another maniac, this time as slave trader in Africa
Added 5/10/2009
After having watched the entire series of Kinski/Herzog collaborations, I felt a bit tired for this one. It is the portrait of a perfectly awful misanthrope, who starts with nothing, establishes himself as a thief to be feared, and is hired for his talents with slaves, i.e. how to frighten them into being manipulated by vividly portrayed brutality. He goes from Brazil to Africa, a tour of nowhere that ends with nothingness. You get the clash of cruelties of old civilizations with new-world greed, truly deadly and at times mesmerizing.
But at this point, Herzog's obsessional themes are clear, indeed almost rehashes: a single man, through sheer will and utter ruthlessness, can for a time control his environment. But they are alienated and ultimately cannot consolidate their gains, heading into the oblivion that they have spent their whole lives trying to keep at bay. At this, Herzog is singularly effective and Kinski is the perfect vehicle for the nihilism.
This is not fun to watch, but it is an interesting evocation of the chaos and cruelty. ("I want you awake when I kill you" is typical dialogue. I will definitely watch Aguirre again, as it is the definitive masterpiece and viewing it feels endlessly fresh. This felt a bit stale, perhaps because I was on a binge, but still...
Recommended. It is serious art and for afficianados.
0 out of 1 people found this helpful.
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Simply stunning
Added 4/27/2009
Cobra verde can be considered one of the best films of the great German director Werner Herzog.With amazing images, principaly in its disturbing and superb end, it portraies with extreme sensitivity the typical passions of the human being, as the insatiable craving for power. Of course, everything is shown with the extremely touching "touch" of Werzog. In short, the film shows before everything that, as it says cobra verde(francisco manuel da silva), the slavery inhabits in the human heart. A masterpiece simply Fantastic !
1 out of 2 people found this helpful.
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The most obscure Herzog/Kinski film, but maybe the best.
Added 4/4/2009
Of the five Herzog/Kinski films, "Cobra Verde" is my favourite. It is very incoherent, a far cry from the tightly wound dramatic narrative of "Aguirre, the Wrath of God." But it has the most outlandish, demented imagery of any Herzog film, and that is saying a lot. The visuals are indelible in nearly every scene.
The film seems muddled because it simultaneously tries to accommodate both Herzog's and Kinski's ideas, which were very different from each other. The first half is heavily influenced by Kinski, who wanted to present his character as a dashing, charismatic anti-hero. This part of the film is heavy on deliberately iconic, heroic images (in the audio commentary, Herzog calls it a "spaghetti western" style). Kinski speaks in terse pronouncements that hint mysteriously at his deep loneliness and noble character. The story also makes sure to emphasize his success with the ladies. Every woman who sees him immediately goes crazy with desire, whereupon he impregnates her and continues on his lonely and mystical journey.
This is extremely self-serving. Kinski's autobiography suggests that he thought of himself this way in real life. His success with women was also very important to him, he brags about it on every page. Here, in his penultimate film, he surely wanted to create a legacy in which people would view him exactly as he wanted. Thus, in a strange way, this bizarre and unrealistic character has more of Kinski in him than any of his other cinematic incarnations.
But don't think I'm mocking him. In a way, this is the best part of the film. In the movies, you can get away with this stuff; cinema is all about artifice, and with Werner Herzog directing, the most banal grandstanding takes on a beautiful and unworldly quality. There is a short scene in the beginning where Kinski seduces a woman by the ruins of a church. The content makes no sense, but it looks gorgeous, astounding, Kinski's barefoot gun-toting outlaw and a beautiful woman in the picturesque ruins, with Popol Vuh's evocative ambient score. Another seduction scene takes place in the jungle and is equally lush and sexy (now there's a first for Herzog, a singularly sexless director).
The second half changes tone entirely. Through various plot devices, Kinski's character gets shipped to Africa, where he ends up in a desperate situation reminiscent of both "Aguirre" and "Fitzcarraldo." He tries his hand at the slave trade, and the film touches on the theme of colonialism, to the point where it surprisingly resembles Gillo Pontecorvo's "Burn!" in places (the protagonists are quite similar, and engage in similar political intrigue with the locals). But, this being a Herzog film, that aspect never really becomes the focus.
In fact, nothing really becomes the focus. Kinski's character engages in the usual callous self-abandon common in Herzog films, but he becomes much more of a cipher. He is caught up in spectacular events, but he's mostly being carried along by them, with no time for characterization. He gets one line later where he seems to understand the evil of his actions (the "our future murderesses" line), but that's all, and the film doesn't follow up on it. At the same time, he does not engage in mad dreams of glory like Aguirre, nor does he have any obsessions like Fitzcarraldo. It's hard to say what is keeping him going.
It is really very strange. The first half of the film tries to create an image of an "honest rogue" or noble Robin-Hood type. It is hokey characterization, and not very successful, but the film definitely makes an effort. But in the second half, it's as if none of that ever happened, and Kinski becomes more of a desperate and cruel wild-man, though his reasons are unclear the whole time. You see why it's muddled.
But the second half is bursting with brilliant set-pieces. It does not have the majestic grandeur of the river or mountains in "Aguirre." Those images are exotic, but can still be understood and admired through the language of an "ordinary" aesthetic sensibility (not the best way of saying that, but you know what I mean). The world depicted in "Cobra Verde" is completely alien, ungainly and disconcerting in every way. It's too inexplicable to be beautiful, and that makes it more real and terrifying than anything else Herzog has ever filmed. Like, for instance, the angular dance performed by the masked warriors when they take Kinski prisoner, or the crazed battle in which Kinski leads a chaotic army of screaming naked women. But even less important scenes have this air of unfathomable strangeness, like the system of waving flags that is used to communicate, or the shot of the female slaves in the well. At some point, Kinski fades into the background amid this unhinged flurry, which ultimately leads nowhere, because the plot seems to just cut off without warning.
And at the end, the protagonist surfaces again for the tragic final scene on the shore. One wonders what Herzog wanted to say about him. Herzog mentions his "evil" in the commentary, but he's not prominent enough by the end to be an embodiment of evil. All the characterization occurs in the beginning, where Kinski tries to make him into a misunderstood hero. And, oddly, that's the most sympathetic part; the contrast between the first and second half makes Herzog's worldview seem even colder than usual. Kinski, on the other hand, comes across much like his character -- a deeply confused man who is always raging against whatever adversary he has at the moment, but who has absolutely no conception of his life beyond the current battle. And throughout all this is the cinematography, like nothing else on earth. It is an inarticulate film, but you may end up returning to it many times.
0 out of 0 people found this helpful.
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Only pretending to be mad
Added 9/15/2008
This is just as great as the other Herzog/Kinski films. I saw it when it first came out, over twenty years ago, because I'd read the Chatwin book and had been hugely impressed. However, the film doesn't have that much in common with the book, and I came out rather baffled and disappointed. The imagery was still fantastic, nevertheless, and has stayed with me. Watching it again, having forgotten most of the book, I think as a film it has matured, and I was better prepared by having also just run through the others, Aguirre, Woyzeck, Fitzcarraldo, Nosferatu. These films have to be absorbed as a succession of ultra-powerful images. There is no great narrative continuity or explanatory plotting in any of them. You have to fill in the gaps for yourself. But the performances and the visuals are fantastic. In fact, you have to relax your built-in linear thought-mode, and just let the pictures soak in. Not that there aren't some good lines, many good lines actually. Slavery was a standard economic fact of life ever since humans invented the concept of property. African tribes enslaved each other readily, and thought nothing of it. There was nothing racist about this, it was just dog eat dog. Nature's way. Britain's abolition of the slave trade is slowly being recognized as the most remarkably altruistic political act since the beginning of history. Every picture in this picture burns into the memory. The ending. Those singing girls. That enormous derelict fort. The Prince who was only feigning madness. Thanks to the reviewer who explained the foot in the ocean --- I hadn't twigged it.
0 out of 0 people found this helpful.
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Kinski again
Added 9/10/2008
It is a good film, but not nearly on par with such classics as Aguirre: The Wrath Of God, Nosferatu, Phantom Of The Night, nor Fitzcarraldo, and it is a film even Herzog has expressed dissatisfaction with. The film was written by Herzog, who adapted it from a novel by Bruce Chatwin, The Viceroy Of Ouidah; but it's probably the least affecting screenplay of the major Herzog-Kinski films, as well as the film the two made together that has the least for Kinski to do- i.e- strut his stuff and dominate whole scenes. Things move far too quickly and illogically, there is little explanation of scenes and events, and little in the way of character development, in either the lead character or the few minor characters that say anything. The cinematography is- as usual, excellent, and there are often quotable snippets of dialogue, but, as a whole, the film fails to capture the imagination the way the above named films do. Cobra Verde (the character as written- not Kinski's superb acting) is simply not that compelling a figure, for he has no grand divide within him. He is a brute and a scoundrel, and little more. After this film, Kinski and Herzog had a final falling out, and Kinski died a few years later.... Kinski shows he is a great actor throughout the film. Cobra Verde declares that he does not trust shoes, women, horses, and little else, and has that glower that only Kinski could do. That alone is mesmerizing enough. Had only there been more such moments in this hour and fifty minute film the film may have achieved greatness, but as the main character is never fully realized and the narrative is patchwork- at best, the film is merely a good but uneven work of art. Yet, despite this, a little perspective is needed, for a flawed film by Werner Herzog is significantly better than most any other film a lesser filmmaker will make. By mortal standards, this is not a bad film, at all, but from this great filmmaker and his legendary star- who together left three indisputable masterpieces: Aguirre: The Wrath Of God, Nosferatu, Phantom Of The Night, and Fitzcarraldo, as well as the excellent and enigmatic Woyzeck, it is a bit of a disappointment. Too often it steals the best ideas from earlier and better Herzog films, and never reinvigorates them adequately to suit their inclusion in this film's cosmos. Perhaps it is this knowledge that is behind Herzog's final disappointment with his own film. If so, he is correct in his assessment, and that very awareness is the reason Herzog is such a great artist, for understanding greatness is a deeper and rarer thing than achieving it, for, as I have said, `Greater than transcendence is its recognition.' Herzog has done both in his career, although only one shall have to suffice in Cobra Verde.
2 out of 3 people found this helpful.
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another maniac, this time as slave trader in Africa
Added 5/10/2009
After having watched the entire series of Kinski/Herzog collaborations, I felt a bit tired for this one. It is the portrait of a perfectly awful misanthrope, who starts with nothing, establishes himself as a thief to be feared, and is hired for his talents with slaves, i.e. how to frighten them into being manipulated by vividly portrayed brutality. He goes from Brazil to Africa, a tour of nowhere that ends with nothingness. You get the clash of cruelties of old civilizations with new-world greed, truly deadly and at times mesmerizing.
But at this point, Herzog's obsessional themes are clear, indeed almost rehashes: a single man, through sheer will and utter ruthlessness, can for a time control his environment. But they are alienated and ultimately cannot consolidate their gains, heading into the oblivion that they have spent their whole lives trying to keep at bay. At this, Herzog is singularly effective and Kinski is the perfect vehicle for the nihilism.
This is not fun to watch, but it is an interesting evocation of the chaos and cruelty. ("I want you awake when I kill you" is typical dialogue. I will definitely watch Aguirre again, as it is the definitive masterpiece and viewing it feels endlessly fresh. This felt a bit stale, perhaps because I was on a binge, but still...
Recommended. It is serious art and for afficianados.
0 out of 1 people found this helpful.
|
Simply stunning
Added 4/27/2009
Cobra verde can be considered one of the best films of the great German director Werner Herzog.With amazing images, principaly in its disturbing and superb end, it portraies with extreme sensitivity the typical passions of the human being, as the insatiable craving for power. Of course, everything is shown with the extremely touching "touch" of Werzog. In short, the film shows before everything that, as it says cobra verde(francisco manuel da silva), the slavery inhabits in the human heart. A masterpiece simply Fantastic !
1 out of 2 people found this helpful.
|
The most obscure Herzog/Kinski film, but maybe the best.
Added 4/4/2009
Of the five Herzog/Kinski films, "Cobra Verde" is my favourite. It is very incoherent, a far cry from the tightly wound dramatic narrative of "Aguirre, the Wrath of God." But it has the most outlandish, demented imagery of any Herzog film, and that is saying a lot. The visuals are indelible in nearly every scene.
The film seems muddled because it simultaneously tries to accommodate both Herzog's and Kinski's ideas, which were very different from each other. The first half is heavily influenced by Kinski, who wanted to present his character as a dashing, charismatic anti-hero. This part of the film is heavy on deliberately iconic, heroic images (in the audio commentary, Herzog calls it a "spaghetti western" style). Kinski speaks in terse pronouncements that hint mysteriously at his deep loneliness and noble character. The story also makes sure to emphasize his success with the ladies. Every woman who sees him immediately goes crazy with desire, whereupon he impregnates her and continues on his lonely and mystical journey.
This is extremely self-serving. Kinski's autobiography suggests that he thought of himself this way in real life. His success with women was also very important to him, he brags about it on every page. Here, in his penultimate film, he surely wanted to create a legacy in which people would view him exactly as he wanted. Thus, in a strange way, this bizarre and unrealistic character has more of Kinski in him than any of his other cinematic incarnations.
But don't think I'm mocking him. In a way, this is the best part of the film. In the movies, you can get away with this stuff; cinema is all about artifice, and with Werner Herzog directing, the most banal grandstanding takes on a beautiful and unworldly quality. There is a short scene in the beginning where Kinski seduces a woman by the ruins of a church. The content makes no sense, but it looks gorgeous, astounding, Kinski's barefoot gun-toting outlaw and a beautiful woman in the picturesque ruins, with Popol Vuh's evocative ambient score. Another seduction scene takes place in the jungle and is equally lush and sexy (now there's a first for Herzog, a singularly sexless director).
The second half changes tone entirely. Through various plot devices, Kinski's character gets shipped to Africa, where he ends up in a desperate situation reminiscent of both "Aguirre" and "Fitzcarraldo." He tries his hand at the slave trade, and the film touches on the theme of colonialism, to the point where it surprisingly resembles Gillo Pontecorvo's "Burn!" in places (the protagonists are quite similar, and engage in similar political intrigue with the locals). But, this being a Herzog film, that aspect never really becomes the focus.
In fact, nothing really becomes the focus. Kinski's character engages in the usual callous self-abandon common in Herzog films, but he becomes much more of a cipher. He is caught up in spectacular events, but he's mostly being carried along by them, with no time for characterization. He gets one line later where he seems to understand the evil of his actions (the "our future murderesses" line), but that's all, and the film doesn't follow up on it. At the same time, he does not engage in mad dreams of glory like Aguirre, nor does he have any obsessions like Fitzcarraldo. It's hard to say what is keeping him going.
It is really very strange. The first half of the film tries to create an image of an "honest rogue" or noble Robin-Hood type. It is hokey characterization, and not very successful, but the film definitely makes an effort. But in the second half, it's as if none of that ever happened, and Kinski becomes more of a desperate and cruel wild-man, though his reasons are unclear the whole time. You see why it's muddled.
But the second half is bursting with brilliant set-pieces. It does not have the majestic grandeur of the river or mountains in "Aguirre." Those images are exotic, but can still be understood and admired through the language of an "ordinary" aesthetic sensibility (not the best way of saying that, but you know what I mean). The world depicted in "Cobra Verde" is completely alien, ungainly and disconcerting in every way. It's too inexplicable to be beautiful, and that makes it more real and terrifying than anything else Herzog has ever filmed. Like, for instance, the angular dance performed by the masked warriors when they take Kinski prisoner, or the crazed battle in which Kinski leads a chaotic army of screaming naked women. But even less important scenes have this air of unfathomable strangeness, like the system of waving flags that is used to communicate, or the shot of the female slaves in the well. At some point, Kinski fades into the background amid this unhinged flurry, which ultimately leads nowhere, because the plot seems to just cut off without warning.
And at the end, the protagonist surfaces again for the tragic final scene on the shore. One wonders what Herzog wanted to say about him. Herzog mentions his "evil" in the commentary, but he's not prominent enough by the end to be an embodiment of evil. All the characterization occurs in the beginning, where Kinski tries to make him into a misunderstood hero. And, oddly, that's the most sympathetic part; the contrast between the first and second half makes Herzog's worldview seem even colder than usual. Kinski, on the other hand, comes across much like his character -- a deeply confused man who is always raging against whatever adversary he has at the moment, but who has absolutely no conception of his life beyond the current battle. And throughout all this is the cinematography, like nothing else on earth. It is an inarticulate film, but you may end up returning to it many times.
0 out of 0 people found this helpful.
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