Tigrero: A Film That Was Never Made

Cinephilia & Beyond first alerted me to this documentary.

Frame-Paradiso has posted the full thing.

Tigrero - (1994) from frame-paradiso on Vimeo.

The unique film set within a Karaja village in Brazil's Mato Grosso, Jim Jarmusch listens while Sam Fuller describes the 1950's "Tigrero" movie that he was unable to make. It also profiles the Karaja people. The non-film "Tigrero" had a fascinating history. The name was purchased off a novel by 20th Century Fox by Darryl F. Zanuck. Screen writer Fuller was sent to Brazil to come up with the story. There between two jungle rivers, he meets the Karajas who allow him to film their ceremonies and their village. Upon returning, he wrote a blockbuster film which would have starred John Wayne, Tyrone Power, and Ava Gardner. Because it was to be filmed in the dangerous jungle, Fox nixed the project. A lot of this movie focuses on Jarmusch interacting with the natives. The two also discuss Fuller's career and religion.

Samuel Fuller Interviews

Samuel Fuller - Interviews (1953) Cinéma Cinémas:FULLER & with Richard Schickel. from frame-paradiso on Vimeo.

Samuel Fuller On Why Cinema Is The Greatest Art

From A Bittersweet Life:

The most important thing to me, every morning, every night, whether I’m writing, or directing, preparing something, or singing about it, whether it’s a drive, or a tone, or a hobby, or fun, is to hit hard on one word which only the camera can really do, and that’s emotion. There is nothing that can get as close to an eyeball, where the entire one eye, where the pupil of an eye, can fill up the screen. That’s why to me, it’s one of the greatest arts in the world…

- Samuel Fuller

The Men Who Made the Movies: Samuel Fuller

 From Cinephilia & Beyond:

Samuel Fuller: The Typewriter, The Rifle, and The Movie Camera

From Cinephilia & Beyond:

Samuel Fuller - Cinema Cinemas Interviews

From Cinephilia & Beyond and A Bittersweet Life:

Samuel Fuller on Establishing Shots

I just hate a shot that shows a city or a street, and nothing happens. I don’t mind an establishing shot—even of a mountain, I don’t care, that’s a beautiful shot, snow, beautiful—if in that shot you pull back and there’s a little lovely lady, and she says to her son, “Isn’t this lovely? It’s Switzerland,” and he blows her head off, “Yes.” Something has to happen for me to have that full shot is what I’m talking about.

- Samuel Fuller