Mucica Proibita

Playing Caruso for a Rhododendron delavayi on top of a mountain in Yunnan.
American plant hunter Joseph Rock arrived in Yunnan in 1922 and spent the next 27 years examining the native cultures of northwestern Yunnan and western Sichuan. To attract camera-shy locals, Rock invented a method: he used a gramophone to play Caruso songs to the locals and set up his camera to shoot them as they gathered. In Herzog's film Fitzcarraldo, Caruso's songs are also at the heart of the narrative and are used (wishfully by the protagonist) as a mediator between cultures.