Les Blank's Burden of Dreams is one of the most remarkable documentaries ever made about the making of a movie.
Free account saves your watchlist and ratings.
Burden of Dreams
Overview
The Amazon rain forest, 1979. The crew of Fitzcarraldo (1982), a film directed by German director Werner Herzog, soon finds itself with problems related to casting, tribal struggles and accidents, among many other setbacks; but nothing compared to dragging a huge steamboat up a mountain, while Herzog embraces the path of a certain madness to make his vision come true.
Director and cast
- Les Blank Director
- Candace Laughlin as Self - Narrator (voice)
- Werner Herzog as Self - Filmmaker
- Klaus Kinski as Self - Actor
- Claudia Cardinale as Self - Actress
- Alfredo de Río Tambo as Self
- Ángela Reina as Self
- Carmen Correa as Self
- Elia de Río Ene as Self
- David Pérez Espinosa as Self - Actor
- Miguel Ángel Fuentes as Self - Actor
Critics on Rotten Tomatoes
Top critics, in their words
The film is at once funny and, in its depiction of the scant differences between art and megalomania, somewhat frightening.
More films
Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker's Apocalypse (1991)
Documentary · R
A chronicle of the production problems — including bad weather, actors' health, war near the filming locations, and more — which plagued the filming of Apocalypse Now, increasing costs and nearly destroying the life and career of Francis Ford Coppola.
- Runtime
- 1h 36m
- Director
- Fax Bahr, George Hickenlooper
- Cast
- Francis Ford Coppola, Eleanor Coppola, John Milius
Cameraperson (2016)
Documentary · Not Rated
As a visually radical memoir, CAMERAPERSON draws on the remarkable footage that filmmaker Kirsten Johnson has shot and reframes it in ways that illuminate moments and situations that have personally affected her. What emerges is an elegant meditation on the relationship between truth and the camera frame, as Johnson transforms scenes t...
- Runtime
- 1h 42m
- Cast
- Kirsten Johnson, Jacques Derrida, Michael Moore
Lost in La Mancha (2002)
Documentary · R
Fulton and Pepe's 2000 documentary captures Terry Gilliam's attempt to get The Man Who Killed Don Quixote off the ground. Back injuries, freakish storms, and more zoom in to sabotage the project.
- Runtime
- 1h 33m
- Director
- Keith Fulton, Louis Pepe
- Cast
- Jeff Bridges, Johnny Depp, Vanessa Paradis
As I Was Moving Ahead Occasionally I Saw Brief Glimpses of Beauty (2000)
Documentary · N/A
A compilation of over 30 years of private home movie footage shot by Lithuanian-American avant-garde director Jonas Mekas, assembled by Mekas "purely by chance", without concern for chronological order.
- Runtime
- 4h 48m
- Director
- Jonas Mekas
- Cast
- Hollis Frampton, Stan Brakhage, Oona Mekas
Jodorowsky's Dune (2013)
Documentary · PG-13
In 1974, Chilean-French director Alejandro Jodorowsky embarked on the quixotic project of adapting Frank Herbert's influential novel Dune (1969) for the big screen. After investing two years, and millions of dollars, the gigantic project ended in failure; but the artists Jodorowsky brought together to carry it out continued to work tog...
- Runtime
- 1h 27m
- Director
- Frank Pavich
- Cast
- Alejandro Jodorowsky, Michel Seydoux, Chris Foss
I Served the King of England (2007)
Comedy · R
Prague, Czechoslovakia, during the inter-war period. Jan Dítě, a young and clever waiter who wants to become a millionaire, comes to the conclusion that to achieve his ambitious goal he must be diligent, listen and observe as much as he can, be always discreet and use what he learns to his own advantage; but the turbulent tides of hist...
- Runtime
- 1h 55m
- Director
- Jiří Menzel
- Cast
- Ivan Barnev, Oldřich Kaiser, Julia Jentsch
My Sweet Little Village (1985)
Comedy · PG
The movie's main storyline follows the life of Otík, a young man, in a tight-knit village community. The sweet-tempered Otík works as an assistant truck driver with Mr. Pávek, his older colleague and practical-minded neighbor. Pávek's family takes care of Otík, whose parents are dead. However, the two coworkers become at odds over Otík...
- Runtime
- 1h 38m
- Director
- Jiří Menzel
- Cast
- János Bán, Marián Labuda, Zdeněk Svěrák
Larks on a String (1990)
Comedy · Drama · Romance · N/A
In post-WWII Communist Czechoslovakia, several characters considered bourgeois are sentenced to work in a junkyard for rehabilitation. Among them is a young man who pines for a female convict.
- Runtime
- 1h 34m
- Director
- Jiří Menzel
- Cast
- Rudolf Hrušínský, Václav Neckář, Jitka Zelenohorská
Cutting It Short (1981)
Comedy · N/A
Francin, manager of a small-town brewery, has a charming wife whose abundant blonde locks are an adornment to the town. Maryska looks ethereal but loves meat and beer, while Francin is an ascetic. The strict members of the brewery board of directors come to audit the accounts, but are diverted from concentrating on Francin's detailed r...
- Runtime
- 1h 33m
- Director
- Jiří Menzel
- Cast
- Magda Vášáryová, Rudolf Hrušínský, Petr Čepek
The Snowdrop Festival (1984)
Comedy · Drama · N/A
An episodic film about the inhabitants of Kersko, their hardships and their joys, most prominently hunting. A lyrical and humorous adaptation of writings by Bohumil Hrabal.
- Runtime
- 1h 23m
- Director
- Jiří Menzel
- Cast
- Rudolf Hrušínský, Jaromír Hanzlík, Josef Somr






Comments
Talk about the film with other members