Fata Morgana

Author

Werner Herzog (1971)

Published

3/1/22

From 1969-72, the UK psychedelic group Pink Floyd composed soundtracks for a number of films, including Barbet Schroeder’s More (1969), Michelangelo Antonioni’s Zabriskie Point (1970), and Barbet Schroeder’s La Vallée (1972) (the latter subsequently released as the album Obscured by Clouds (Harvest, 1972).

Around the same time, the German filmmaker Werner Herzog was collaborating with the krautrock band Popol Vuh on the scores of Aguirre, the Wrath of God (1972), Heart of Glass (1976), Nosferatu (1979), Fitzcarraldo (1982) and Cobra Verde (1987).

Since Herzog’s film about superior mirages, Fata Morgana (1971), shot in the desolate Sahel region of Central Africa, pre-dates his collaboration with Popol Vuh, and Pink Floyd never collaborated with Herzog, I decided to imagine such a collaboration on Fata Morgana.

Film: Fata Morgana (Werner Herzog, 1971) Music: Pink Floyd, “Shine On You Crazy Diamond (Part 8)” (Wish You Were Here, Columbia, 1975)