Burden of Dreams

Les Blank

 
Burden of Dreams Criterion DVD

DVD

1 Disc

SRP: $39.95

Criterion Store price:$31.96

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  • United States
  • 1982
  • 95 minutes
  • Color
  • 1.33:1
  • English

SYNOPSIS: For nearly five years, acclaimed German filmmaker Werner Herzog desperately tried to complete one of the most ambitious and difficult films of his career, Fitzcarraldo, the story of one man’s attempt to build an opera house deep in the Amazon jungle. Documentary filmmaker Les Blank captured the unfolding of this production, made more perilous by Herzog’s determination to shoot the most daunting scenes without models or special effects, including a sequence requiring hundreds of native Indians to pull a full-size, 320-ton steamship over a small mountain. The result is an extraordinary document of the filmmaking process and a unique look into the single-minded mission of one of cinema’s most fearless directors.

Cast & CreditsOpen

Cast

Werner Herzog
Klaus Kinski
Claudia Cardinale
Jason Robards
Mick Jagger

Credits

DirectorLes Blank
SoundMaureen Gosling
EditingMaureen Gosling
ProducerLes Blank
CinematographyLes Blank
Interpreting, interviewing, and camera assisstanceBruce "Pacho" Lane
Interviewing and camera and sound assistanceMichael Goodwin
Narration written byMichael Goodwin
Narration spoken byCandace Laughlin
Editing assistance and office managementChris Simon
ResearchChris Simon and John Lumsdaine
TranslationsFrancisca Wentworth, Inez Reider and Richard Becker

Disc Features

  • New, restored high-definition digital transfer
  • Audio commentary by director Les Blank, editor and sound recordist Maureen Gosling, and Fitzcarraldo director Werner Herzog
  • Dreams and Burdens, a new 38-minute video interview with Herzog
  • Werner Herzog Eats His Shoe (1980), a 20-minute film by Blank featuring Herzog fulfilling a bet
  • Deleted scenes
  • Photo gallery of images taken by Gosling
  • Theatrical trailer
  • New and improved English subtitle translation and optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
  • Plus: A new essay by film scholar Paul Arthur and an 80-page book of excerpts from Blank’s and Gosling’s production journals

From the CurrentView the Current »

Film Essays

Burden of Dreams:
In Dreams Begin Responsibilities

By Paul ArthurMay 09, 2005

A shot of a street sign near the beginning of Always for Pleasure, Les Blank’s 1978 paean to New Orleans music, cooking, and dance, offers Read more »


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