>However can one really say that the purpose of _The Searchers_ is to
>provide evidence or to document Ford's direction or Wayne's acting?  Or to
>take Aguirre can we say that the purpose of that film is to document
>Kinski's madness?

I don't think you can say the same thing for THE SEARCHERS (although it
would be interesting to hear someone make that case); it varies from film
to film.  Herzog may never come out during the course of AGUIRRE and say
"this is a film about me making this film," but to me, he does practically
everything but.



>In _Aguirre_ we have Kinski playing Aguirre.  If I understand you correctly
>you are arguing that this is the same as Kinski playing Kinski'. (As far as
>I am aware there is no documentary on Kinski where he gets to perform
>Kinski' and I have never sighted his autobiography).

Herzog's recent MY BEST FIEND, an official "documentary on Kinski," comes
pretty close to what you describe.



>Rothman in his book on Documentary Classics gets bogged down in a
>discussion on the non-difference between Lilian Gish playing a character,
>Susie, and Nanook playing Nanook'. Rothman's argument essentially is that
>both Gish and Nanook are performing. I have argued that there is a
>difference in a prior posted on this thread, but I will pursue it a little
>further if I may.

I think I see what you're getting at here, in that there is a difference
between a person officially playing themselves and a person playing
themselves through a role.  I would agree that there is an important
distinction between the two, but I think that both can nonetheless fall
within the rubric of documentary.  If the character Aguirre were intended
in some sense to signify the historical figure "Aguirre," (assuming there
is such a historical figure) and if this kind of historical documentation
were the goal of the film, we would indeed be dealing with a more
traditional kind of documentary.  But perhaps the distinction between
Kinski playing Kinski through Aguirre and Kinski playing Aguirre through
Aguirre is a matter of non-reflexivity vs. reflexivity, rather than one of
fiction vs. documentary.