Rating: 
Summary: My Best Fiend
Review: "I was not excellent! I was not extraordinary! I was monumental! I was epochal!" Klaus Kinski, in response to a compliment from a theatre critic.From the moment the film "My Best Fiend" begins, you are shocked and mezmerized by the sight of Klaus Kinski in a live performance piece, where he assumes the guise of an iconoclastic Jesus Christ, who proceeds to berate, denounce and even physically challange members of the audience. From that moment on, it is clear that Kinski is either completely mad, or teetering at the very edge of insanity. What director Werner Herzog has done, is to reveal their fascinating working relationship, by which he had to manipulate and channel Kinski's madness, so that his intensity could be captured by the camera, and used in his movies. Their collaboration resulted in such great movies as "Aguirre, The Wrath of God," and "Fitzcarraldo." The series of catastrophes that occured during both of these movie shoots on the Amazon, coupled with the stars' total instability, brought out the best and worst in Kinski, demonstrating that great art can sometimes be the result of two artists at war with each other. The location scenes along the Amazon are hauntingly beautiful, wild and frightening. It is the perfect backdrop and metaphor for Klaus Kinski's performances in these movies. The DVD offers the option of hearing Werner Herzog's narration in German or English.
Rating:
Summary: A Legendary Collaboration that Now Seems Almost Inevitable
Review: "My Best Fiend" is the story of a tumultuous relationship between actor Klaus Kinski and director Werner Herzog. The story is told primarily through reflections on the creation of two major films: "Aguirre, The Wrath of God" and "Fitzcarraldo". In addition, brief anecdotes also describe their work on "Woyzeck", "Nosferatu" and "Cobra Verde" as well. The film begins with documentation of Kinski portraying Jesus during a solo theatrical tour of Germany. Kinski's Christ was not the Jesus "of the official church, who the police, bankers, judges, hangmen, politicians and other powerful people tolerate". Kinski's portrayal of Jesus shows him to be a man of intense [ possibly bordering on megalomaniac ] anger and indignation. This strident emotional disposition seems to be one of the major themes of the entire film. Reflections by Herzog on the two meeting during their teenage years in Munich leads to a discussion of the filming of "Aguirre", which directly followed Kinski's Jesus tour. Here one can see that Herzog and Kinski complimented each other through a kind of symbiosis of necessity. Herzog provided a context for Kinski in which he could best reveal his mad, obsessive personality to greatest emotional effect on film. Also, as one can see from the "Fitzcarraldo" audition footage featuring Mick Jagger as the lead, Herzog needed Kinski to best realize his unique vision for these stark films of monumental suggestive metaphor. Indeed, in the way that the documentary portrays these two men, one can scarcely doubt that they were soul mates of a very high, though intensely maddening, order. It is now hard to imagine one man without the other. Which is why this film, that was perhaps a labor of both love and obsession for Mr. Herzog, is so captivating. Deep and real issues of meaning were addressed by their collaborations, that still echo strongly down into the present day.
Rating:
Summary: A love/hate relationship for the ages.
Review: "... and here I was sitting next to Kinski at the Telluride Film Festival, which is funny, because not less than a week before, I had finally ended my plot to kill him." This was the relationship between 2 cinema heroes of mine. Werner Herzog has created an homage to his friend, Klaus Kinski, with My Best Fiend. The stories are amazing and often hilarious, as Herzog recounts the lifetime of "friendship" with a man he so many times threatened (and plotted) to kill. Even if you're not a fan of either man or their work, check this film out for the stories told. I headed directly from the theater to a phone, to catch up with some of my old best friends I hadn't spoken to in years.
Rating:
Summary: My Best Fiend
Review: "I was not excellent! I was not extraordinary! I was monumental! I was epochal!" Klaus Kinski, in response to a compliment from a theatre critic. From the moment the film "My Best Fiend" begins, you are shocked and mezmerized by the sight of Klaus Kinski in a live performance piece, where he assumes the guise of an iconoclastic Jesus Christ, who proceeds to berate, denounce and even physically challange members of the audience. From that moment on, it is clear that Kinski is either completely mad, or teetering at the very edge of insanity. What director Werner Herzog has done, is to reveal their fascinating working relationship, by which he had to manipulate and channel Kinski's madness, so that his intensity could be captured by the camera, and used in his movies. Their collaboration resulted in such great movies as "Aguirre, The Wrath of God," and "Fitzcarraldo." The series of catastrophes that occured during both of these movie shoots on the Amazon, coupled with the stars' total instability, brought out the best and worst in Kinski, demonstrating that great art can sometimes be the result of two artists at war with each other. The location scenes along the Amazon are hauntingly beautiful, wild and frightening. It is the perfect backdrop and metaphor for Klaus Kinski's performances in these movies. The DVD offers the option of hearing Werner Herzog's narration in German or English.
Rating:
Summary: The Irresistable Force Meets The Immovable Object
Review: (from an interview at the Telluride Film Festival:)
Reporter: Have you ever met before?
Kinski: No, we've just met.
Herzog: Only on the battlefield. On the battlefield of life itself.
K: He's crazy-- he's crazy, that's why we work together. Otherwise we would never do anything together.
Reporter: He takes his work to heart...
Reporter 2: WHY do you work together--?
K: Because he's crazy. And so I am... that's why.
H: It's a perfect combination of the mad people. (Kinski laughs) Of the mad men...
That about sums it up. Werner Herzog and Klaus Kinski, for all their differences, had an amazing working relationship and an often-volatile personal friendship that went back to the time Herzog was 13 years old. Now that Kinski has passed away, Herzog has directed a wonderful memorial to his often-maniacal star. Herzog pulls no punches when describing Kinski's insane tantrums (and his own unsuccessful attempt to firebomb Kinski's house in retaliation), but you can't help but notice Herzog's affectionate gusto when telling these stories... and he closes the film on a beautiful location shot showing a Peruvian butterfly who just can't seem to leave a beaming Kinski alone. This one is a keeper-- don't miss it.
Rating:
Summary: The Irresistable Force Meets The Immovable Object
Review: (from an interview at the Telluride Film Festival:) Reporter: Have you ever met before?
Kinski: No, we've just met.
Herzog: Only on the battlefield. On the battlefield of life itself.
K: He's crazy-- he's crazy, that's why we work together. Otherwise we would never do anything together.
Reporter: He takes his work to heart...
Reporter 2: WHY do you work together--?
K: Because he's crazy. And so I am... that's why.
H: It's a perfect combination of the mad people. (Kinski laughs) Of the mad men... That about sums it up. Werner Herzog and Klaus Kinski, for all their differences, had an amazing working relationship and an often-volatile personal friendship that went back to the time Herzog was 13 years old. Now that Kinski has passed away, Herzog has directed a wonderful memorial to his often-maniacal star. Herzog pulls no punches when describing Kinski's insane tantrums (and his own unsuccessful attempt to firebomb Kinski's house), but you can't help but notice Herzog's affectionate gusto when telling these stories... and he closes the film on a beautiful location shot showing a Peruvian butterfly who just can't seem to leave a beaming Kinski alone. This one is a keeper-- don't miss it.
Rating:
Summary: Eyes Wide... Mouth Open!
Review: Documentaries are seldom this exciting and beautiful to watch. It doesn't matter if you have seen all these scenes before, or if you have no idea who on earth are Herzog and Kinski. You won't be able to take your eyes or ears away until it's over. Although this delves mostly into the making of "Aguirre, the Wrath of God" and "Fitzcaraldo", you needn't know a thing about those two brilliant films to love this one. However, after you see this I guarantee you will seek out every film made by both of these tremendously gifted men (don't bother with Kinski's "Creature"). Sure, the relationship between Herzog and Kinski has always been notorious and well documented, but not from the horses mouth, and not with all these wonderful behind the scenes glimpses into the thoughts of co-stars, extra's and production people. There are some amazing and unforgettable things you will never know about these films and these people without seeing this. It is not simply the recorded rants of a madman and his egocentric director, but a touching, scary and very deep look into the hearts and minds of two cinema giants who will be studied, disected and forever remembered. If you've never seen the work of these men before, start here and see why you should and will want to see it all - More than once. Footnote: See if you can find Herzog popping up in Hell in the film "What Dreams may Come".
Rating:
Summary: AMARCORD
Review: For those of you who consider, like me, that Werner Herzog is one of the great filmmakers of the last 30 years, MY BEST FIEND is essential. Thanks to Anchor Bay, we've already had the chance to hear Herzog commenting AGUIRRE or NOSFERATU for instance. Now, we can apprehend the strange ties of friendship that existed between the visionary director and his favorite actor. In this documentary, Werner Herzog returns to Germany for a visit to his own mother's appartment where he met Klaus Kinski in the mid-fifties. Kinski had already a strange behaviour then, living naked in a little room with dead leaves all over the floor. Next, Herzog takes the train to Peru in order to watch again the landscapes of AGUIRRE and FITZCARRALDO and to interview indian actors of these movies. At last, he comes back to Czechoslovakia where he directed WOYZECK and NOSFERATU in 1978-1979. The movie also presents interviews of Claudia Cardinale (Fitzcarraldo) and Eva Mattes (Woyzeck), a "behind the screen" approach of AGUIRRE and FITZCARRALDO as well as Mick Jagger's performance in the role of Fitzcarraldo before Jason Robards's illness stopped the production. A DVD for your library.
Rating:
Summary: I Miss Klaus Kinski Too
Review: German film director Werner Herzog and the late international film star, Klaus Kinski, had a deep love-hate relationship with one another. As artists, this fueled their work together and they will both be remembered primarily for their joint film efforts. Indeed, throughout the documentary made by Herzog, the one still alive, he seems to be lacking half of himself when he is onscreen. He also seems to be as much trying to reclaim the best parts of himself as much as he is trying to come to final terms with his relationship with Kinski. Unfortunately, those best parts probably died with Kinski. Each man believed the other one was mad and a megalomaniac. Certainly neither man was like a "normal" person if you recall their film work together, all of it superb but obsessed. Every time Kinski's face comes onto the screen in the documentary, I remembered how beautiful or ugly he could make himself appear. His face is one artists everywhere would love to paint, draw, sculpt... whatever. That people were drawn to him and repelled by him off-camera, in equal measure, should really come as no surprise. That he could embody both characteristics within seconds of one another before the camera defined his brilliance as an actor. I think Kinski got the better end of the deal. He lived life exactly under his own terms for 56 years and then died, apparently of natural causes, totally spent. It was probably like a regular person's living to be 100! Herzog, however, is left to go on and it is clear that he is not the artist he once was without his muse, his best fiend, Kinski. This was an absolutely fascinating film and I highly recommend it.
Rating:
Summary: Don't believe everything...
Review: I detect a strong streak of playful embellishment in Herzog's accounts of Klaus Kinski's childishness and egomaniacal behavior. Perhaps that's because the first time I saw Werner Herzog in front of a camera was in his own acting role in Harmony Korine's bizarre film Julien Donkey-boy, in which Herzog's ample talents for script-less bullsh*tting were showcased. In My Best Fiend, I again sense similar moments of ad-libbed fabrication while listening to Herzog's various outlandish and defaming Kinski anecdotes. Not that Herzog's penchant for hyperbole detracts from the enjoyment of the film or from the mythic proportions of his collaboration with Kinski. But, if one considers this film alongside the deprecating rendering of Herzog contained in Kinski's autobiography, one begins to suspect a mutually-mischievous game of smearing one another publicly --just a twisted sense of humor shared by two close friends. With this gonzo-documentary, Herzog prevails eternally with a post-mortem vilification of his long-time friend and artistic co-conspirator. No doubt, Kinski was a nut. But probably more in the vein of Andy Kaufman than Caligula Caesar. The film clips from Kinski's "Jesus Speech" stage shows, documenting his unshakable adherence to character and his tantrums directed at the audience, remind me a lot of Kaufman on the pro-wrestling circuit. There's also clearly a good deal of acting involved in Kinski's other ostensibly spontaneous rages caught on film. Particularly, the footage of the actor raving maniacally on the set of Fitzcarraldo struck me as a complete put-on. It seemed almost to have been an elaborate anthropology experiment designed to observe the native tribal people's reaction to mental illness. The Indians were clearly impressed with the film crew's calm handling of the "situation", though it's telling --if Herzog is to be believed-- that they later offered to kill the madman for him. It occurred to me while watching this "behind-the-scenes" account that the entire filming of Fitzcarraldo could be regarded as such an experiment.
Herzog alludes to Kinski's womanizing prowess in deadpan comedic fashion. As he introduces one of Kinski's former leading-lady co-stars, Herzog jabs that she was the only one to say anything nice about him. The interview that follows is peppered liberally with oblique sexual insinuation. At one point in the film, as a contemplative Herzog sits on a train (while revisiting filming locations in South America), there is a voice-over of Kinski ranting, presumably taken from one of the "Jesus Speech" shows. The subtitles indicate that Kinski is detailing the hideous fate that awaits those who commit the egregious sin of slander. How wonderfully poetic, considering the nature of this film: Herzog uses Kinski's own words to mockingly taunt him in his grave! Perhaps the strangest part of this movie is the outtake from Fitzcarraldo, filmed before Kinski had replaced Jason Robards as the lead, complete with Mick Jagger as the goofy sidekick! Unreal. Could that be a put-on too? I really don't know what to believe anymore!
| 
