Aguirre, the Wrath of God
All-Time Favorites
•
1h 33m
Leaving February 1
Directed by Werner Herzog | 94 mins | 1972
The first collaboration between Herzog and Klaus Kinski cast the notoriously unhinged actor as the even more unhinged 16th-century conquistador Don Lope de Aguirre—nicknamed “El Loco” or “The Madman”—found embarking on his final mission: a frantic search for El Dorado, the mythical South American city of gold that was the source of so many lost dreams. Aguirre takes control over a Spanish expedition, leading the crew and his young daughter down the Amazon on a slow descent into hell, accompanied by the haunting, ambient score by Popol Vuh, the German collective who would contribute to the soundtracks of many Herzog films to come. Perhaps the ultimate of the director’s portraits of madness and his seamless weaving of fact into fiction (his version of "Aguirre" is mostly created), it ranks high among Herzog’s masterpieces.
Up Next in All-Time Favorites
-
Morvern Callar
Leaving February 1
Directed by Lynne Ramsay | 98 mins | 2002
A sensory odyssey packed into an intimate story of love, death, and theft, Lynne Ramsay’s second feature stays close to its impossibly distant title character, played with a transfixing inscrutability by Samantha Morton. Passing off t... -
Goodbye to Language
Directed by Jean-Luc Godard | 70 mins | 2014
An innovator to the end, Godard’s penultimate feature finds him experimenting with the possibilities of digital 3D, using the technology to plot the disintegration of both a couple’s relationship and the images of the relationship. A film of unpreceden... -
The Black Sea
Directed by Crystal Moselle and Derrick B. Harden | 93 mins | 2024
A compassionate, convivial, and deeply humane improvised comedy from Moselle ("The Wolfpack", "Skate Kitchen") and co-director Harden, inspired by the latter’s own experiences, "The Black Sea" stars Harden—also providing original ...
