Fitzcarraldo is a 1982 film written and directed by Werner Herzog and starring Klaus Kinski as the title character. It portrays would-be rubber baron Brian Sweeney Fitzgerald, an Irishman called ‘Fitzcarraldo’ in Peru, who is an obsessed opera lover and wants to build an opera in the jungle. To accomplish this he first has to make a fortune in the rubber business, and his cunning plan involves hauling an enormous river boat across a small mountain with aid from the local Indians. The film is derived from the real-life story of Peruvian rubber baron Carlos Fitzcarrald.

Fitzcarraldo (1982)
  • Rating: (12,357 votes)
  • Runtime:158 minutes
  • Director: Werner Herzog
  • Countries:West Germany, Peru
  • Actors:
    Brian Sweeney Fitzgerald - 'Fitzcarraldo'
    Klaus Kinski
    Molly
    Claudia Cardinale
    Don Aquilino
    José Lewgoy
    Cholo
    Miguel Ángel Fuentes
    Captain (Orinoco Paul)
    Paul Hittscher
    Huerequeque (The Cook) (as Huerequeque Enrique Bohórquez)
    Huerequeque Enrique Bohorquez
    Station master (as Grande Othelo)
    Grande Otelo
    Opera Manager
    Peter Berling
    Chief of Campa Indians
    David Pérez Espinosa
    Blackman At Opera House
    Milton Nascimento
  • Genres:Adventure, Drama
  • Producers:
    Werner Herzog
    producer  
    Renzo Rossellini
    associate producer  
    Walter Saxer
    executive producer  
    Willi Segler
    producer  
    Lucki Stipetic
    producer  
  • Plot: Fitzcarraldo is an obsessed opera lover who wants to build an opera in the jungle. To accomplish this he first has to make a fortune in the rubber business, and his cunning plan involves hauling an enormous river boat across a small mountain with aid from the local Indians. Written by Rune Sandnes <rune@nvg.unit.no>
Fitzcarraldo
  • User's comment:Herzog's films are deeply personal, visually exciting and uncompromising… by ironside (robertfrangie@hotmail.com)

    His films are perfect examples of the European tradition of the 'auteur' film, in which the director is seen as the originating and creative force behind the work… But there is also a sense that Herzog's visionary monomaniacs function as the director's alter ego, embodying the heroic status of the auteur, always struggling against recalcitrant reality to fulfill his dream…

    This seems especially true of "Fitzcarraldo," which, sets a hundred years ago, begins with an Irish colonist who had a passion for opera rowing 1,200 miles down a South American river, accompanied by the madam of a brothel, in order to hear the great Caruso perform…

    Inspired by this experience, Fitzcarraldo embarks on a grandiose plan to open up the Amazonian jungle to river transport, providing access to new rubber plantations and thereby making enough money to build an opera house…

    Herzog's favorite actor, Klaus Kinski, is as appropriately manic as Fitzcarraldo, eyes glittering madly as he pursues his vision… In the central sequence he organizes a tribe of Indians to help him pull a steamboat across a mountain in order to by-pass dangerous rapids…

    "Fitcarraldo" seems by turns admiring of its hero's megalomania and mocking of his hubris, with no illusions about the cynical exploitation of the region's riches by the rubber barons whom Fitzcarraldo tries to defeat by cleverness… Ultimately though, it is the sheer spectacle which we remember…


  • Quotes: Brian Sweeney Fitzgerald - 'Fitzcarraldo': I must stop my ship! Brian Sweeney Fitzgerald - 'Fitzcarraldo': This church remains closed until this town has its opera house. I want the opera house. Brian Sweeney Fitzgerald - 'Fitzcarraldo': I want my opera house! I want the opera house! This church remains closed until this town has its opera house. I want my opera house! I want my opera house! I want my opera house!
  • Also known as: Фитцкарральдо (Russia), Fickaraldo (Serbia - imdb display title), Fitzcarraldo, o tyhodioktis tou Amazoniou (Greece - transliterated ISO-LATIN-1 title),

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