Facets Multi Media - FILM PROGRAM ARCHIVE -> SEPTEMBER 2005 -> The White Diamond

The Facets Cinémathèque is located at 1517 W. Fullerton Ave. in Chicago. For more information on films playing in the Cinémathèque, please call 773-281-4114. To order advance tickets online, visit the TicketWeb website by clicking here.

THE WHITE DIAMOND
		"An inexpressibly beautiful and moving film! Do whatever you must to see [it]....No one else in nonfiction filmmaking is doing what Herzog is doing, and no one could." -Salon.com "Having emerged from his new German cinema heyday as one of the world's most guileless and original documentary filmmakers, Herzog has slowly been crafting a four-dimensional fresco of the planet, its most human-resistant landscapes, and our dubious dramas in confronting the chaos." -Village Voice "White Diamond seems motivated by a reverent, sober curiosity and a willingness to accept the irreducible mysteriousness of nature, in both its wild and its human incarnations." -New York Times "It earns its place among the other treasures and curiosities in Herzog's work." -Roger Ebert ½ "One of the year's best documentaries" -Michael Wilmington, Chicago Tribune Recommended! -Chicago Reader

The White Diamond, Werner Herzog's latest quixotic expedition into a far-off jungle could be seen as an ambitious nature documentary, but his irrepressible iconoclasm lifts it into another realm altogether. Dieter Plage was one of the greatest natural history filmmakers of his generation. In 1992, using a prototype airship that resurrected the design of early 20th-century zeppelins on a smaller scale (two-person blimps), made by his friend the eccentric British aeronautic engineer, Graham Dorrington, Plage attempted to film unique wildlife in the rainforest canopy of the Amazon. Unfortunately, this expedition ended in tragedy when Plage fell from the airship and was killed. Twelve years after Plage's death, Werner Herzog returns to the Amazon, the scene of such great films as Aguirre: Wrath Of God and Fitzcarraldo. Taking Dorrington with him, he follows the creation of a new airship and pays homage to Plage by tackling once again the elusive, mysterious and visually stunning tree-top canopy in the heart of Guyana. As in Aguirre, the jungle offers up some spectacular images that generate a sense of mystery and foreboding. Directed by Werner Herzog, Germany/Japan/United Kingdom, 2004, BetaSP, 90 mins. In English.

Official site (in German) Director site Salon.com Village Voice New York Times

Roger Ebert Chicago Tribune Chicago Reader The Onion

Showtimes:
Fri., Sept. 2 at 7 & 9 pm
Sat.-Sun., Sept. 3-4 at 3, 5, 7 & 9 pm
Mon.-Thurs., Sept. 5-8 at 7 & 9 pm

Order tickets online:

For further information, contact our Film Program Director, Charles Coleman: charles@facets.org