The Joy of Positivity pick of the day: Burden of Dreams (1982)

In honor of Paddington in Peru, I pay tribute to its primary inspiration

Werner Herzog was already an accomplished filmmaker when he famously went mad filming 1982’s Fitzcarraldo. But Burden of Dreams, director Les Blank’s documentary about the making of Fitzcarraldo, represents the birth of Herzog as one of film’s most colorful characters. A gloriously verbose monologue Herzog delivers about the essence of life in the jungle being “the harmony of overwhelming and collective murder” solidified Herzog’s standing as cinema’s preeminent poet of despair. When Blank’s cameras started following him, Herzog was already as an artist of worldwide renown; Burden of Dreams turned him into a personality.