Les Blank's portrait of the great Texas bluesman, 'Lightnin' Hopkins. The film includes interviews and a performance by Hopkins.
German director Werner Herzog begins work on his 1982 epic "Fitzcarraldo" but soon runs into serious setbacks, from casting problems to his own stubborn refusal to use special effects. After having to reshoot much of the film because the lead actor was recast, his crew must then haul an old-fashioned steamboat over a mountain using manpower alone. With a resolve bordering on insanity, Herzog struggles to realize his vision, vowing to see the film completed -- even if it leads to his undoing.
This film was not officially released in 1974 and shown only at non-profit institutions with Les Blank appearing in person. After Les Blank's death in 2013, Les'son Harrod Blank and Leon Russell came to an agreement to remaster and release the film. Janus Films and Criterion are currently distributing the film in North America. Written by excentrix@aol.com
A passionate cook, acclaimed filmmaker Werner Herzog stuffs some culinary aromatics into his shoe and uses the laces to truss it like a chicken, before he sticks it into a pot with water and duck fat to stew it. It is so that he can bring the stewed shoe to one of the first screenings of Errol Morris' debut film Gates of Heaven (1978) to eat it. This act will fulfill his loss of a bet to Morris, who he met as a student filmmaker, that he would never be able to make a movie. The bet was not Herzog's attempt of a jab against Morris, but rather to support a struggling but gifted Morris in his quest to do whatever was required to finance a movie project. In the process of eating the shoe, Herzog wants to encourage other aspiring filmmakers, and to set an agenda of increasing what he calls adequate images as a true reflection of the world. Written by Huggo