returning stars Kaas and Fares. Nørgaard returned with Klown Forever/Klovn Forever (2015). Kaas returned first in Men & Chicken/Mænd & Høns (2015)); Fares in Child 44 (2015)). Department Q: The Absent One is fresh at 92 % with a 6.5/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Department Q: The Absent One?

The Counterfeiters/Die Fälscher (2007) - German-Austrian film relates an incredible true WWII story with depth

♥♥♥♥♥

+ Best Austrian Movie of the Year + Best War Movie of the Year

A man sits on a beach with a box and some unknown thoughts, staring at the sea, on this appealing poster for Stefan Ruzowitzky's The Counterfeiters

Nazis capture one of the world's best counterfeiters in Berlin, and during the horrors of WWII they see opportunities in him; his artistic talent and later knack for counterfeiting is put to use.

The Counterfeiters is written and directed by great Austrian filmmaker Stefan Ruzowitzky (Cold Hell/Die Hölle (2017)), based on the memoir by Adolf Burger, The Devils Workshop (1983). The film tells an incredible true story, which shows another side to Holocaust, the concentration camps and the Nazis: The hero (Karl Markovics (The Crown Prince/Kronprinz Rudolf (2006, TV movie))) is a Jew as we have often been conditioned to regard them: He is criminal, an opportunist, and good with money.
Good, layered characters raise the film's evocative moral question of idealism and martyrdom vs. one's right or possibly even obligation to do everything to preserve one's life in the face of war. There is good acting in the leads, even with German representation of Nazis, which isn't one-sided but has depth.
The Counterfeiters is shot on sometimes a bit grainy film, and at my screening there was a bit of confusion about a woman who appears in the beginning and ending of the film. It also has camp prisoners that sometimes don't look like 'the real deal'. SPOILER And what happened to those many millions of pounds that were created? The film left me curious as to their effect.
Still these are minor sidenotes to a terrific film. 

Related post:

2007 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]

Watch a trailer for the film here

Cost: 6.25 mil. $
Box office: 18.8 mil. $
= Box office success (returned 3.00 times its cost)
[The Counterfeiters premiered 10 February (Berlin International Film Festival, Germany) and runs 98 minutes. Shooting took place in France, Germany, Monaco and in Vienna, Austria from March - May 2006. Ruzowitzky reportedly consulted closely with Burger to attain authenticity for the film. It opened #46 to an 87k $ first weekend in 8 theaters in North America, where it peaked at #21 and in 170 theaters (different weeks), grossing 5.4 mil. $ (28.7 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were Spain with 3.8 mil. $ (20.2 %) and main production country Austria with 1.8 mil. $ (9.6 %). The film won the Best Foreign Film Oscar for Austria. It also won 1/7 nominations for German Film awards, a National Board of Review award and other honors. Ruzowitzky returned with Arabic action TV movie Almahabba Awards Festival TV Commercial (2008) and theatrically with Lilly the Witch: The Dragon and the Magic Book/Hexe Lilli: Der Drache und das Magische Buch (2009). Markovics returned in 3 TV movies and a short film anthology before he returned in a conventional film, which also was Lilly the Witch: The Dragon and the Magic Book. The Counterfeiters is certified fresh at 94 % with a 7.76/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of The Counterfeiters?

Fitzcarraldo (1982) - Herzog's mad Amazonian opera monument

♥♥♥♥♥

A colorful, chaotic poster for Werner Herzog's Fitzcarraldo, which captures the heightened fever dream sensation that the film portrays

Don Fitzcarraldo is an Irishman in Peru early in the 20th century, a man with a plan: The jungle around the continent's Amazon river desperately needs an opera! In this imaginary cultural hot-spot his great hero, Enrico Caruso is meant to give a concert.

Fitzcarraldo is the 9th feature from great German writer-director Werner Herzog (Rescue Dawn (2006)), based on real-life Peruvian rubber baron Carlos Fitzcarrald.
Klaus Kinski (Heroes in Hell/Eroi all'Inferno (1974)) shines with madness in the title role and stands out as a prototype of the crazy but visionary, morally unscrupulous imperialist. As fascinating, intriguing and charismatic as Fitzarraldo is, as ruthless, deeply repelling and obviously amoral (rainforest was chopped down and indigenous peoples exploited for his megalomanic project) is he at the same time.
Claudia Cardinale (La Révolution Française (1989)) is surprisingly good as Fitzcarraldo's German brothel owner lover and madwoman. - Kinski's Fitzcarraldo also seems very German, but his announced Irish heritage really doesn't seem too important at all. The last half hour of the film drags in my opinion, which is my only real complaint against it.
Thematically, the drive of intense spite and the baffling extremes of human endeavor radiate from the fantastic images (cinematography by Thomas Mauch (Die Hitlerkantate (2005))) down the mighty river and up the jungle mountain, where Fitzcarraldo orders his colossal steamship to be pulled with ropes. - Just about everyone in this deeply perplexing film seem mad.
Fitzcarraldo also metaphorically stands as a cinematic monument over the destruction that lies behind the development of Western civilization.

Related posts:

Werner Herzog: Jack Reacher (2012) - Highly entertaining, dark hero-vehicle for Tom Cruise (supporting actor) 
2010 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I] 
Happy People: A Year in the Taiga (2010) - Herzog and Vasyukov invite us to meet a remote, tough Siberian people 
The Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans/Bad Lieutenant (2009) or, Werner Herzog's Bad Lieutenant
Cobra Verde/Slave Coast (1987) - Herzog and Kinski's final work delves into the madness of slavery   
Even Dwarfs Started Small/Auch Zwerge Haben Klein Angefangen (1970) - Herzog teases us to react with uniquely odd experimental drama

Watch a trailer for the film here

Cost: 14 mil. DM
Box office: Unknown
= Unknown
[Fitzcarraldo was released 4 March (West Germany) and runs 157 minutes. The production of the film has become cinema folklore; it is chronicled a bit in Herzog's autobiographical Portrait Werner Herzog (1986), in his Klaus Kinski documentary My Best Fiend (1999) and in most depth in Les Blank's terrific behind-the-scenes documentary Burden of Dreams (1982). Initially proposed star Jack Nicholson was thrilled with the script but wanted too much money to play the lead. Herzog then shot roughly 40 % of the film with Jason Robards in the title role and Mick Jagger as a later deleted character. Robards contracted dysentery and was told by his doctor to not return to film in the Amazon. Herzog also inspired anger from the many jungle Indians hired to the production, who burnt down the set in December 1979. Recasting the lead with Kinski, whom Herzog feared would go bananas in the jungle, the film was reshot from scratch. Shooting took place from January - November 1981 in Brazil and Peru. A Catholic priest urged Herzog to hire prostitutes for the production's hired local men to keep them calm during the ordeal, which was subsequently done. Herzog insisted that the 320 ton steamship be actually pulled over the mountain manually and named himself the 'Conquistador of the Useless'. Cinematographer Mauch's hand was split open during filming of this, and he suffered through a 2½ hour operation without anesthetics. During a scavenger attack on the film camp by the tribespeople, a woman was shot in her abdomen with an arrow. Herzog assisted in the 8-hour emergency surgery and subsequently decided against a revenge attack. Filming of the ship's going through the river rapids was also dangerous, and 6 besides Herzog volunteered for the shoot, of which three were harmed in the mission. The film mixes footage from this endeavor with a miniature ship model shot in a studio. Kinski threw tantrums regularly on the set, screamed and even attacked people, it is said. One famous anecdote is that Herzog was offered by one of the Indians that they would kill Kinski for him, as they hated the actor vehemently. - Herzog declined the offer, as he needed his film in the can. Roger Ebert gave the film a 4/4 star review, equal to a notch better than this review. The film was West Germany's Oscar entry but was not nominated. It was nominated for a Golden Globe, a BAFTA, and won Herzog the Best Director prize in Cannes as well as 1/2 German Film Award nominations. Herzog was also accused of exploiting the indigenous tribespeople for his film; upwards of 1,000 of them worked on the film for about 2 $ a day under poor conditions, (which Herzog claimed were worse for them, when they were not working on his film.) Herzog returned with Where the Green Ants Dream/Wo die Grünen Ameisen Träumen (1984). Kinski returned in The Soldier (1982); Cardinale in Bankers Also Have Souls/Le Cadeau (1982). Fitzcarraldo is fresh at 77 % with a 7.4 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Fitzcarraldo?