Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #2451 in DVD
• Released on: 2004-03-01
• Rating: Suitable for 15 years and over
• Formats: Box set, PAL
• Original language: German
• Number of discs: 6
• Running time: 627 minutes

Synopsis
A boxset containing all the collaborations between Werner Herzog and Klaus Kinski.

Aguirre, The Wrath of God: Widely considered to be Herzog's finest film, Aguirre is the tale of Spanish colonialists searching for El Dorado, the legendary city of gold, in 16th-century Peru.

Nosferatu: Phantom der Nacht: Stark, symbolic cinematography and intensely stylised performances relating the age-old tale of Count Dracula. Klaus Kinski portrays the Dracula character with a silent intensity, tingeing the vampire's inhuman monstrosity with a deep sense of pathos and longing.

Woyzeck: Based on Georg Buchner's unfinished play, the film is a dark study of a lowly German flunky (Klaus Kinski) who, to earn much-needed extra money, volunteers for a local doctor's strange experiments, which push him to murderous insanity.

Fitzcarraldo: Klaus Kinski gives a terrifying and determined portrayal of mad genius Fitzcarraldo, whose twin goals of making a fortune from the Amazon rubber trade and bringing an opera house to the jungle are a metaphor for the impact of civilization on the natural world.

Cobra Verde: Filmed in Ghana, Brazil, and Colombia, Cobra Verde is a visually astonishing true-life tale about a Brazilian bandit known as Cobra Verde who is exiled to West Africa to rejuvenate the slave trade.

Also includes My Best Friend, a documentary film exploring the relationship between Werner Herzog and Klaus Kinski.

Customer Reviews

Some of the greatest movies ever made, all in one place
Kinski is probably my favourite actor of all time, and Herzog is easily one of my favourite directors. Naturally, I find their five collaborations to be nothing short of genius. Here we have a selection of brilliant, varied films, from the claustrophobic intensity of Aguirre, the brooding horror of Nosferatu, the tortured insanity of Woyzeck, the powerful obsession of Fitzcarraldo and the brutally poignant Cobra Verde, my only regret is that they didn't make more films together. My Best Fiend tops it off, a fascinating and insightful documentary into this incredible partnership.

The picture and sound are good, most films offering the choice between original German with English subtitles and English dubbing, but the former is always the best choice. One reviewer complained that Fitzcarraldo suffered from poor subtitling - but why watch it with German dubbing when the movie was originally filmed in English?

The films come nicely packaged in six thin DVD cases, each one colour-coded and revealing a picture of the movie's poster. These all slot comfortably into a stylish two-piece cardboard box. There's a booklet with production notes on each film as well, and most of the films have on-disc biographies and commentaries.

Absolutely essential.

Brilliant box-set of Herzog/Kinski collaborations...
Werner Herzog's association with Klaus Kinski is surely one of the most famous unions in cinematic history, the two collaborating over several films and causing much amusingly deranged gossip- much of which is found in the brilliant documentary My Best Fiend (1999)That Herzog/Kinski had a love-hate relationship is a bit of an understatement- the two both revealing plans to murder the other during and after making the films included in this brilliant box-set.

To be fair, Herzog made plenty of brilliant films without Kinski- notably The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser & especially Stroszek (both made with Bruno S.).& there are many other Herzog films worth watching- Little Dieter Needs to Fly, Even Dwarves Started Small, Heart of Glass, Wings of Hope etc. But this box-set has the key works- & the odd folly.

Aguire, Wrath of God (1972) remains the definitive Herzog/Kinski film- the tale of conquistadors searching for Eldorado & instead finding destruction & madness is mindblowing. Many of the tales of its production are found in My Best Fiend- making it Apocalypse Now before Apocalypse Now. There are many wonderful scenes in this- the opening Peruvian mountain shot, the absence of the modern world, the head-chopping scene that counts to ten, the boat in a tree hallucination & especially the final shot of an insane Kinski surveying his empty kingdom of monkeys. *****

1979 saw Kinski again work with Herzog after the two fell out- reasons for which might be found in Kinski's suitably deranged memoir & My Best Fiend. Nosferatu, a remake of Murnau's classic of German expressionism, is very enjoyable & predicts masterpiece remakes like Gus Van Sant's Psycho **** While Woyzeck is a fairly satisfying adaptation of Buchner's unfinished 19th Century play- which Tom Waits recent album Blood Money is also based on. Kinski is brilliantly cast & the opening speeded-up shots feel very edgy & pose a notion that both Herzog and Kinski were very punk rock ****

Fitzcarraldo (1982) surprisingly came #44 in Channel 4's Top 100 Films of all time- which filled me with hope (well, until we got to #1 Star Wars...). It's very much a companion to Aguire, & has more madness set on a South American river. My Best Fiend has an earlier version of it with Mick Jagger & Jason Robards in!- anyway, ***** Finally there is Cobra Verde- very well summed up by its scenes in My Best Fiend (Kinksi rolling round in the sea, seemingly lost forever...)- another great looking historical epic adapted from Bruce Chatwin's The Viceroy of Ouidah. It has its moments- think of it as a bonus that is worth a look, ***

This Herzog-boxset is a brilliant DVD-set, an absolute must for anyone remotely interested in cinema & great value when you consider that several of these films were reissued on DVD a few years ago at a cost each of about half the price of this set. I'd buy it for Aguire... & My Best Fiend alone- can we have a Herzog-documentaries set and maybe a smaller Bruno S- set now, pretty please?

All of the Kinski & Herzog filmic collaborations in one box!
"Aguirre", "Nosferatu","Woyzeck","Fitzcarraldo" and "Cobra Verde" are all films dominated by the mania of Klaus Kinski - never was the phrase "wild staring eyes" more apt.

As Kinski explains in the documentary "My Best Fiend", included as a 6th DVD which vainly attempts to explain their relationship,all of Herzog's films emminate from pain so don't expect an easy ride with any of them!

"Aguirre: The Wrath of God" is a haunting slow burner in which the determined Kinski attempts to find the mythical Elderado. The stunning cinematograhy shows the Peruvian rainforest to be a foe as malevolent to the Spanish Conquistadors as the Indians were.

"Nosferatu" - perhaps the most accessible of the 5 films - is a mysterious vampire film without horror in that Kinski's Dracula is more lonely and pitiful rather than the scary villain as so often portrayed.

"Woyzeck" - shows Kinski at his most inspired in the central role of a private who is treated terribly by all around him and living on the edge of his wits. He is ultimately unable to contain his true emotions when his wife - whom he loves deeply -has a fling with a handsome bandmaster.

"Fitzcarraldo" is a film rather limited in scope plotwise in that it is about a crazed lover of opera who succeeds in transporting a ship across a mountain (yes honest). I found this film a little too long and ultimately rather pointless although the Kinski (who played Fitzcarraldo)struggle with nature was still mesmerising.

"Cobra Verde" marks the point at which the relationship between Kinski and Herzog turned sour - in Herzog's words "I couldn't control him anymore" - with Kinski,once again playing the titular character,as a South American bandit who ultimately becomes stranded in Africa trying to gain slaves for a landowner.

Several stunning films, consistently excellent performances - particularly from Kinski of course - interesting themes explored (most notably human suffering), fantastic cinematography, but also a couple of dissapointments.

Each DVD is nicely packaged in a slimline case whichs contain a copy of the original film's release poster. Extras include commentaries and trailers for each film but little else.

A must buy for lovers of cinema who don't want to always watch plot lead films but enjoy being challenged!