My Best Fiend
Theatrical Film, 1999
Director: Werner “The Very Example of Sanity” Herzog
The Story
Werner Herzog reminisces about his old friend and sworn enemy, five-time collaborator Klaus Kinski. Joining him in his trips down memory lane are former cast and crewmates, the current owners of the flat where both Herzog and Kinski used to live, and the Indian chiefs who once offered to kill Kinski for the director. No, really.
The Review
It is fascinating sometimes to watch documentaries and see what they reveal about various subjects. And what they *don’t* reveal about them. And what they sometimes inadvertently reveal about them while loudly proclaiming something else. I say this because Werner Herzog’s documentary/nostalgic ode My Best Fiend, while purporting to reveal the true nature and demented genius of Klaus Kinski also reveals the true nature and insane brilliance of Herzog himself, even though he loudly stresses the opposite. It is also worth noting what you will not find in this film: you will not get a detailed biography of Kinski or a straight chronological tale of his time working with Herzog. What you get is basically a one hour and forty minute twisted love letter to the relationship between the two men. And it is very, very twisted. Watching this movie you will see the two fight and slander the other over and over again but you will also see them share tender interludes that seem more like the moments typically shared between lovers than between actors and directors. In fact, I got the sense watching My Best Fiend that had Herzog and Kinski been of different sexes that they probably would have been bonking each other in addition to working and fighting together.
As I have said this doc attempts to reveal to the world the “true” nature of Klaus Kinski, and for the most part I think that it succeeds, although I don’t know if I trust Herzog’s memory that much. Herzog portrays Kinski here as both a raving madman and a dedicated professional, idiotically cowardly and unexpectedly courageous, ruthlessly unfeeling and affectionately warm. Wow, you mean people are multifaceted and the world isn’t black or white? I never knew! Anyways, for all the alternating tales of terror (one of the most amusing moments in the entire movie: Kinski having a tantrum doing Fitzcarraldo and Herzog saying, “oh, that was one of his mild ones.”) and fuzziness (Eva Mattes seems to be especially fond of Klaus) that Herzog presents, the two defining and revealing moments for me are the very beginning and end of the movie itself. The end has the iconic imagery of Kinski playing with a butterfly who is completely unafraid of him. The other is the beginning where Kinski is doing one of his Jesus Monologues during the early seventies: “I am not the Jesus of the official Church… who the police, bankers, judges, hangmen, officers, church bosses, politicians, and other powerful people tolerate. I am not your Superstar!” Here I think though that Kinski is not delivering a monologue as Jesus but is actually describing himself through the metaphor of Jesus. True to Kinski’s statement I think that most people in power and even most Christians today would not appreciate Jesus if they truly got to know him. Jesus was an iconoclast, a challenger of social norms and did not endear himself to the populace at the time in which he lived. Similarly I think Kinski was making a statement about himself, that he would be the iconoclastic savior of the acting world, but that he would not bend over or play nice with those in power in the entertainment industry. He wouldn’t be their moldable “superstar” and be one of those highly paid, pleasant little actors with little talent selling out their craft to the suits and shelling out crap. In a way he’s very refreshing, I think. Too many film actors throughout the history of the medium (and especially today) have been bland cookie-cutter copies who just slum it to get massive amounts of bucks. Kinski with all of his tantrums and typhoon-level rages attempted to take filmmakers, kick them in the ass and challenge them to make good movies. And if the filmmakers were worth a shit they did the same thing to Kinski to draw out his talent and challenge him to give his best performances. Like Werner Herzog.
And the secret of Werner Herzog, boys and girls - one that I had suspected since watching Aguirre way back and was confirmed by watching this film – is this: Werner Herzog is crazier than Klaus Kinski ever was. He’s just a quieter kind of crazy. Don’t believe me? Watch his movies! Only Herzog would take a group of actors down to the Amazon and film them on the river in simple rafts using only one camera. Only Herzog would dump 50,000 rats on a Dutch town while filming there. Only Herzog would allow all the animal tossing and abuse in all of his movies. And only Herzog would take a boat and really drag it up a mountain. Still don’t believe me? Watch this movie. It will hit you like a sack of bricks attached to a screaming nuclear rocket. Herzog denies that he’s insane, insisting strenuously that he’s the very definition of sanity. Then the next words out of his mouth are “Oh, yeah, and then there was that time I tried to firebomb Klaus’ house.” I rolled on the floor laughing when he said that, then ran and hid under the bed for a couple of hours quaking. Werner Herzog is the craziest, scariest, most awesome film director who ever lived. There are directors that had more talent and made better movies, but Herzog eclipses them all with sheer badassery. Want another example? He was on an American news show once in LA when he was shot ON CAMERA. He simply said, “Oh it is only a small bullet,” dug the projectile out of his body and continued like nothing ever happened. The interviewer kept going on and on about how he had been shot and Herzog seemed to want to say “Yes, yes, you stupid little man, I have been shot, but it is not that big a deal, it is nothing to me, I AM WERNER HERZOG.” If I ever get the chance to meet the man I don’t know whether I’d be honored or scared shitless. Or start kowtowing before The Master.
Okay, I’ve been too long-winded. In a nutshell: if you have watched all of Herzog and Kinski’s works together then you should watch this film. It gives insight into both men and why they are two of the greatest to ever practice their craft.
Screenshots
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| "I am not your Superstar!" |
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| The very face of sanity. In an insane asylum. |
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| Kinski bandages a wounded crewmember's hand. Aww. |
This is one of the few places where you'll see the footage of Jason Robards and ...Mick ...Jagger... in the original version of Fitzcarraldo. And, wow am I glad that it turned out differently. Seriously, what is this shit? These two aren't acting, they're goofing off in front of a camera. It's hard to believe that Herzog was actually going to make this.
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| Ahh, that's better. |
I think these two pictures sum up the Herzog/Kinski relationship perfectly.
The DVD
Okay, I want to know who Anchor Bay gets to do their translating and subtitling, because they suck. When I'm hearing "300 kilometers" in the German dialogue and am reading "300 miles" on the subtitle track it's time for someone to get fired. If you can't even be bothered to convert metric to imperial measurements properly we have a problem. In fact, why even bother converting? This isn't 1965, I have learned metric in school, thank you. Anyway, crappy subtitles aside this is a decent disc. No commentary track from Herzog this time but that's because this whole movie is basically a commentary track.
Next Week: I don't know. Something in English I think, because I've been watching foreign stuff for so long now I'm starting to hear Japanese and German in my sleep.
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