An intense and enthralling portrait of an intrepid and obsessed impresario with a desire to bring both Enrico Caruso and an opera house to the deepest jungles of South America. The highlight of the story is Fitzcarraldo’s Herculean effort to haul a 300-plus ton steamboat over the mountains, for which no trickery was used in filming the gruelling sequence. Director Werner Herzog boldly embarked on the same journey, proving to be as driven and single-purposed as his protagonist, the audience’s knowledge of this adding to the excitement. In German with English subtitles. Cast includes Klaus Kinski, Claudia Cardinale, Jose Lewgoy, Miguel Angel Fuentes and Paul Hittscher.
Content notification
Our collection comprises over 40,000 moving image works, acquired and catalogued between the 1940s and early 2000s. As a result, some items may reflect outdated, offensive and possibly harmful views and opinions. ACMI is working to identify and redress such usages.
Learn more about our collection and our collection policy here. If you come across harmful content on our website that you would like to report, let us know.
How to watch
Stream, rent or buy via
Collection
In ACMI's collection
Credits
Collection metadata
ACMI Identifier
311119
Language
German
Audience classification
PG
Subject categories
Advertising, Film, Journalism, Mass Media & TV → Foreign language films
Anthropology, Ethnology, Exploration & Travel → Adventure and adventurers
Anthropology, Ethnology, Exploration & Travel → Amazon River Region
Anthropology, Ethnology, Exploration & Travel → South America
Feature films → Feature films - Germany
Sound/audio
Sound
Colour
Colour
Holdings
VHS; Access Print (Section 1)