Fata Morgana

Dir: Werner Herzog

1971

*****

Fata Morgana is one of those films that I had to watch again right after my first viewing. It’s strangely mesmerizing, which I suppose is the point. Werner Herzog shot it over a thirteen month period between 1968 and 1969 with little notion as to how the footage would eventually be used. Herzog famously only lasted a few days at Munich film school, just enough time to steal a 35mm camera which he made Aguirre, the Wrath of God with. Even though he confesses to never watching film or television as a child, he knew he would be a filmmaker and learned the basics from a few pages in an encyclopedia which provided him with "everything I needed to get myself started" as a filmmaker. Of stealing the camera from the Munich film school he stated that "I don't consider it theft. It was just a necessity. I had some sort of natural right for a camera, a tool to work with". This might sound arrogant – because it is – but with films such as Fata Morgana, you can’t help but agree with him. Herzog didn’t tear up the rule book in defiance or out of rebellion, but because there really are no rules when it comes to creativity. If no one liked his film or went to see them then he would have been proven wrong, as it is, his work is enjoyed around the world. Herzog had been working on Even Dwarfs Started Small in the late 60s and the Fata Morgana footage was taken in between filming and editing. Even Dwarfs Started Small had a story and a purpose from the outset, but it wasn’t until it was out of the way and submitted to the Cannes film festival that the idea of turning Fata Morgana into a science fiction film. I’ve always seen it more as a contemplative piece and the sci-fi element of the film, although abandoned, is still there. Indeed, Herzog still says that it takes place on the planet Uxmal, which is discovered by creatures from the Andromeda nebula, who decide to make a film report about it.The sci-fi/alien world concept was realized in Herzog's later films Lessons of Darkness and The Wild Blue Yonder and the three films form a sort of trilogy that share common themes and style. The theme of the film is the mystery behind mirages, in this case of the Sahara and Sahel deserts. The film is partitioned into three chapters: Part I - Creation, Part II - Paradise and Part III - The Golden Age. The planet Uxmal is discovered by beings from the Andromeda Nebula. They produce a cinematic report in three parts. "The Creation": a plane lands, primeval landscapes unfold, burning vents and oil tanks come into the picture. "Paradise": in the grip of nature and the remains of a civilization, people talk about the disaster. "The Golden Age": a brothel singer and a matron sing. All three parts end with the greatest of all hallucinations, a mirage. In the first chapter Creation, a version of Popol Vuh the creation myth of the Mayan people (written by Herzog) is narrated by Lotte H. Eisner. Eisner, author of the book on German cinema The Haunted Screen, had praised Herzog's first film Signs of Life and by casting Eisner as narrator Herzog was offering a small tribute to the woman he once called his "most important inner support". The film was met with disdain and hostility when it premiered at Canne the following year. Herzog suggested that it was a big success but admitted that this was with young people who had taken various drugs and saw it as one the first European art-house psychedelic films, which of course it has no connection with at all. I liked it without the need for drugs but like most of the directors film, the action behind the camera is almost as interesting as what was happening in front of it. Most of the film consists of long tracking shots that were filmed by cameraman Jörg Schmidt-Reitwein from the top of a Volkswagen camper van that Herzog was driving around the desert. Herzog and the crew encountered many problems during the filming, most notably in Cameroon where the group was imprisoned because cameraman Schmidt-Reitwein's name was similar to the name of a German mercenary who was hiding from the authorities and had recently been sentenced to death in absentia. The director and his small crew also encountered sandstorms and floods. Filming eventually came to a halt when they were forced to abandon their truck and all equipment at a border crossing. Herzog said of the arduous filming conditions "It forces real life, genuine life into the film". During the course of filming, Herzog himself was thrown into a rat-infested jail where he was beaten and contracted the parasitic blood disease bilharzia. Its one of those important chapters of cinema that many overlook. It was a game changer, although never adopted by the mainstream – unless you see Terrence Malick’s later films as being influenced, which there is argument for, unfortunately. In order of importance, I would place it somewhere between Man with a movie camera (which came before) and Koyaanisquatsi (which came after).