Bitch We Got Problem – Klaus Kinski/Fitzcarraldo

Fitzcarraldo pulls off his hat, runs his hands through his hair shaking off stress, frustration and impatience, as his epic project to transport a steamboat over a mountain in the Andes is finally in progress. Though the entirety of this quest will not come to fruition, at this point he observes the more impossible part of the plan becoming possible. He’s a privileged outsider, intent on using natural resources for financial gain with the bourgeoisie intentions of bringing opera to the area.

Though never portrayed as particularly brutish and unlikeable, Fitzcarraldo hides behind an obsessive, self concerned Machiavellian monster, whose big, self serving dreams come at the expense of natural habitats and natives.

Klaus Kinski was not the first choice to play Fitzcarraldo, but as a previous Werner Herzog collaborator, the casting journey seemed inevitable when you consider his previous work with Herzog was an artistically successful match made in hell.

Kinski is not unlike Fitzcarraldo in a lot of ways and the film could be considered representive of his legacy. Whether the stories in his autobiography are true or not, it provides a lot of insight into his complexities. A child of extreme poverty and displacement, who becomes well read and cultured leading into an artistic profession, but who has a problem with love and, if to be believed, an addiction with sex that would make even the Marquis de Sade blush! Proof of his hot headed, psychotic nature was captured on film and eventually it would come to light that he was sexually abusive. Though Kinski made some extraordinary films and gave perfectionistic performances, enough to become highly lauded as one of the greatest actors, much like Fitzcarraldo’s ambitious project, his outrageous personal life and character made him problematic and controversial enough that he failed to be remembered on the right side of history.

There is a cost to greatness and we may be asked to reconcile the exceptional parts of a person with their more hideous self. For all of Fitzcarraldo’s bloody-minded tenacity, he was a white man with the means and resources to exploit a community he didn’t belong to, achieving an own goal without fulfilling his expedition, yet became a celebrated failure. For all of Kinski’s raw, rich talent and celebrated artistry that can leave an emotionally lingering impression on audiences, he was a monster.