American Cinematographer - August 1983 - 67

tion of Gaumont in France, and Filmverleih der Autoren in Germany.
Additional

support came from the Ba¬
Development Council,
German Television, and a host of

varian Film
smaller

organizations. Our total
budget, as far as I know,

scheduled
came

to about

$5.5 million dollars, rel¬

atively low on the scale of American
budgets.
Originally the film was to star Jack
Nicholson, but as he insisted on a
$3.5 million dollar salary, Herzog had
to develop his concept with someone
else in mind. Jason Robards

was

later

hired for the title role. I recall when he

landed

in

Iquitos he was quite
Unfortunately, he became
seriously ill from fever and other
health problems, which necessitated
shocked.

his return to the States.
It was at this time that our insur¬
ance

companies began to get rest¬

less, and the press began to relay
back stories of this "crazy" film
shooting in the South American jun¬
gles. Meanwhile, Herzog brought in
Klaus Kinsky for the title role. Kinsky
had worked with Herzog before, and
they had lived through many good
and bad times together. We felt that
now at least we had a more predict¬
able situation regarding talent. Still,
we

had to reshoot five weeks of

terial with him to

ma¬

replace the Robards

assistants; the sound recording crew
from Brazil, the special effects
team from Mexico, and most as¬
sistants, from production assistants
came

to

second

and third

camera

as¬

sistants, were Peruvians. There was

appro¬

played the role of a bordello owner

didn't need much

and friend of Fitzcarraldo, remained.

planned on. The sun there is so very

She had her

harsh that I ended up
much of the time, and

recruited in the port

of Lima.
language from
Portuguese, German, and English, to
Spanish and Indian. The last of the
changes occurred with the arrival of
Kinsky. Mick Jagger left the produc¬
we

You could hear every

the

time

Jason

ducer and director, and I as director of

photography, were both German; our
production manager Walter Saxer
was Swiss as were my two camera

including makeup.
We packed in all our own camera

Herzog with Mauch and
staff. (RIGHT) Herzog di¬
rects the digging of the
trench while Mauch films.

was

Robards, but Claudia Cardinale, who

another mix of Brazilian technicians
that

tion

boat. (ABOVE) Director

hard look that I didn't feel

priate for this film. We had an addi¬
tional Arri BL, several Arri 2-Cs, and a
variety of prime lenses. We rented
two zooms in Lima, but later they
proved to be terribly defective. We
also brought most of our lighting
equipment. I had a variety of tungsten
4kWs, and two each 2.5kWs, and
575W lamps. We also had a selection
of small lamps and spots. Actually, we

footage.
The production team was abso¬
lutely international: Herzog as pro¬

(OPPOSITE) Putting the
finishing touches on the

equipment. We brought Herzog's own
Arri 35BL-2, with a set of normal
Zeiss lenses. We didn't bring highspeeds, because they give a harsh,

at

same

own

as

Italian assistants,

more

than

we

had

bouncing light
using all sorts

Continued

on

page

87
American Cinematographer - August 1983

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