The first in a feature discussing the last film watched by the Friday of each week.
'White Diamond' - Werner Herzog.
Documentary following the return of an aerospace professor to the rainforest canopy.
Its a beautiful film, which doesn't surprise me having experienced some of Herzog's other work. This one felt particularly ad hoc, with spontaneous tangents away from the airships flights providing just as much to care about as the success of the airship.
The loneliness of one of the locals, Mark Anthony, whose family left him behind to live in Spain was one of the unexpected things to stick around after the film ended, especially as Herzog appeals to Mark Anthony's family to contact him in the closing comments.
I am fascinated by the jungle, just as humans in general fear and respect the unknown, and this film uses the Amazon as a the living embodiment of this unknown. Herzog's earlier 'Fitzcarraldo' is one of my favourite films for its slog of a story unfolding in the heart of the Brazilian Amazon. This time out the cameras don't immerse themselves in the suffocating foliage as seen in other jungle epics, instead reflecting the perspective of the airship itself; slowly observing the teeming forest from a close distance.
The climax of the film comes around halfway through with the professor Graham Dorrington's recounting of his previous experience with a similar airship. Never shy of providing Herzog with tasty anecdotes to narrate the filming of his project, Dorrington describes the death of the wildlife cinematographer Dieter Plage after his last airship failed, clearly finding it difficult to come to terms with as he stares into the dark river bank opposite. This point, brought about by Herzog's relationship with the professor, is one of the moments Herzog is renowned for documenting; in this case a perfect image of human struggle towards achievement.
