My Best Fiend (1999)

So much average

Fantastic!

It's hard to see any effort in the film. There's no comedy to speak of, no real drama and, worst of all.

Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

During Werner Herzog's "My Best Fiend", I couldn't help but find myself utterly shocked, despite already having some knowledge of Klaus Kinski's infamous behavior and madness. Who wouldn't be shocked after hearing some of Herzog's stories about the man?"My Best Fiend" is a documentary about Herzog's complicated, love-hate relationship with actor Klaus Kinski, who acted in five of Herzog's films. No other filmmaker was able to work with Kinski more than once, but Herzog is not like many other filmmakers, and this documentary is not like many other documentaries. It's a very personal film, and most of it is Werner Herzog telling mind boggling stories about his relationship with Kinski. It explores both Kinski's frightening insanity, and his sweeter, lovable side. What was perhaps most shocking about Kinski was not his temper and madness, but his kindness.This film works as a brilliant character study of an infamous actor, and it also provides the viewer with a glimpse into one of the strangest actor-director friendships of all time. It's also enormously entertaining, bizarre, and, at times, somewhat comic.

As mentioned in other reviews and as already communicated by the film title, this documentary offers a very subjective view on Kinskis personality: Kinski as seen and as "utilized" by the director Werner Herzog. The film describes Herzogs artistic vision of filmmaking and the rough personality Kinski contributed to this mission. By doing this, it is at least a fascinating documentary about filmmaking itself.It's obvious that Kinski with his impulsive, uncut and nearly superhuman presence that nearly blows up the screen is the prototype actor for the typical Herzog protagonist: a man whose over-individuality tears him apart from the human society and whose untamed passion only finds a metaphoric equivalent in the wild and uncivilized nature - in which he will finally collapse; well, at least in most cases. The documentary gives impressive evident for Kinski being this ideal candidate by comparing alternate scenes from Fitzcarraldo, one with Kinski as Fitzcarraldo and one with Mick Jagger. Jagger, a charismatic wild-man on stage, ends up as a harmless milksop when compared with Kinskis furious insanity.However, it seems that Herzog still wants to watch Kinski through the eyes of the director, not allowing too much deviation from the intended role. This becomes obvious in a short dialog with actress Eva Mattes, who describes Kinski as a polite, shy and 100% professional person. Herzogs reaction can be paraphrased as "But wasn't he also a madman?" Biographical research or psychological analysis are not the matter of this film. The reason is simple and becomes obvious during the movie: while showing some kind of "best-of-Kinski" moments, the documentary focuses more and more on Herzog himself and his mission, and in one scene Herzog will happily tell that he is a little bit insane, too.So, his approach to this documentary is rather comparable to the great films he made with Kinski: Kinski is the headliner and catalyst for Herzogs artistic vision to accomplish the 'impossible' gesamtkunstwerk: realizing filmmaking in a hostile environment, revealing the unseen and pushing everyone involved to his individual limits.With many unreleased flicks from film shootings and Kinski stage shows, interviews with involved actors and staff and some very intense shots (butterfly scene), this film is nevertheless highly recommendable to all Herzog / Kinski followers.

It's not a long time since I watched for the very first a Werner Herzog film. Actually that happened during this same month (when I watched Nosferatu: Phantom der Nacht). Right now I have seen four of the five films that Herzog and Klaus Kinski made as together as director and actor (Cobra Verde is the only one still to watch but I have it already on DVD) so it was time to finally watch My Best Fiend. Is obvious that now I'm totally into the work of Herzog, this documentary is a must see for any fan of the work of Herzog and of the acting of Kinski. It is not a masterwork however the subject is more than interesting. I remember that the first time I watched a performance of Kinski was in the film Les Fruits de la Passion. By then I didn't know who was Kinski and I haven't watched that film again (I have it on VHS and right now I don't have a video tape recorder available) but I do remember it a little. I have it as part of a box of erotic classics and it does have many sex scenes, quite explicit. Later I saw Kinski in For A Few Dollars More, a film that I loved and Kinski is great in it however it was until this month when, as I said, finally I watched a Herzog film and with that I quickly remember Les Fruits de la Passion. Basically I never forgot that Sergio Leone film but with Nosferatu: Phantom der Nacht and Aguirre, der Zorn Gottes I began my true admiration for Kinski.The films of the team Herzog/Kinski are more than great, extremely interesting and all of the ones I have seen with a magnificent Kinski. My Best Fiend is a documentary indicated just for persons who loved those films for obvious reasons. And it doesn't shows who was Kinski apart of what Herzog lived with him but he lived a lot of things, interesting things. We watch Herzog visiting those places where Kinski made that another grey hair appeared in Herzog's head. And Herzog begins in Munich where he shared house with Kinski (I didn't know that Kinski was 16 years older than Herzog), where he knew Kinski, his temperament. The footage of the making of the films is really interesting. Kinski was crazy, simply. I remember that recently when I talked with my cousin about the Herzog/Kinski films I said "I read that Kinski was crazy" and he said "but why?" I said something like "well he shot someone of the crew" "well for sure that's a type of madness" said my cousin. I'm mentioning this because I read many stuff of Kinski mainly in the Internet before watching this film and most of the quotes of Herzog come from this film. Of course Herzog not only visited the places but also meet with some of the cast and crew who worked with him and Kinski. Is unique because we watch Herzog speaking Spanish, of course German and narrating in English. We also see two actresses, the one of Woyzeck (they visited the place where they filmed Woyzeck) and the one of Fitzcarraldo. Eva Mattes won in Cannes but Kinski doesn't and is very funny to hear Herzog saying that Kinski said something like "I don't need awards, I know I'm a genius", it is true. It is interesting enough to easily say that it was absolutely worth watching. Of course Herzog was the sane and Kinski the madman when they were together but Herzog was also crazy, he has other type of craziness. Many unforgettable images but one of my favourites is when they meet again after some years I think in Colorado. Is all happiness and with that I guess many of the ones who knew both could think something like "who can understand these two? " There's also footage of a fight between Kinski and a producer, I think, and is a fight apparently for food. Watch how Kinski respected Herzog. I respect both for those four films that I loved and I hope soon I can say I love the five films of the Herzog/Kinski team. This was just the second documentary of Herzog that I watched, the other was Grizzly Man and for me that film is a masterwork. This one should be watched once you have watched some of those mentioned five films.

Werner Herzog's 1999 documentary, Klaus Kinski: My Best Fiend, is yet another in the dazzling array of Herzog documentary, or documentary-like, films. This one follows his turbulent friendship and creative partnership with the legendary German actor Klaus Kinski. Herzog also serves as narrator, in German (with English subtitles, or dubbed into English). In the 1970s and 1980s the pair collaborated to make five indelibly memorable great films: Aguirre: The Wrath Of God (1972), Nosferatu: Phantom Of The Night (1979), Woyzek (1979), Fitzcarraldo (1982), and Cobra Verde (1988).In a sense, this film is pure hagiography, only in wink and a nod reverse, as Herzog proudly cements Kinski's reputation as the madman of 20th Century film; but in the hands of any other director that's all this film would be, schmaltzy hagiography. In the capable hands of Herzog, this film is a memorable experience in its own right…. The film also has other unexpected moments of fun and pleasure, including bizarre outtakes from a supposed earlier version of Fitzcarraldo, starring Jason Robards as Fitzcarraldo, with a goofy Mick Jagger as his even odder sidekick. Whether or not this is true footage, or was merely done as a gag, is left to the viewer's imagination, but it's hard to imagine that Herzog would have ever wanted to make such a film.Kinski died in 1991, in Marin County, California, at the age of sixty-five, just three years after his last collaboration with Herzog on Cobra Verde, yet Herzog seems to never have gotten over it, for the better or the worse. The whole film, despite its mockery and offbeat tone, is a most loving tribute of one artist to another, even as Herzog claims, ''Every gray hair on my head I call Kinski.' Yet, the two men and artists seemed to bring out the best in each other, for Kinski's career long predated Herzog's, and included small roles in epics like Doctor Zhivago, but no one today recalls a single role of Kinski's outside the Herzog milieu. That, alone, sums up why this documentary is a must see for Herzog fans, and fans of cinema.