Klaus Kinski makes an appetite for opera feel as urgent as a threat. His fierce concentration is worth seeking out, particularly with Werner Herzog, though Fitzcarraldo sometimes admires its determined dreamer more than he deserves.
Fi1m perspective
In Fitzcarraldo (1982), Klaus Kinski gives an opera enthusiast the concentration of someone who cannot imagine being refused. The wish to bring opera to the Amazon jungle is absurd, but he plays it with a seriousness that makes dismissal difficult. We were moved by his conviction because he makes this pleasure feel necessary to the man's survival. There is gentleness in the purpose, even as his expectation that the world should accommodate him remains troubling.
The earlier For a Few Dollars More (1965) gives him much less room and still makes good use of him. As Juan Wild, he catches our attention before we have worked out how much the character matters. Sergio Leone's Western belongs chiefly to Clint Eastwood and Lee Van Cleef, but Kinski helps keep its supporting encounters distinct. His work in the 1960s included numerous Westerns and exploitation films; here, that forceful presence serves a film with plenty of other people worth watching.
Herzog gave that intensity sustained attention across five films, beginning with Aguirre, the Wrath of God (1972) and ending with Cobra Verde (1987). That partnership made his obsessive antiheroes central to his reputation. As Count Dracula in Nosferatu the Vampyre (1979), he worked through physical and vocal intensity; Woyzeck (1979) drew on his capacity to suggest torment.
In Fitzcarraldo, cinematographer Thomas Mauch gives the Amazon scenery enough prominence to draw attention away from Kinski. That helps: the landscape makes his determination look faintly ridiculous, and there is pleasure in looking beyond him. Herzog's wandering narrative still asks for considerable patience, and the screenplay could question the character's sense of entitlement more closely. Kinski sustains our interest through those delays, although Herzog is sometimes too pleased simply to watch him persist.
Start with For a Few Dollars More if an entire film built around such insistence sounds tiring. Its loose story matters less than the company of Eastwood and Van Cleef. For Fitzcarraldo, set aside an uninterrupted evening and allow for a wandering story.
Biography
Klaus Kinski was a German actor. He was born Klaus Günter Karl Nakszynski on 18 October 1926 in Sopot (then Zoppot, Free City of Danzig) and died on 23 November 1991 in Lagunitas, California.
Kinski appeared in over 130 film roles between 1948 and 1989. His credits include Juan Wild - The Hunchback in For a Few Dollars More (1965), Kostoyed Amourski in Doctor Zhivago (1965), Don Lope de Aguirre in Aguirre, the Wrath of God (1972), Count Dracula in Nosferatu the Vampyre (1979), and the title role in Fitzcarraldo (1982). He also appeared in The Great Silence (1968) and Woyzeck (1979).
