The Blues Accordin’ to Lightnin’ Hopkins

Hot Pepper

Burden of Dreams

Fitzcarraldo

Burden of Dreams

Werner Herzog Eats His Shoe

Vice: You didn’t set out to be a filmmaker, right? It wasn’t a childhood aspiration for you.

Les Blank:

Oh, cool.

What a dream for a kid.

How old were you when you were doing that?

At Tulane University in Louisiana, correct?

Uh-oh.

Very.

What year did you arrive in New Orleans?

And you were only 18 or 19 years old, I guess?

That sounds great.

What did you move on to?

French Quarter

Harper’s Bazaar, Atlantic Monthly

Right, right.

What sort of writing were you doing? Was Joseph Conrad an inspiration?

A noble enough plan.

So it was a tumultuous time.

I think I know what’s coming here.

There you go.

What sort of stuff are we talking about?

Alcohol-fueled things.

I’ve heard that. They look for rebels.

Which Bergman film was that?

The Seventh Seal

Simple as that?

That could well have saved your life.

Did that playwriting course work out for you?

Great.

Right.

Wow, you were really soup to nuts on these things.

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I’m going to jump forward now because I’d really like to talk about one of my favorite films of yours—The Blues Accordin’ to Lightnin’ Hopkins. How did you find out about Lightnin’?

Ah, so there was some money there to get a movie done?

So that was a good amount.

That’s great.

Was there a firm plan in place for what kind of footage you wanted to get with him, or was it shot in a vérité style?

When he was just eight? Wow.

Right.

I don’t think I knew this story. It’s so good. So your initial idea was to re-create this?

Hmm.

Right, right.

It’s an amazing film. It feels like it could be a home movie made by the people who are in it. How much did you communicate with Lightnin’ and his friends during the shooting? Was it a fly-on-the-wall sort of a thing, or did you make your presence known?

I was wondering about that.

Oh my God!

So that’s how it ended?

Ha.

He warmed up to you after he beat the hell out of you at cards.

After you finished shooting with him, did you ever see him again?

I really love Hot Pepper, the documentary you made about the Creole musician Clifton Chenier, and Spend It All, your film about the Cajun people.

Yeah.

The Cajuns have a really particular outlook, don’t they?

Right.

And Clifton Chenier is a legend of Creole music.

What was it like shooting Chenier? Was it comparable to the Lightnin’ vibe, where he had to warm up to you?

How much did you give him?

You had some trouble in terms of breaking the segregation laws, right?

Yeah, of course.

The cops couldn’t have taken too kindly to what looked like a bunch of hippies running around down there with movie cameras.

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What kind of trouble are we talking about?

Wow, that’s really shady.

Right.

Smart.

Holy shit, Angola? That would have been tantamount to a death sentence.

Maybe your most important critical audience ever.

This is a crazy story.

Fuck!

Wow.

And you spent fourteen days in there?

Did you ever shoot the judge duck hunting?

Oh, wow, interesting.

Perfect.

Right, right.

I wonder if this kind of story could happen nowadays. You set up the projector and show them the film, and all this kind of positive stuff comes out of it. It just seems like a different time to me.

Are the languages that the Cajuns and the Creoles speak fading out now? I love the way they sound.

Yeah.

Do you think that national respect for them grew because of people becoming interested in their cultural expressions, like their food and music?

Let’s talk about your work with the Appalachian musician Tommy Jarrell. How did you get interested in him?

Yeah. I love that music.

Oh, right.

I’ve heard of it, but I’ve never been there.

Was he a welcoming guy?

How did this compare with shooting Cajuns and Creoles?

I’d like to jump forward now to Burden of Dreams. For those who don’t know, this is your documentary that was shot on the set of Werner Herzog’s film Fitzcarraldo, which came out in 1982. You also made the film Werner Herzog Eats His Shoe around the same time.

Eats His Shoe

Burden of Dreams

Eats His Shoe

Fitzcarraldo

Had you guys known each other through some sort of a film network?

No, I don’t know Tom Luddy. This is the first time I’ve heard his name.

Oh, OK.

The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser

Ah, that’s a good one.

So there was a real mutual appreciation there.

Fitzcarraldo

Did you feel in danger, or was it just exciting to you?

The guy who had been shot by an arrow.

Jesus.

Good thinking.

So that first day was pretty action-packed.

I think that for a lot of people the most memorable part of that film is the monologue that Herzog gives on nature, specifically that the jungle is filled with violence, and that nature is chaos. Did you agree with that, or were you simply documenting it?

Yeah.

through

They also have that fish that swims up inside of your penis.

Was the “chaos of nature” thing a running theme with Herzog down there?

So he did the whole thing again for you later?

Have you had another shoot where there was a sense of danger or potential physical harm?

Sure.

Yes, they have a great sound.

Right. The music functions as an incantation to the gods.

Did you witness this?

Was that purely anthropological, or did you start to believe?

Did you?

Wow. Did your belief in that sort of spirit world extend past your time there?

So this is something that stuck with you.

So I’ve been wondering if there is a subject that’s kind of been your white whale, something you’ve really wanted to do a film about that you haven’t been able to yet.

Oh, yeah, they stink.

That would be good for me because those things really do reek.

People have told me that if you can get past the stink, it’s delicious. But I haven’t been able to do it. I can’t get past the stink.