Madness, greed, ambition and the destructive force of nature are all present in Werner Herzog’s delirious journey into hell. Actor, Klaus Kinski is on full lunatic form as Aguirre, the leader of an expedition of sixteenth century conquistadors on an obsessive quest to find El Dorado, the fabled lost city of gold. Its nightmare shoot, where the cast and crew endured very real dangers of the Peruvian jungle and where Kinski scaled the heights of loopy eccentricity, has passed into cinematic legend. So too has its soundtrack, courtesy of Florian Fricke of German electro avant-garde outfit Popol Vuh, whose dream-like soundscapes and psychedelic walls of sound, are now regarded as precursors of contemporary world, new age and ambient music. Herzog was certainly a massive fan, going on to collaborate with Fricke on numerous other features including Fitzcarraldo.

Gerard recalls:

"I was first aware of Aguirre, Wrath of God when our eldest brother Andrew (Andy Dog) brought a poster of it back from Paris in the late 70's. I was always fascinated by that poster and particularly Kinski's face. I think I first saw it at the Metro cinema on Rupert Street. Herzog uses just two pieces of music by Popol Vuh throughout the film but the same two pieces create a wonderful backdrop to the images and end up haunting the mind long after the film has ended.”

Gerard and Matt Johnson will be in conversation with our cinema curator Mark Cosgrove on Sun 8 March, discussing their work, their influences and their recent collaboration on Hyena, which opens on Fri 6 March.

---