“人々の内側で蠢く不安と弱さが最大限に増減されたとき、 “少年バット”は現れる——”
疲れた現代社会を癒す人気マスコットキャラクター「マロミ」をデザインした鷺月子は心の闇を持っていた。そして、月子に感化された人々が次々に通り魔少年バットに襲われ、市井の人々を恐怖へと陥れていく。しかし、幾人も被害者が出て、多くの目撃者がいるにもかかわらず、少年バットは一向に捕まりそうになかった。 少年バット事件を担当する刑事の猪狩慶一と馬庭光弘は、捜査を進める中で、被害者の持つ『不思議な共通項』に辿り着 く。「マロミ」の正体は、この時代に大量増発した、人々を楽しませた愉楽そのものを意味した。「マロミ」に熱中する人々は、現実との対面から目を背け、幻 の愉楽に逃げがちになって行く。そして人々のこの行動パタン自体が、「マロミ」とゆう愉楽、化け物の食料になり、やがて人々の災いを召う。
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_**Apocalypse Now in the Amazon headwaters**_ Called Fitzcarraldo by the Indians, an Irishman (Klaus Kinski) living in Iquitos, Peru, dreams of bringing Grand Opera to the jungle city in the Amazon Basin. It’s the early 1900s and there’s a rubber boom. To fund his dream he decides to exploit a considerable area of rubber trees growing beyond the impassable Ucayali Falls. To get to this remote area he incredibly has his steamboat lifted over a hill from another branch of the Amazon with the assistance of notorious headhunters. Claudia Cardinale plays his girlfriend, a successful brothel owner. Werner Herzog’s “Fitzcarraldo” (1982) is superior to his “Aguirre, the Wrath of God” (1972), which was shot in the same general area, the Amazon basin east of the Andes Mountains. It’s longer by just over an hour, but it has a more compelling story. “Aguirre” influenced Coppola’s “Apocalypse Now” (1979) but “Apocalypse Now” likely influenced “Fitzcarraldo.” The difference is that “Apocalypse Now” took advantage of its infamous setting, the Vietnam War, whereas few people know of the rubber boom of the early 20th century in the Iquitos area. There’s also less thrills in “Fitzcarraldo.” It’s more impenetrable and all-around curious, a cinematic oddity. Yet it has its highlights, including the core cast, e.g. the burly captain, the impressively hulking indigenous engineer and the drunkard cook. What’s it all about? The beauty of art, great dreams, indomitable will, mysterious cultures, devastating failure and… winning anyway. The film runs 2 hours, 37 minutes, and was shot in the Iquitos area, Peru, and Amazonas, Brazil, including a couple Tribal Regions. GRADE: B+/A-
Klaus Kinski is great as the eponymous, slightly maniacal, opera lover who decides that his love of Verdi, Bellini and Puccini needs to be shared with his mid-jungle community. He realises that to do that, he must have cash - and that's only to be found if he can manage to tap into the rubber trees deep into the Amazon. To that end, he and local hostess "Molly" (the sparingly featured Claudia Cardinale) manage to scrape together enough cash to buy a dilapidated old steamer from local grandee "Don Aquilino" (José Lewgoy) and he sets off into uncharted waters with a skeleton collection of untrustworthies into the realm of rapids, insects and hostiles. There's a snag to his cunning plan, though. The area he wishes to exploit is all but inaccessible and he is going to have to figure out some considerable engineering legerdemain if he is to achieve his goal. Fortunately, along the way, they encounter some locals who have a legend that a yellow-haired man would come from their gods and - well anyway, he fits that bill and they agree to help him get the boat uphill - literally - from one river to another. Can they keep their superstitious new allies and their fairly fickle crew on side long enough to succeed and then make it back to what passes for civilisation? Now it does have to be said that some of the continuity here puts John Wayne's watch to shame, but given it was filmed in Peru and on the Amazon itself, this is an astonishingly accomplished piece of film making that really does immerse us in not just the struggle itself but in the character of a man who treads the paths between lucidly, ingenuity and insanity adeptly. It is a little too long, there are too many scenes that add little to the pace of the film, but Kinski and Herzog thrive in this hot and humid climate to deliver an entertaining and exciting travelogue the likes of which you'll never see anywhere else!
