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Wednesday, Dec 20, 2023
7 PM (111 mins)
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BAMPFA
Cobra Verde
Klaus Kinski, José Lewgoy, King Ampaw, Peter Berling,
Herzog and Klaus Kinski’s final collaboration continues their exploration of colonial madness in Indigenous worlds, with Kinski starring as a Brazilian outlaw whose antisocial rage only grows as he journeys from bandit to plantation overseer to, finally, African slave trader in Dahomey. Unlike the usual Heart of Darkness–type tropes, Kinski’s white devil doesn’t go mad after encountering Africa; he’s already insane by the time he arrives, and yet somehow still preferable to the brandy-sipping elites that sent him. Herzog matches Kinski’s feral, eye-bulging performance with an “intoxicated, intoxicating sense of spectacle . . . [that] contains sequences of horrifying sublimity and ethereal beauty” (A. O. Scott, New York Times).
FILM DETAILS
Screenwriter
- Werner Herzog
Based On
The Viceroy of Ouidah by Bruce Chatwin
Cinematographer
- Viktor Růžička
Language
- German
- Portuguese
- Ewe
- with English subtitles
Print Info
- Color
- DCP
- 111 mins
Source
- American Genre Film Archive
Event Accessibility
If you have any questions about accessibility or require accommodations to participate in this event, please contact us at bampfa@berkeley.edu or call us at (510) 642-1412 (during open hours) with as much advance notice as possible. More information on accessibility services.