Customer Reviews

Burden of Dreams: Screenplay, Journals, Reviews, Photographs

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The book of Burden of Dreams is a third level of self-reflexivity in action. First we have Herzog's "Fitzcarraldo", then we have Blank's excellent film, then we have this book about Blank's movie. Confused yet? For those into "method" film making, it's a fascinating read, but not much more enlightening than the films themselves. We get to read journals about how hard it was for Blank's team to watch how hard it was for Werner's team. And, we learn a lot about Blank, who is a treasure as a documentatarian.

Fortunately, the stories are worth telling. It's higher minded than, say, "You'll never eat lunch in this town again".

All have cured me of my desire to visit Peruvian jungle.

Here it is - a review about how hard it is to read a non-fiction book about how hard it is to make a documentary film about how hard it is to make a fiction film about how hard it is to drag a ship over a mountain. Seriously! The main problem with this book is that we hear the SAME story 4 consecutive times - first in the screenplay to the documentary, then in director Les Blank's journal, then assistant director Maureen Goslin's journal, THEN in a magazine piece. Enough already! I guess this was easier and cheaper than writing a real book on the subject.