MARCH 2 THROUGH MARCH 8
EXCLUSIVELY AT AFI SILVER
35th Anniversary - NEW 35mm Print

"The most admirable thing about Aguirre may be the discipline with which Herzog tells his tale." - TIME Magazine

"The 70s established Herzog as the most defiantly visionary of directors. In Every Man for Himself (And God Against All), Heart of Glass, Nosferatu the Vampire and his amazing documentary about the Guadeloupean volcano La Soufriere, he created worlds beyond civilization, whose ravishing beauty could drive intruders mad. Who better to play the overweening man, intoxicated to the point of insanity, than Klaus Kinski, Herzog's house demon? (Herzog made a fascinating documentary, the 1998 My Best Fiend, about his hectic relationship with the actor.) Aguirre is the prototype Herzog-Kinski collaboration, about a Spanish explorer who loses his mission, men and mind on an Amazon adventure. Answering only to the logic of Peru's natural beauty, the film seems an examination of madness from the inside. Sumptuous, spellbinding and immediately, eternally scary." -Richard Corliss, TIME Magazine (From his list of all TIME Magazine's 100 best films)

Werner Herzog's 1972 cult classic is a visionary, nightmarish tale of a mutinous Spanish conquistador (Klaus Kinski) wielding a brutal, preening, psychotic charisma and his doomed quest to find a city of gold in the Peruvian jungle. Beginning with one of the screen's most awesome opening shots-a telescopic view of the entire expedition, soldiers, slaves, livery and livestock, with women carried in sedan chairs, making their way down a steep mountain path-the story descends into a Heart of Darkness parable of man's mad pursuit of power and nature's unforgiving rebuke. Herzog's career-defining film provided star Kinski with his greatest role ever ("a half-mad actor playing a full-fledged lunatic," J. Hoberman, The Village Voice).

DIR/SCR/PROD Werner Herzog. West Germany, 1972, color, 100 min. In German with English subtitles. NOT RATED

Friday, March 2 through Thursday, March 8