8) Margaret
The Production:
Something of a unique specimen on this list, the shoot for Kenneth Lonergan’s long-awaited You Can Count On Me follow-up, Margaret, apparently went pretty smoothly. Then the film went into post-production, and that’s when the fun really began. Although it finished shooting in 2005, it didn’t see the inside of a theater until six years later. This was in part due to Fox Searchlight and Lonergan tussling over the final cut, and various lawsuits stemming from that and other financial issues. There were four edits of the film in total – the theatrical version finally released in 2011 was done for free by Martin Scorsese and Thelma Schoonmaker.
The Film:
An epic drama dealing in the complexities of human emotions, Margaret isn’t the kind of movie you see very often (which is probably a big reason why nobody seemed to know what to do with it for so long). When the film was finally released – in a truncated theatrical form and a director’s cut, again indicating indecisiveness behind the scenes – it was hailed as something of a difficult modern classic.
7) Eyes Wide Shut
The Production:
While most of the films on this list are examples of productions out of control, Eyes Wide Shut is actually the opposite: a film made so carefully and meticulously that shooting ran over again and again, to the point where the film became the holder of the record for longest continuous shoot, at 400 straight days.
Due to director Stanley Kubrick’s intense tinkering (he had to approve every single prop and visual element in the film, down to the wallpaper and items of furniture), Harvey Keitel and Jennifer Jason Leigh shot scenes then had to leave production when it wouldn’t stop running. Kubrick’s obsessiveness didn’t stop there, either: after shooting completed, he went into post-production for almost a year.
The Film:
Like so many Kubrick movies, Eyes Wide Shut was largely misunderstood upon release, but has gradually earned a reputation as another one of the mercurial filmmaker’s beautiful, complex movies. So dense and detailed it requires multiple watches just so the viewer can begin fathoming it, Eyes Wide Shut is one of the darkest, strangest movies of the 90s. Within his filmography, it’s minor Kubrick, but even minor Kubrick is still better than the vast majority of films out there.
6) Fitzcarraldo
The Production:
No Werner Herzog production has ever been easy; but add combustible thesp Klaus Kinski into the mix, and you get guaranteed chaos. For this tale of an entrepreneur (Kinski) carting a steamboat through the Amazon, Herzog had locals haul the 320-ton ship for real, something which later prompted accusations of indigenous exploitation.
Kinski was the real nightmare though, continually fighting with cast and crew to the point where native chiefs offered to kill him (Herzog politely declined). He wouldn’t have even been there if original star Jason Robards hadn’t been sent home with dysentery, forcing Herzog to scrap 40% of the film and start over with new lead Kinski.
The Film:
One of Herzog’s finest achievements, Fitzcarraldo is a bizarre, luscious colonial epic about the blurred line between dedicated obsessiveness and insanity. Herzog won Best Director at Cannes, and the film itself was nominated for a slew of other awards. Together with Aguirre, Wrath of God and Nosferatu the Vampyre, Fitzcarraldo represents two crazy, brilliant artists – Herzog and Kinski – working at the height of their powers.
