Und um Adorf endgültig festzunageln, dass seine Gschichtln nicht stimmen...
In einem Artikel des American Cinematographer berichtet der Kameramann:
Photographing Fitzcarraldo
Cinematographer Thomas Mauch relives the difficult journey of filming Werner Herzog’s iconic drama on location in Peru.
https://theasc.com/articles/photographing-fitzcarraldo
The project itself was well known to American and German film companies. 20th Century-Fox was originally interested, but later dropped out. Lloyds was not willing to insure the shoot. Finally, a group of smaller British companies formed a pool to insure us. They, unfortunately, had to cover a loss which later amounted to a total of $1.5 million. The film was finally financed as a co-production of Gaumont in France, and Filmverleih der Autoren in Germany. Additional support came from the Bavarian Film Development Council, German Television, and a host of smaller organizations. Our total scheduled budget, as far as I know, came to about $5.5 million dollars, relatively 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 shocked. Unfortunately, he became seriously ill from fever and other health problems, which necessitated his return to the States.
It was at this time that our *** companies began to get restless, and the press began to relay back stories of this “crazy” film shooting in the South American jungles. Meanwhile, Herzog brought in Klaus Kinski for the title role. Kinski 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 predictable situation regarding talent. Still, we had to reshoot five weeks of material with him to replace the Robards footage.
The production team was absolutely international: Herzog, as producer and director, and I, as director of photography, were both German. Our production manager Walter Saxer was Swiss, as were my two camera assistants. The sound recording crew came from Brazil, the special effects team from Mexico, and most assistants, from production assistants to 2nd and 3rd camera assistants, were Peruvians. There was another mix of Brazilian technicians that we recruited in the port of Lima. You could hear every language from Portuguese, German and English, to Spanish and Indian. The last of the changes occurred with the arrival of Kinski. Mick Jagger left the production at the same time as Jason Robards, but Claudia Cardinale, who played the role of a bordello owner and friend of Fitzcarraldo, remained. She had her own Italian assistants, including makeup.
We packed in all our own camera equipment. We brought Herzog’s own Arri 35BL-2, with a set of normal Zeiss lenses. We didn’t bring highspeeds [Super Speeds], because they give a harsh, hard look that I didn’t feel was appropriate for this film. We had an additional Arri BL, several Arri II-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 4Ks, and two each 2.5Ks, and 575W lamps. We also had a selection of small lamps and spots. Actually, we didn’t need much more than we had planned on. The sun there is so very harsh that I ended up bouncing light much of the time, and using all sorts of secondary reflection to light interiors. Frequently, we used only fire light or light from large oil lamps.
Also ganz eindeutig ging es in den Dschungel erst, als Adorf schon weg war.
Interessant auch wie der Verlag von Adorf sein Buch bewirbt:
Der römische Schneeball
Erzählungen
Dieses Buch werden Sie lieben... Der römische Schneeball als Taschenbuch Es hat sich herumgesprochen, dass Mario Adorf, Deutschlands bekanntester und beliebtester Schauspieler, auch ein meisterhafter Erzähler ist. Der römische Schneeball ist ein Band voller Überraschungen, voller hinreißender Geschichten, in denen er seine Leser in den tiefen Süden Italiens und nach Rom, Paris, Aix-en-Provence, Hongkong und Südamerika entführt.
Manchmal berichtet Mario Adorf über wahre Ereignisse aus seinem Leben oder über Kollegen und Freunde, die man ganz anders kennt, manchmal sind die Geschichten die reinste Erfindung – und manchmal weiß man es nicht so genau.
So erfährt man in diesem Buch auf höchst unterhaltsame Weise auch viel Neues und Unerwartetes über ein ganz unvergleichliches Schauspielerleben.
https://www.kiwi-verlag.de/buch/mario-a ... 3462030365
Aber für iasi sind Adorfs Schilderungen natürlich Gospel.
Herzog über Adorf:
In seinem neuen Buch „Eroberung des Nutzlosen“ (Hanser, 21.50 Euro) bezeichnet Filmemacher Werner Herzog TV-Star Mario Adorf als „feige und brülldumm“. Grund des Zornausbruchs: Bei den Dreharbeiten zu „Fitzcarraldo“ (mit Klaus Kinski und Claudia Cardinale) im Amazonas-Dschungel stritten sich Herzog und Adorf bis aufs Messer. Herzog notierte: „Adorf entwickelt sich immer mehr zum Stänkerer mit dummen Starallüren, weil er nicht ertragen kann, daß manchmal indianische Statisten wichtiger sind als er.“ Als Adorf nach Stuntmen schrie, brüllte Herzog zurück: „Die Zone meines Steißes darf ich getrost ab jetzt immer Adorf nennen.“
https://www.bz-berlin.de/artikel-archiv ... ario-adorf
Und wer nachlesen will, wie damals konzertiert gegen Herzog in den Medien und von einzelnen Gruppierungen gehetzt wurde, kann auf ResearchGate in diese aufschlussreiche wissenschaftliche Arbeit reinschmökern:
https://www.researchgate.net/publicatio ... eutschland
Mick Jagger im Rolling Stones Magazin (Paywall) über Herzog:
Mick photographed at his reading time at the Holiday in Iquitos, Peru, February 1981. This beautiful photo of Mick is in the book “Stones En Perú” by Cucho Peñaloza, who also photographed this moment of Micky in February 1981. Fun fact: At the time this photo was taken, Mick was filming his part for the West German epic adventure-drama film “Fitzcarraldo” by Werner Herzog, as the role of Fitzcarraldo’s loony sidekick assistant, Wilbur. But sadly, Mick’s role as Wilbur was replaced after he filmed several scenes for the film in the Peruvian Amazon due to some delays, which caused his filming schedule to expire, since Mick reunited with the Rolling Stones again and departed with the boys for The Rolling Stones’ American Tour 1981 in September of that same year. The film writer and director Werner Herzog dropped Mick’s character from the script altogether as he refilmed “Fitzcarraldo” from the beginning without Mick until it was officially released the following year, in March 1982. Even with Mick in just the first original footage of “Fitzcarraldo,” he once said, “I still don’t know how I cope with the things I do and still feel fit. It was a ridiculous, hilarious, dangerous experience. But I still intend to make more films. I wouldn’t have missed it for anything. There was a nice moment when I came out. After waiting three days for transportation at this logging camp in the middle of the jungle, sleeping twelve in a room in hammocks with these loggers - and my Spanish is really rudimentary - well, this seaplane arrived. I had done myself up: best suit of clothes; I’d cleaned up, even shaved. And I stood up on the float of the seaplane, and just as I was about to open the door, I lost my balance and fell into the Amazon.”