We journalists like to recall from time to time the epic achievement of the intense filming of Fitzcarraldo (1982) in a new/old report with all seriousness, pose and pomposity. Almost all of these lyrics are a repeat of what was already told in The Weight of Dreams, a documentary film that shows Werner Herzog as a filmmaker in trouble trying to survive the rigors of the Peruvian jungle and, worse, to the psyche by Klaus Kinski, his leading actor. The fourth season of Documentary Now!, a series of humorous skits revisiting the history of the documentary genre and available in its entirety on AMC+, begins with a laugh at everything.
In the first two episodes, Alexander Skarsgård plays Rainer Wolz, a filmmaker (transcript by Herzog) who is preparing a documentary about an indigenous people in Russia’s Urals. Due to things in the entertainment industry, he’s also in charge of moving forward, sharing space and resources, piloting a not-very-smart sitcom for the new television season: Single Babysitter. If the nonsense sounds like a Saturday Night Live gag, that’s because all the creators of this semi-unknown gem have gone through the legendary comedy show, including Seth Meyers, Bill Harder, and Fred Armisen. But this time his comedic scenes last at least 20 minutes.
One of the most interesting things about the experiment is that established actors – Cate Blanchett and Jonathan Price also appear in this new series of deliveries – walk the fine wire of parodying how close they come to falling into excess. You have alongside an experienced tightrope walker Armisen himself, brilliant and very strict in this rocket against the problems of the millennial bourgeois, which was the comedy Portlandia.
Liliane Rovère (“Call my Agent!”) plays an Agnès Varda-inspired filmmaker.AMC+
Documentary now! questions the viewer on several levels. There are those who can readily view it as a comedy program without having to know the speakers their gags are inspired by. It works perfectly. The chapters dedicated to Herzog take the German filmmaker as a starting point and end by poking fun at the complexities and absurd clauses that any actor or director encounters on a shoot. And the joke in another of his episodes at the expense of Belgian Agnès Varda – who is in such a bad mood to tease a being as charming and down-to-earth as she is? – is still a look between funny and confused by a group of Americans towards the European culture and way of life. But for moviegoers, this odd format could be an even more alternative version of the mythical testimonies from La hora chanante.
There’s also a space for those who want to learn more about the documentary genre and independent cinema, laughing and with an internet search engine in hand. For each episode is an exercise in a different style that mimics the aesthetic modes of those it parodies. With them he evokes a reflection on how rich and creative documentary languages were long before they became mainstream entertainment a few years ago and parallel to the rise of digital platforms.
Documentary now! reminds us that non-fiction can harbor auteur cinema as personal as that of fiction. And that Hollywood, that factory of fleeting stories that is often easily forgotten, is also capable of delivering the harshest criticism of others and of itself.
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