Conquest of the Useless: Fever Dreams in the Jungle

Newly repackaged as a Penguin paperback, Conquest of the Useless, the legendary filmmaker Werner Herzog’s diary of the making of Fitzcarraldo, one of his most revered and classic films

In 1982, the visionary directory Werner Herzog released Fitzcarraldo, a lavish film about a would-be rubber baron who pulls a 320-ton steamship over a mountain. It was hailed instantly by critics around the globe as a masterpiece and won Herzog the 1982 Outstanding Director Prize at the Cannes Film Festival, affirming Herzog’s reputation as one of the most revered and enigmatic filmmakers of his time.

Conquest of the Useless is the diary Herzog kept during the making of Fitzcarraldo, compiled from June 1979 to November 1981. Emerging as if out of an Amazonian fever dream during filming, Herzog’s writings are an extraordinary documentary unto themselves. Strange and otherworldly events are recounted by the filmmaker. The crew’s camp in the heart of the jungle is attacked and burned to the ground; the production of the film clashes with a border war; and, of course, Herzog unravels the impossible logistics of moving a 320-ton steamship over a hill without the use of special effects.

In his preface, Herzog warns that the diary entries collected in Conquest of the Useless do not represent ＂reports on the actual filming＂ but rather ＂inner landscapes, born of the delirium of the jungle.＂ Thus begins an extraordinary glimpse into the mind of a genius during the making of one of his greatest achievements.

Werner Herzog was born in Munich on September 5, 1942. He made his first film in 1961 at the age of nineteen. Since then he has produced, written, and directed more than sixty feature and documentary films, including Aguirre, Nosferatu, Fitzcarraldo, Little Dieter Needs to Fly, My Best Fiend, Grizzly Man, Encounters at the End of the World, and Cave of Forgotten Dreams. Herzog has published more than a dozen books of poetry and prose, most recently The Twilight World, and directed as many operas. He has appeared as an actor in Jack Reacher, The Mandalorian, and The Simpsons, and exhibited an art installation, Hearsay of the Soul, at the 2012 Whitney Biennale and the Getty Museum. He also founded his own Rogue Film School as a counterpoint to what is taught in most film schools around the world. He lives in Munich and Los Angeles.