A funny thing happened on the way to LAX last Friday.

I will admit to never having seen “Fitzcarraldo”. But I was thoroughly rivited by the NPR interview with the film’s director-dreamer Werner Herzog  that I listened to on the way to the airport to collect Frank Frost who was arriving for the National Film Retreat: NPR: Werner Herzog Reveals Intense Private Journals (You can listen to it, which I recommend, or download a transcript).

The New York Times reviewed CONQUEST OF THE USELESS: Reflections on the Making of “Fitzcarraldo”  in yesterday’s Book Review section. The reviewer, Mark Harris, didn’t care much for the two year’s worth of linear journal entries (they seemed to  irritate his gestalt) about Herzog’s folly in the Brazilian rain forest - and if I had read his review first I would have changed radio stations instead of tuning into a fascinating and articulate interview of a major cinematic auteur.

About his filmmaking Herzog said that he has been categorized as a German romanticist but he thoroughly resists this label. He is about nature.  Think “Rescue Dawn” and “Grizzley Man” for starters.

If you are a student of cinema, check this out. I may not read the book but I want to see the film to find out why a filmmaker would spend so much energy, time, humanity, and money on what, to some, is a work of art and to others, an absurdity.

Good afternoon all! Here’s a suggestion if you ever need to feel smarter than you actually are when you shower. In the morning I usually shower before I brush my teeth, and when you shower, everything gets all foggy. While I was showering this morning I was thinking about my financial situation and budget, so before I started brushing my teeth, I started doing math on my mirror because I needed to see it visually for it to all make sense. For a second, it made me feel like some type of genius math professor who is always thinking proofs and uses every surface he can find to get out his thoughts. But then I realized I’m not that smart, but it was a nice illusion though

Over the weekend I watched Rescue Dawn. I thought it was a pretty good movie overall. Christian Bale plays Dieter Dengler, a pilot during the Vietnam War that gets shot down and is forced to live as a prisoner of war. It portrays his time as a prisoner of war and his struggles to escape. Do not watch this movie if you are looking for some type of glamorized war movie, because it’s not. What makes it so interesting is that it tries to portray a very realistic picture of what life must have been like for Dieter. With that said, the movie moves very slowly, because that is the type of lifestyle a prisoner of war lived, waiting day in and day out. It does a great job of telling the story without over exaggerating it for the public today, which is probably why it didn’t explode when it came out in theaters. I’m giving it a 4 out of 5.