Conquest of the Useless: Reflections from the Making of Fitzcarraldo

Conquest of the Useless: Reflections from the Making of Fitzcarraldo

author: Werner Herzog

name: Steev

average rating: 4.21

book published: 2004

rating: 5

read at: 2011/12/09

date added: 2011/12/09

shelves: own-it, filmmaking, fun

review:
This is a wonderful book. If you're a big Herzog fan like I am, or interested in filmmaking, or Peru, or just interested in reading the journals of a really unique artist and thinker, trying to do the impossible in the middle of a jungle, you will probably like this book. I'm not sure who else would like it for sure if they don't fall into one or more of those categories.

This book covers a lot of ground. It's some descriptive logging of daily work on a film set, but it's much much more. Many entries are unrelated directly to the business of making his film, but rather is just strange anecdotes of the bizarre stuff that happens on the periphery of the operation, or just surreal observations that Herzog makes about plants or animals or landscapes that he sees. he really has a unique outlook on nature and the world in general. It's super super interesting.