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26 of 28 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
I Miss Klaus Kinski Too, October 7, 2000
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.
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11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Don't believe everything..., September 4, 2003
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!
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9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
AMARCORD, October 9, 2001
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.
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