FATA MORGANA (1971)

I tend to have a soft spot for movies that are like "here is some incredible footage" and refuse to either put it into a larger narrative or to overlay some point onto it that the footage isn't already making. (Examples: Castaing-Taylor / Paravel films, Frederick Wiseman films, "city symphony" films, Bill Morrison's Decasia, Kirsten Johnson's Cameraperson.) In my book, if you've got great footage (and maybe a decent editor), you don't need much more.

Fata Morgana here almost lands in the sweet spot. It has the great footage: mirages, corpses, ruins, outposts, faraway buildings, desert kids, lizards, fennec foxes. It wisely doesn't force any of it into a narrative but it does overlay the imagery: at first with a reading of the Popol Vuh and then later with a bunch of Leonard Cohen music. It's hard to know which of these choices represents the bigger grasp for Higher Meaning. Neither choice feels necessary and neither feels like it gives a good goddamn about whatever is happening on the screen. It's all captivating in a mismatched kind of way but you also can't help but feel like Herzog is hedging his bets a bit, which catches one off guard as he's not a man who really made his name by doing that. Watch the first two-thirds with the sound down? Or try to find a recording of the 2013 live score by drone metal band Earth that I just learned about from Wikipedia??

A ★★★½ review of Fata Morgana (1971)

I tend to have a soft spot for movies that are like “here is some incredible footage” and refuse to either put it into a larger narrative or to overlay some point onto it that the footage isn’t already making. (Examples: Castaing-Taylor / Paravel films, Frederick Wiseman films, “city symphony” films, Bill Morrison’s Decasia, Kirsten Johnson’s Cameraperson.) In my book, if you’ve got great footage (and maybe a decent editor), you don’t need much more. Fata Morgana here almost lands in the sweet spot. It has the great footage: mirages, corpses, ruins, outposts, faraway buildings, desert kids, lizards, fennec foxes. It wisely

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