Kinski: My Best Fiend
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Claudia Cardinale, Isabelle Adjani, Justo Gonz?lez, Klaus Kinski, Mick JaggerPrimary Contributor: Klaus Kinski
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround; German (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround; English (Subtitled)
Format: Anamorphic, Color, DVD-Video, NTSC, Widescreen
Picture Format: Anamorphic Widescreen, 1.77:1
Running Time: 95 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2000-08-15
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: Starz / Anchor Bay
Movie Reviews of Kinski: My Best Fiend
Movie Review: Good humour, tipped with venom.
Summary: 3 Stars
Here's what Klaus Kinski wrote about Werner Herzog in his autobiography:
"Herzog is a miserable, spiteful, envious, stingy, stinking, money-hungry, malicious, sadistic, insidious, backstabbing, blackmailing, cowardly person, and a liar through and through. His so-called talent is nothing more than torturing helpless creatures and, if necessary, putting them to death or simply murdering them. No one and nothing interests him but his lousy career as a so-called filmmaker. Driven by a pathological addiction to cause a sensation, he himself provokes the most senseless difficulties and dangers and puts the safety and even the lives of others on the line -- only so he can later say that he, Herzog, achieved the seemingly impossible." (This goes on for pages.)
Herzog mentions these passages in "My Best Fiend," holds up a copy of Kinski's book, and says that he ought to read from it...but he never does. Instead, Herzog says that, actually, he ghost-wrote those hate-filled passages for Kinski (zing!). But he never quotes them. It is telling.
Things like this happen all the time throughout the film. I don't mind that Herzog focuses on the five films he made with Kinski -- those are Kinski's most famous performances, and Herzog would know more about them than anyone else. But, for instance, toward the end of his life, Kinski was obsessed with making a film about the famous violinist Paganini, with whom he personally identified. Eventually he was able to make it, but it was the only film he ever directed, and the last film he ever acted in. Herzog mentions it in "My Best Fiend," but he doesn't show any excerpts from it. All he says about it is that the script was unfilmable, and that Kinski had already exhausted himself by that point.
I am perfectly willing to suppose that Herzog is right, and that "Paganini" is a bad film. In fact I'm sure that's the case -- Kinski had no directorial experience, plus his notorious lack of restraint probably wouldn't translate into good directing. Also, it's clear from Kinski's autobiography that Kinski's interest in Paganini was driven by a badly-concealed desire to exalt himself. (You can see this in "Cobra Verde" too, although that's a brilliant film.) But still. "Paganini" was Kinski's only directorial effort, and he certainly put a lot of time and emotion into it. Whatever its ultimate artistic merit, clearly this project was extremely important to Kinski, and surely any attempt to understand him should at least briefly look at it. Maybe Herzog could even show an example of why it was such a bad film, and thereby make a larger point about why Kinski was unable to harness his own talents by himself. But he doesn't. Why? It's certainly not because he couldn't get the rights to it -- if he could find that obscure footage of Kinski's "Jesus" performance, he could surely get a clip from "Paganini," a failure that no one wanted to distribute for years. But he doesn't forget to mention that Kinski allegedly asked him to direct "Paganini," and that he refused. Hmm.
Herzog also visits a photographer who took many pictures of Kinski on set. This scene feels like mutual back-slapping, rather than a discussion of Kinski. Sure, they explain Kinski's ability to manoeuvre in front of the camera during the filming of "Aguirre," but most of the time, the conversation goes along the lines of, "Oh Werner, it was hard work, but you did it." "Oh yes, I did, and you have the proof." "Yes, that was your role and you did it with bravado." "Oh, yes, it sure was." Then Kinski is shown throwing a tantrum on the set of "Fitzcarraldo."
There are scattered tidbits about Kinski's acting style, and a couple of clips, mostly from Herzog's films. There's one non-Herzog clip of Kinski playing a cruel military officer that illustrates how he could use subtle realism to strengthen his "demonic" roles. But that's all: for instance, there's nothing from Kinski's brief appearance in "Doctor Zhivago," the only watchable scene in that otherwise dreadful film. On the plus side, there are a couple of interviews with Kinski's fellow actors. Eva Mattes and Claudia Cardinale both found Kinski to be a sweet and considerate man. Eva Mattes says so many nice things about Kinski that Herzog hurries to turn the conversation back to himself.
Watching this film, I thought that the Herzog/Kinski feud never ended, and that the real purpose of the film is to define Kinski's legacy entirely in Herzog's terms. The tone Herzog chooses for his anecdotes is exactly the tone that would discredit Kinski most. Instead of reading from Kinski's book, Herzog remarks, with all the good humour in the world, that all the abuse therein was actually Herzog's own idea. This remark is brilliantly unanswerable -- if you believe it, there's simply no way to take Kinski seriously anymore. Herzog's numerous remarks about Kinski's "posing" and "insipid beliefs" are in a similar vein. Herzog casually says that he showed Kinski how to act in many scenes, and that he could have played the parts himself. The film also reproduces Herzog's rant about the jungle from "Burden of Dreams," even though it has nothing to do with Kinski. Sure, Herzog praises Kinski's talent, but he leaves no doubt as to who the real master was.
I can understand if Herzog wanted to even the score, after all the things Kinski said about him over the years. But in some sense, Kinski's hatred was boyishly naive compared to this film. Looking at Herzog's genial smile in "My Best Fiend," you wonder whether Kinski might have been on to something in his description of Herzog. If you are interested in Kinski, read the autobiography. It's just as unreliable as a source of facts, but it reveals more of his character.
Summary of Kinski: My Best Fiend
A chain of coincidences brings the 13-year-old schoolboy werner herzog together with klaus kinski to the same apartment in munich. In an unabated 48-hour fit of rage kinski immediately proceeds to lay waste to all the furniture only one of such fits to come. Herzog therefore knows what awaits him. Studio: Starz/sphe Release Date: 06/03/2008 Starring: Claudia Cardinale Beat Presser Run time: 100 minutes Rating: Nr Director: Werner HerzogMost people associate the director Werner Herzog with the actor Klaus Kinski--but few know how twisted and enmeshed their relationship was. Though Kinski has made dozens of movies, he probably remains best known for the five he made with Herzog: Aguirre: The Wrath of God, Woyzeck, Nosferatu the Vampyre, Cobra Verde, and Fitzcarraldo. In this documentary/cinematic memoir, Herzog uses clips from these remarkable films, on-the-set footage, and personal recollections to create a portrait of Kinski as both a deeply passionate actor and a raving lunatic; it's hard to say whether he's defaming Kinski or being generous to this mercurial, erratic actor. There's no question that their relationship is fascinating; after their first movie (Aguirre, probably the best of their collaborations) they both described moments of wanting to kill each other--in fact, both agree that Herzog threatened to shoot Kinski at one point, though they differ on the details. Yet they went on to make four more movies, almost all of them under circumstances that would be difficult for the most serene personalities. My Best Fiend was inspired by Kinski's death, and probably the movie's weakest aspect is that we don't get Kinski's side of their friendship. But even though it's one-sided, it's still a remarkable portrait of two artists who were willing to go to extremes to capture their visions. Any fan of either will find this unique documentary indispensable. --Bret Fetzer
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