Jackie Spafford
By Jackie Spafford
Two documentaries screening at SBIFF were fascinating to view back-to-back, as unexpected recurring themes connected the two diverse subjects.
Radical Dreamer looks at the life and career of prolific filmmaker Werner Herzog through interviews with fellow filmmakers, actors, scholars, and family members. But the central voice is Herzog’s own, who seems simultaneously shy about being the subject, and eager to discuss the experiences and ideas that have shaped him and his films.
In the opening scene, as he drives around Los Angeles, he declares quite emphatically that he doesn’t dream. Yet a dreamlike quality is present in so much of his work, by his own admission as well as many collaborators. He constantly seeks to portray things that have never been seen before, and is keenly drawn to protagonists who are lost or damaged or somehow outside the norm.
He has fearlessly explored every corner of the globe for his films, and taken on challenges such as the near-impossible filming of Fitzcarraldo with obsessive focus. His work is never boring or predictable, and his famous voice is a delight to listen to.
We learn about his start as a young filmmaker in Munich, post-WWII when the German film scene was stagnant. He and others created a new German cinema in the 1960s and 70s, and his earliest films showed his signature attraction to new voices and images. His films were met with negative response in Germany, but lauded elsewhere. Ultimately, he chose to leave the “smug close-mindedness” of Germany, and relocated to LA, declaring the United States a nation that is still “gestating,” and much more accepting.
(courtesy image)
M.F.K. Fisher (1908-1992) was equally prolific, a writer who produced dozens of books and essays. Unlike Herzog, she had vivid dreams, and recalled them all. And unlike Herzog she became disenchanted with many aspects of American life and spent years in France and Switzerland.
It was in Europe that she honed her appreciation of cooking and eating, noting the love and respect with which food was prepared. While she wrote fiction and non-fiction on many subjects, she has been most associated with her books celebrating food such as Consider the Oyster and The Art of Eating.
The film covers her life and loves – three marriages, divorce and widowhood, raising her children as a single mother – and working in a male-dominated industry with little interest in the “female subject” of food. As well as numerous film and audio recordings of Fisher herself, this portrait is lovingly constructed through interviews with food critics and chefs, such as Ruth Reichl and Alice Waters.
Both films will be shown at least once more.
The 38th Santa Barbara International Film Festival runs through February 18. Official events including screenings, filmmaker Q&As, industry panels, and celebrity tributes, will be held throughout the city, including at the historic Arlington Theatre. Passes and tickets are on sale now at sbiff.org.
