Werner Herzog, West Germany, 1982, Shout! Factory, Arthouse

Werner Herzog is the reigning champ of impossible real-life adventures undertaken in the name of cinema. And this masterpiece is the romantic flipside to Aguirre, the Wrath of God — a backbreaking epic that ecstatically treads the line between a portrait of madness and a genuine expression of obsession. Fitzcarraldo fictionalized the mad, true-life mission of South American rubber baron Brian Sweeney Fitzgerald to establish an opera house in the Peruvian jungle — which can only be accomplished by hauling a gigantic riverboat over a mountain. No special effects here — this is the real deal, with the impossible results executed before your eyes.

"One of the great visions of the cinema, and one of the great follies. One would not have been possible without the other.” — Roger Ebert, American Film Critic

All Cult Films at Mad Arts are recommended for an 18 + audience. Each movie runs on a 2-week cycle with 10 showings.