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🦋 Spurious associations...

...and random thoughts while watching Aguirre, the Wrath of God.

• I wonder if anyone has made note of how strongly (if memory serves) Richard O'Brian's character in The Rocky Horror Picture Show resembles Klaus Kinski. Wonder if that was a conscious choice by the Rocky Horror people. Seriously, when the camera came in close on Aguirre standing next to the river, I thought Oh my God, it's Riff Raff!
• Aguirre's first appearance in the movie, talking to (I think?) Pizarro, they reminded me of Tintin and Captain Haddock a little bit, which was amusing.
• This movie has the dreamlike atmosphere that pervades some of my very favorite works of art, like e.g. Gravity's Rainbow -- indeed I think this is a movie that could have been very competently produced by some of Pynchon's characters.
• The brilliant, brilliant title sequence makes me think of nothing so much as Escher's paintings. I keep thinking Wow, I didn't know you could do that with film.
• The soundtrack might be the best movie soundtrack ever. At least the best in some subcategory of motion picture soundtracks. From the church music at the beginning, to the piper, to Perucho's threatening hums and hisses... It is in the substance of the film, it complements and enhances the imagery. Perfect.

'Minimalist' is, it seems to me, the best category of foreign language film, the most fun for me to watch because there is some chance I will catch the dialogue. And indeed, here I find I am getting a lot of it (with help from the subtitles).

One thing that really turned me on about this movie was the mix of different influences and realities -- like the characters were Spanish but speaking German, they were dressed in period costume but their makeup and hair and general bearing seemed much more contemporary. Etcetera.

posted afternoon of Saturday, December first, 2007
➳ More posts about The Rocky Horror Picture Show
➳ More posts about The Movies
➳ More posts about Aguirre, the Wrath of God
➳ More posts about Werner Herzog
➳ More posts about movie soundtracks
➳ More posts about Music
➳ More posts about M.C. Escher

Chekhov said "If there's a gun on the mantel in Act One, it must be fired by Act Five". Herzog deliberately flouted that rule.

posted evening of December first, 2007 by John Emerson

I don't know if this is related to Herzog's flouting of dramatic convention, but the structure of it did seem a little strange -- like it was the beginning of the movie for a long time and then all of a sudden it was the end of the movie, with maybe a very brief middle in there. I am going to watch it again tonight, see if it seems that way again.

posted evening of December first, 2007 by Jeremy

...Nope, strike that. On second viewing the pacing seems much more stable. Last night I was not following the fighting between Ursua and Aguirre very well, partially because it took me a long time to figure out which names went with which faces.

posted evening of December first, 2007 by Jeremy

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