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78-466: Most of the directors of the New German Cinema movement were members of their self-owned Filmverlag der Autoren association founded in 1971, which funded and distributed most of their films, and the history of New German Cinema from the 1970s onwards was largely synonymous with it. As a reaction to the artistic and economic stagnation of West German cinema, a group of young filmmakers issued

156-665: A Bible comes from events before the Battle of Cajamarca , in which Inca emperor Atahualpa allegedly rejected the Requerimiento (declaration by the Spanish monarchy in 1513 of its divine right to take New World territories). The chronicle of Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca , La Relación (" The Account "), mentions the appearance of a boat in a treetop after a fierce tropical storm in Hispaniola : Monday morning we went down to

234-696: A consequence, such films tended to be unsuccessful at the cinema box-office. This situation changed after 1974 when the Film-Fernseh-Abkommen (Film and Television Accord) was agreed between the Federal Republic's main broadcasters, ARD and ZDF , and the German Federal Film Board (a government body created in 1968 to support film-making in West Germany). This accord, which has been repeatedly extended up to

312-560: A counter-current, the Amazon actually goes backwards. And it was tossed to and fro. And a parrot would scream: 'El Dorado, El Dorado ' ". This ending was eventually adapted for Cobra Verde , Herzog's final film with Kinski. Herzog's first choice for the role of Aguirre was Klaus Kinski. The two had met many years earlier when the then-struggling young actor rented a room in Herzog's family apartment, and Kinski's often terrifying antics during

390-521: A cult film, and New Yorker Films reported four years after its initial release that it was the only film in its catalog that never went out of circulation. In Germany, the Süddeutsche Zeitung described the film as "a colour-drenched, violently physical moving painting". The Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung described Kinski's acting as "too theatrical" to embody God's wrath. In the US and

468-552: A hundred native slaves march down from the newly conquered Inca Empire into the Amazon rainforest in search of the fabled El Dorado . The men, clad in half armor , pull cannons down narrow mountain paths and through dense, muddy jungle. On New Year's Eve , Pizarro orders a group of forty men to build rafts and scout down the river. If they do not return to the main party within one week with news of what lies beyond, they will be considered lost. Pizarro chooses Don Pedro de Ursúa as

546-466: A large international cult following. It was given an extensive arthouse theatrical release in the United States in 1977, and remains one of the director's best-known films. Several critics have declared the film a masterpiece, and it has appeared on Time magazine's list of "All Time 100 Best Films". On Christmas Day, 1560, several scores of Spanish conquistadors under Gonzalo Pizarro and

624-403: A magnificent social metaphor". Danny Peary wrote, "To see Aguirre for the first time is to discover a genuine masterpiece. It is overwhelming, spellbinding; at first dreamlike, and then hallucinatory." Roger Ebert has added it to his list of The Great Movies , and in a 2002 Sight & Sound poll of critics and filmmakers on the best films ever made, Ebert listed it in his top ten. In

702-547: A reconciliation between the new cinema and the old. In addition, a distinction is sometimes drawn between the avantgarde "Young German Cinema" of the 1960s and the more accessible "New German Cinema" of the 1970s. For their influences, the new generation of filmmakers looked to Italian Neorealism , the French Nouvelle Vague and the British New Wave but combined this eclectically with references to

780-528: A result of the funds provided by the Film-Fernseh-Abkommen , German films, particularly those of the New German Cinema, gained a much greater opportunity to enjoy box-office success before they played on television. The artistically ambitious and socially critical films of the New German Cinema strove to delineate themselves from what had gone before and the works of auteur filmmakers such as Kluge and Fassbinder are examples of this, although Fassbinder in his use of stars from West German cinema history also sought

858-425: A soldier loyal to him are shot. Aguirre nominates Guzmán as the new leader of the expedition and rebels against the Spanish crown, proclaiming Guzmán the emperor of El Dorado. A farcical trial of Ursúa results in his being sentenced to death, but Guzmán surprises Aguirre by granting Ursúa clemency. Aguirre remains the true leader of the mutiny, so oppressive and terrifying that few protest his leadership. Only Inés has

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936-417: A trace years before (see "Historical Accuracy" section). Later in the screenplay, Aguirre and his men find a boat and the long-dead remains of Orellana's soldiers. Further down the river, they discover another ship lodged in the treetops. In the screenplay, Aguirre and others explore the boat but find no sign of Orellana or his men. Herzog ultimately eliminated any such references to Orellana's expedition from

1014-465: A veterinarian and claimed that the monkeys needed vaccinations before leaving the country. Abashed, the handlers handed the monkeys over to Herzog, who used them in the shot they were required for, then released them afterwards into the jungle. Aguirre 's musical score was performed by Popol Vuh , a West German progressive / Krautrock band. The band was formed in 1969 by keyboardist Florian Fricke, who had known Herzog for several years prior to

1092-459: A wall. It is your absolute right. To obtain the monkeys used in the climactic sequence, Herzog paid several locals to trap 400 monkeys. He paid them half in advance and was to pay the other half upon receipt. The trappers sold the monkeys to someone in Los Angeles or Miami, and Herzog came to the airport just as the monkeys were being loaded to be shipped out of the country. He pretended to be

1170-532: Is a 1972 epic historical drama film produced, written and directed by Werner Herzog . Klaus Kinski stars in the title role of Spanish soldier Lope de Aguirre , who leads a group of conquistadores down the Amazon River in South America in search of the legendary city of gold, El Dorado . The accompanying soundtrack was composed and performed by kosmische musik band Popol Vuh . The film

1248-403: Is an international co-production between West Germany and Mexico. Using a minimalist approach to story and dialogue, the film creates a vision of madness and folly, counterpointed by the lush but unforgiving Amazonian jungle. Although loosely based on what is known of the historical Lope de Aguirre, Herzog acknowledged years after the film's release that its storyline is a work of fiction. Some of

1326-519: Is crucial to Aguirre, the Wrath of God ". AllMusic noted, "The film's central motif blends pulsing Moog and spectral voices conjured from Florian Fricke's Mellotron-related 'choir organ' to achieve something sublime, in the truest sense of the word: it's hard not to find the music's awe-inspiring, overwhelming beauty simultaneously unsettling. The power of the legendary opening sequence of Herzog's film ... owes as much to Popol Vuh's music as it does to

1404-433: Is honed down to its salient features. On this level, the film effectively pre-empts analysis by analysing itself as it proceeds, admitting no ambiguity. Yet at the same time, Herzog's flair for charged explosive imagery has never had freer rein, and the film is rich in oneiric moments ." The film's reputation through the years has continued to grow. On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes , 96% of 50 critics gave

1482-611: The Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film . Although overlooked in early scholarship on New German Cinema, female directors were an important part of it, which encompassed the works of directors such as Danièle Huillet , Helma Sanders-Brahms , Helke Sander , and von Trotta. Rosa von Praunheim , who formed the German lesbian and gay movement with his film It Is Not the Homosexual Who Is Perverse, But

1560-598: The Filmverlag as an independent association to have complete control over their projects, from funding through to pre-production, production, post-production, and distribution. The model which the founders of the Filmverlag were styling their association after was the Verlag der Autoren in Frankfurt, an independent association of stage writers publishing their own works. The first film produced by Filmverlag der Autoren

1638-581: The Filmverlag during Augstein's era scored impressive commercial successes such as Theo Against the Rest of the World  [ de ] (1980, starring Marius Müller-Westernhagen ) and Men… (1985), it also began German distribution of less ambitious films such as The Terminator (1984) and Up the creek (1984), and in the eyes of many of its founders its original political and intellectual credibility suffered. In 1986, Augstein sold his interests in

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1716-462: The Filmverlag to Futura-Film . In 1989, Futura-Film founded the subsidiary distributor Felix-Film with an emphasis upon films from the Soviet Union . In 1999, all home video distribution rights to the Filmverlag' s films and all rights to its label were acquired by Arthaus , a subsidiary of Kinowelt AG . In the following years, Arthaus published many of the Filmverlag films for

1794-702: The National Society of Film Critics in the United States gave it their "Best Cinematography" Award. It won the prestigious Grand Prix of the Belgian Film Critics Association in 1976 and was nominated for a "Best Film" César Award . Francis Ford Coppola 's 1979 film Apocalypse Now , a film based on Joseph Conrad 's 1902 novella Heart of Darkness , was also influenced by Aguirre , containing seemingly deliberate visual "quotations" of Herzog's film. Coppola himself has noted that " Aguirre , with its incredible imagery,

1872-629: The Oberhausen Manifesto on 28 February 1962. This call to arms, which included Alexander Kluge , Edgar Reitz , Peter Schamoni , Haro Senft and Franz-Josef Spieker among its signatories, provocatively declared "Der alte Film ist tot. Wir glauben an den neuen" ("The old cinema is dead. We believe in the new cinema"). Other younger filmmakers allied themselves to this Oberhausen group, among them Volker Schlöndorff , Werner Herzog , Jean-Marie Straub , Wim Wenders , Hans-Jürgen Syberberg and Rainer Werner Fassbinder in their rejection of

1950-594: The 46th greatest cult film ever made. The film was ranked #19 in Empire magazine's "The 100 Best Films Of World Cinema" in 2010. Aguirre has won several prestigious film awards. In 1973 it won the Deutscher Filmpreis (German Film Award) for "Outstanding Individual Achievement: Cinematography". In 1976 it was voted the "Best Foreign Film" by the French Syndicate of Film Critics. In 1977

2028-427: The Amazon basin in search of El Dorado. Various troubles afflicted the expedition and, sure that El Dorado was very close, Pizarro set up a smaller group led by Francisco de Orellana, to break off from the main group and forge ahead, then return with news of what they had found. This group utilized a brigantine to journey down the river. After failing to find the legendary city, Orellana was unable to return because of

2106-811: The Penalty (1972), Alice in the Cities (1974), Kings of the Road (1976), The American Friend (1977), Fassbinder's The Merchant of Four Seasons (1971), The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant (1972), Ali: Fear Eats the Soul (1974), Fox and His Friends (1974), Kluge's In Danger and Deep Distress, the Middleway Spells Certain Death (1974), and the collaborative work Germany in Autumn (1977/'78) about German society's reaction to

2184-805: The Society in Which He Lives (1971), can also be counted to the movement. Filmverlag der Autoren Filmverlag der Autoren is a German film distributor that was founded in 1971 to help finance and distribute independent films by German Autorenfilm directors, who are renowned for predominantly adapting their own screenplays. Called "The Flagship", many directors of the New German Cinema movement were associated with Filmverlag der Autoren, such as Werner Herzog , Rainer Werner Fassbinder , Wim Wenders , Percy Adlon , and Alexander Kluge , whose films were produced and distributed by

2262-597: The UK the film received mostly positive critical notices upon release. Vincent Canby , writing in The New York Times , called it "[A]bsolutely stunning ... Mr. Herzog views all the proceedings with fixed detachment. He remains cool. He takes no sides. He may even be slightly amused. Mainly he is a poet who constantly surprises us with unexpected juxtapositions ... This is a splendid and haunting work." In Time , Richard Schickel opined that "[Herzog] does

2340-498: The actor's anger to "burn itself out" before rolling the camera. On one occasion, irritated by the noise from a hut where members of the cast and crew were playing cards, the explosive Kinski fired three gunshots at it, blowing the tip off of one extra's finger. Kinski subsequently decided to leave the jungle location over Herzog's refusal to fire a sound assistant, only changing his mind after Herzog threatened to shoot first Kinski and then himself. The latter incident has given rise to

2418-403: The adverse conditions of the jungle, and rode Amazonian river rapids on rafts built by locals. At one point, a storm caused a river to flood, covering the film sets in several feet of water and destroying all the rafts built for the film. This flooding was immediately incorporated into the story, as a sequence including a flood and subsequent rebuilding of rafts was shot. The camera used to shoot

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2496-517: The airplane disintegrated in mid-air after a lightning strike and crashed in the Peruvian Amazon rainforest in 1971, killing 91 people: all on board except 17-year-old  Juliane Koepcke . Herzog was inspired to make the 1998 documentary film Wings of Hope about Koepcke's survival, since he had narrowly avoided taking the same flight. The film was produced in part by West German television station Hessischer Rundfunk , which televised

2574-402: The audience the honor of allowing it to discover the blindnesses and obsessions, the sober lunacies he quietly lays out on the screen. Well acted, most notably by Klaus Kinski in the title role, gloriously photographed by Thomas Mauch, Aguirre is, not to put too fine a point on it, a movie that makes a convincing claim to greatness." Time Out's Tony Rayns noted, "each scene and each detail

2652-535: The budget going towards Kinski's salary. It was filmed on location in the Peruvian rainforest , Machu Picchu (the stone steps of Huayna Picchu ), and on the Amazon River tributaries of the Ucayali region . Aguirre was shot in five weeks following nine months of pre-production planning. The film was shot in chronological order, as Herzog believed the film crew's progress on the river directly mirrored that of

2730-503: The city of El Dorado. Commissioned by Peru's governor, Ursúa organized an expeditionary group of 300 men to travel by way of the Amazon River. He was accompanied by his mixed-race mistress, Doña Inez. At one point during the journey, Aguirre, a professional soldier, decided that he could use the 300 men to overthrow the Spanish rule of Peru. Aguirre had Ursúa murdered and proclaimed Fernando as "The Prince of Peru". Fernando himself

2808-491: The commander of the expedition, Don Lope de Aguirre as his second-in-command, portly nobleman Don Fernando de Guzmán to represent the Spanish crown , and Brother Gaspar de Carvajal to bring the word of God. Accompanying the expedition, against Pizarro's better judgment, are Ursúa's mistress, Doña Inés, and Aguirre's teenage daughter Flores. One of the four rafts gets caught in an eddy while traveling through river rapids, and

2886-562: The company, and many of whom were members of the Filmverlag board. Efforts to found the Filmverlag had resulted from recurring frustrations the directors had faced in acquiring funding for their politically and aesthetically ambitious films. They had felt that in the established system which was partly commercially oriented, partly stately-funded, the usual means of achieving funding were too limiting, gave them little control over their own work, or just did not allow for issues as challenging as they were having in mind to tackle, so they started

2964-422: The courage to speak out against him. Knowing that some of the soldiers are still loyal to Ursúa, Aguirre ignores her. The expedition continues downriver on a single large raft. An indigenous couple approaching peacefully by canoe are captured by the explorers, and when the man expresses confusion upon being presented with a Bible, Brother Carvajal kills them for blasphemy. Guzmán dines on the low food supplies while

3042-598: The crew and the locals who were assisting the production. Shooting took place entirely on location, and was fraught with difficulties. Filming took place in the Peruvian rainforest on the Amazon River during an arduous five-week period, shooting on tributaries of the Ucayali region . The cast and crew climbed mountains, cut through heavy vines to open routes to the various jungle locations, and rode treacherous river rapids on rafts built by local craftworkers. Aguirre opened to widespread critical acclaim, and quickly developed

3120-583: The current, and he and his men continued to follow the Napo River until he reached the estuary of the Amazon in 1542. Accompanying Orellana was Gaspar de Carvajal , who kept a journal of the group's experiences. The historic Gaspar de Carvajal (1500–1584) was a Spanish Dominican friar who had settled in Peru and dedicated himself to the conversion of the Indigenous peoples. His general attitude towards

3198-420: The director's mise-en-scène ." Herzog explained how the choir-like sound was created: "We used a strange instrument, which we called a 'choir-organ.' It has inside it three dozen different tapes running parallel to each other in loops. ... All these tapes are running at the same time, and there is a keyboard on which you can play them like an organ so that [it will] sound just like a human choir but yet, at

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3276-435: The dubbing session, and so his lines were performed by another actor. The low budget precluded the use of stunt men or elaborate special effects. Cinematography in many scenes was done in order to accommodate the inclement weather and terrain of the region, with the camera lens often being obscured by rainwater and mud when the cast moved through thicker regions of the jungle. The cast and crew climbed up mountains, experienced

3354-651: The existing West German film industry and their determination to build a new industry founded on artistic excellence rather than commercial dictates. Despite the foundation of the Kuratorium Junger Deutscher Film (Young German Film Committee) in 1965, set up under the auspices of the Federal Ministry of the Interior to support new West German films financially, the directors of this New German Cinema, who rejected co-operation with

3432-465: The existing film industry, were consequently often dependent on money from television. Young filmmakers had the opportunity to test their mettle in such programmes as the stand-alone drama and documentary series Das kleine Fernsehspiel ( The Little TV Play ) or the television films of the crime series Tatort . However, the broadcasters sought TV premieres for the films which they had supported financially, with theatrical showings only occurring later. As

3510-575: The explorers' journey in the story. The director and his cast and crew floated in rafts down the Huallaga and Nanay rivers through the Urubamba Valley . All of the actors spoke their dialogue in English. The members of the cast and crew came from sixteen countries, and English was the only common language among them. In addition, Herzog felt that shooting Aguirre in English would improve

3588-401: The film a positive review, with an average rating of 9/10. The site's critics consensus reads, "A haunting journey of natural wonder and tangible danger, Aguirre transcends epic genre trappings and becomes mythological by its own right." J. Hoberman has written that Aguirre "is not just a great movie but an essential one ... Herzog's third feature ... is both a landmark film and

3666-426: The film fairly accurately incorporates some 16th-century events and historical personages into a fictional narrative. Herzog's screenplay merged two expeditions: one led by Gonzalo Pizarro in 1541, which resulted in the discovery by Europeans of the Amazon River by Francisco de Orellana , and another one that occurred in 1560. The expedition of Gonzalo Pizarro and his men left from the city of Quito and entered

3744-542: The film on the same day it opened in theatres. Herzog has blamed this for the relatively poor commercial reception of the film in Germany. However, outside Germany the film became an "enormous cult favorite" in "such places as Mexico, Venezuela, and Algiers". The film had a theatrical run of fifteen months in Paris. Aguirre received a theatrical release in the United States in 1977 by New Yorker Films . It immediately became

3822-497: The film was stolen by Herzog from the Munich Film School . Years later, Herzog recalled: It was a very simple 35mm camera, one I used on many other films, so I do not consider it a theft. For me, it was truly a necessity. I wanted to make films and needed a camera. I had some sort of natural right to this tool. If you need air to breathe, and you are locked in a room, you have to take a chisel and hammer and break down

3900-415: The film's chances for international distribution. However, the small amount of money that had been set aside for post-synchronization "left Peru with the man in charge of the process; both absconded en route ". The English-language track was ultimately replaced by a higher-quality German-language version, which was dubbed after production was completed. According to Herzog, Kinski requested too much money for

3978-425: The film. The sequence with the boat caught in the upper branches of a tree remains, but as filmed it seems to be simply a hallucinatory vision. The finale is significantly different from Herzog's original script. The director recalled, "I only remember that the end of the film was totally different. The end was actually the raft going out into the open ocean and being swept back inland, because for many miles you have

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4056-509: The first time on VHS and DVD, and in 2009, Arthaus published all Filmverlag films in a large, 50-disc DVD box, half of which had not been published on home video before. Since the re-organization of Kinowelt in 2003, the original Filmverlag is officially known today as Filmverlag der Autoren und Futura Film GmbH & Co. Verleih Vertriebsgesellschaft KG . It has three subsidiaries: On April 18, 1971 in Munich , thirteen filmmakers signed

4134-433: The formation of the band. He had appeared as an actor in the director's first full-length film, Signs of Life (1968), playing a pianist. Aguirre was only the first of many collaborations between the band and the director. Popol Vuh's "hypnotic music" for Aguirre met with considerable acclaim. Roger Ebert wrote, "The music sets the tone. It is haunting, ecclesiastical, human and yet something else ... [T]he music

4212-433: The founding papers of Filmverlag der Autoren . They are: In 2008, Dominik Wessely and Laurens Straub published the 120-minute documentary Gegenschuß - Aufbruch der Filmemacher ("Countershot: Dawn of the filmmakers") on the Filmverlag . Aguirre, the Wrath of God Aguirre, the Wrath of God ( Spanish: [aˈɣire] ; German : Aguirre, der Zorn Gottes ; [aˈɡɪʁə deːɐ̯ ˌtsɔʁn ˈɡɔtəs] )

4290-438: The legend that Herzog made Kinski act for him at gunpoint; however, Herzog has repeatedly denied this claim during interviews, saying he only verbally threatened Kinski in the heat of the moment in a desperate attempt to keep him from leaving the set. This incident is parodied in the 2004 film Incident at Loch Ness , which Herzog co-wrote. The film was made for $ 370,000 (equivalent to $ 2,695,084 in 2023), with one-third of

4368-453: The local people was consistent with the benevolence of his better-known brother Dominican friar, Bartolomé de las Casas . This personality is at odds with the description in the film where Carvajal is portrayed as a cowardly priest who claimed that "the church was always on the side of the strong". The film's major characters, Aguirre, Ursúa, Don Fernando, Inez and Flores, were involved in the second expedition, which left Peru in 1560 to find

4446-429: The men starve, and has the expedition's only remaining horse pushed off the raft because it annoys him; soon afterwards he is found dead near the raft's privy. After Guzmán's death, Aguirre proclaims himself leader. Ursúa is then taken ashore and hanged in the jungle. The group attacks an indigenous village, where several soldiers are killed by spears and arrows. The distraught Inés walks into the jungle and disappears. On

4524-400: The others are unable to help free it. That night, gunfire erupts on the trapped raft; in the morning, the men on board are found dead, with three missing. Ursúa wants the bodies to be brought back to camp for burial. Knowing this would slow down the expedition, Aguirre suggests that Perucho fire the cannon to clean the rust from it. He fires at the raft, destroying it and throwing the bodies into

4602-405: The people and situations may have been inspired by missionary Gaspar de Carvajal 's account of an earlier Amazonian expedition, although Carvajal never accompanied Aguirre on any of his expeditions. Aguirre was the first of five collaborations between Herzog and Kinski. They had differing views as to how the role should be played, and they clashed throughout filming; Kinski's rage terrorized both

4680-406: The plot details and characters, although he did use some historical figures in purely fictitious ways. Herzog wrote the screenplay "in a frenzy" in two-and-a-half days. Much of the script was written during a 200-mile (320 km) bus trip with Herzog's football team. His teammates got drunk after winning a game and one vomited on several pages of Herzog's manuscript, which he immediately threw out

4758-541: The present day, provides for the television companies to make available an annual sum to support the production of films which are suitable for both theatrical distribution and television presentation (the amount of money provided by the public broadcasters has varied between € 4.5 and 12.94 million per year). Under the terms of the accord, films produced using these funds can only be screened on television 24 months after their theatrical release. They may appear on video or DVD no sooner than six months after cinema release. As

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4836-487: The raft as Aguirre imagines conquering all of the Americas and founding an incestuous dynasty with his deceased daughter to rule over it. Picking up a monkey, he asks, "Who else is with me?" The idea for the film began when Herzog borrowed a book on historical adventurers from a friend. After reading a half-page devoted to Lope de Aguirre, the filmmaker became inspired and immediately devised the story. He fabricated most of

4914-428: The raft, the group of slowly starving, feverish men begin disbelieving everything they see, even when shot at with arrows. The group stares in disbelief at a wooden ship perched in the highest branches of a tall tree. Aguirre orders that it be brought down and refurbished, but Brother Carvajal refuses. In a series of attacks by unseen assailants, all of the remaining crew except Aguirre are killed by arrows. Monkeys overrun

4992-467: The rebels arrived in Venezuela, government agents offered full pardons to Aguirre's men. All of them accepted the deal. Immediately prior to his arrest, Aguirre murdered his daughter Flores, who had remained by his side during the entire journey. He was then captured and dismembered. Other Spanish expeditions outside the Amazon influenced the story. The conversation in which the local inhabitants refuse

5070-490: The river. During the night, the remaining rafts are swept away by the rising river. Time has run out for the scouting mission, and Ursúa decides to return to Pizarro's group despite the danger from hostile natives. Aguirre leads a mutiny against Ursúa, telling the men that untold riches await them ahead, and reminding them that Hernán Cortés won an empire in Mexico by disobeying orders. Ursúa orders Aguirre arrested, but he and

5148-631: The same poll, critic Nigel Andrews and director Santosh Sivan also placed it in their top ten list. Martin Scorsese included it on a list of "39 Essential Foreign Films for a Young Filmmaker". In 1999, Rolling Stone included the film on the magazine's "100 Maverick Movies of the Last 100 Years" list. Aguirre was included in Time magazine's "All Time 100 Best Films", compiled by Richard Schickel and Richard Corliss . Entertainment Weekly named it

5226-418: The same time, very artificial and really quite eerie." In 1975 Popol Vuh released an album entitled Aguirre . Although ostensibly a soundtrack album to Herzog's film, the six-track LP included only two songs ("Aguirre I (L'Acrime Di Rei)" and "Aguirre II") taken from Aguirre, the Wrath of God . The four remaining tracks were derived from various recordings made by the group between about 1972 and 1974. At

5304-787: The terrorism of the Red Army Faction and the state's counter-measures during the German Autumn events of 1977. The Filmverlag' s orientation shifted towards a more mainstream program throughout the 1980s after Der Spiegel -publisher Rudolf Augstein with the help of Bohm had bought himself into the venture in 1977, an event which prompted many of its founding members to leave and start their own production and distribution companies, such as Pro-ject Filmproduktion (started for Kluge's documentary Der Kandidat on Franz-Josef Strauß 's 1980 campaign running for German chancellor) and Theo Hinz's Futura-Film (founded in 1983). While

5382-402: The three months he lived there left a lasting impression on the young Herzog. Years later, the director remembered the volatile actor and knew that he was the only possible man who could play Aguirre, and he sent Kinski a copy of the screenplay. "Between three and four in the morning, the phone rang", Herzog recalled. "It took me at least a couple of minutes before I realized that it was Kinski who

5460-434: The time of Aguirre the band members were Fricke (piano, Mellotron), Fichelscher (electric guitar, acoustic guitar, drums), Djong Yun (vocals), and Robert Eliscu (oboe, pan pipe). The film features several music pieces that have not been released in any form. While Herzog was location scouting for Aguirre in Peru, his reservation on LANSA Flight 508 was canceled due to a last minute change in itinerary. During this flight,

5538-552: The well-established genres of Hollywood cinema. The new movement saw German cinema return to international critical significance for the first time since the end of the Weimar Republic. Films such as Kluge's Abschied von gestern ( Yesterday Girl , 1966), Herzog's Aguirre, the Wrath of God (1972), Fassbinder's Fear Eats the Soul (1974) and The Marriage of Maria Braun (1979), and Wenders' Paris, Texas (1984) found international acclaim and critical approval. Often

5616-428: The window. Herzog claims that he cannot remember what he wrote on these pages. The screenplay was mostly shot as written, with only minor differences. In an early scene in which Pizarro instructs Ursúa to lead the scouting team down the river, in the script, Pizarro mentions that in the course of the expedition Ursúa could possibly discover what happened to Francisco de Orellana 's expedition, which had vanished without

5694-534: The work of these auteurs was first recognised abroad rather than in West Germany itself. The work of post-war Germany's leading novelists Heinrich Böll and Günter Grass provided source material for the adaptations The Lost Honour of Katharina Blum (1975) (by Schlöndorff and Margarethe von Trotta ) and The Tin Drum (1979) (by Schlöndorff alone) respectively, the latter becoming the first German film to win

5772-474: Was Furchtlose Flieger by Veith von Fürstenberg  [ de ] and Martin Müller. Throughout the 1970s, the films put out by the Filmverlag had a high reputation among critics and intellectuals, but the association often bordered bankruptcy. Notable productions of this era included Herzog's Aguirre, the Wrath of God (1972), The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser (1974), Wenders's The Goalkeeper's Fear of

5850-523: Was "the influence Malick's over-inflated New World can't shake." Channel 4 opined "This is an astonishing, deceptively simple, pocket-sized epic whose influence, in terms of both style and narrative, is seen in films as diverse as Apocalypse Now , The Mission , Predator , and The Blair Witch Project (1999)." Although plot details and many of the characters in Aguirre come directly from Herzog's own imagination, historians have pointed out that

5928-468: Was a very strong influence. I'd be remiss if I didn't mention it." Several critics have noted that Aguirre appears to have had a direct influence on several other films. Martin Rubin has written that "[a]mong the films strongly influenced by Aguirre are Coppola's Apocalypse Now and Terrence Malick 's The New World (2005)". J. Hoberman agreed, noting that Herzog's " sui generis Amazon fever dream"

6006-470: Was eventually murdered when he questioned Aguirre's scheme of sailing to the Atlantic, conquering Panama, crossing the isthmus and invading Peru. Many others who attempted to rebel against Aguirre were also killed. The surviving soldiers conquered Isla Margarita off the coast of Venezuela and made preparations to attack the mainland. By that time, Spanish authorities had learned of Aguirre's plans. When

6084-496: Was the source of this inarticulate screaming. And after an hour of this, it dawned on me that he found it the most fascinating screenplay and wanted to be Aguirre." From the beginning of the production, Herzog and Kinski argued about the proper manner to portray Aguirre. Kinski wanted to play a "wild, ranting madman", but Herzog wanted a "quieter, more menacing" portrayal. In order to get the performance he desired, Herzog would deliberately infuriate Kinski before each shot and wait for

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