Werner Herzog's "My Best Fiend"

[Scottie]

I have to keep this short because it's almost my bed time, but I just watched Werner Herzog's film My Best Fiend(1999) the second most fascinating documentary of my life (the first I will mention further down).

For those of you who may not know, Werner Herzog is possibly Germany's best known filmmaker (maybe aside from Fritz Lang or Wim Wenders) and who has made some 53 films in his life. Klaus Kinski is possibly Germany's most prolific actor and who has made some 135 films in his life and was a raving lunatic. Their lives crossed paths to make 5 films together and the sparks created from their clashing heads lit their films into a raging inferno of emotion, power and energy. Together as friends and as enemies, their careers have provided us with four of the most important films of the 1970's and 80's.

My Best Fiend uses Werner Herzog as the narrator to tell the tale of the complicated relationship that existed between the megalomaniacal actor Klaus Kinski and the uncompromising director Werner Herzog. Early in Werner's life, Klaus lived in his family's single room apartment. Werner tells a story of how for two days straight Klaus locked himself into the only bathroom of the apartment and reduced the bath tub and sink to chuks of porcelain small enough to sift through a tennis racket. He also recalls with a hint of fondness how one day Klaus broke down the kitchen door raving that the cleaning lady had not ironed his shirt collars enough. Werner was 15-years-old at the time and Klaus was almost 30. It was during their early encounters with each other that Werner realized he wanted to make films and that Klaus was going to be his star.

Fifteen years later, Herzog had Kinski on the cliffs of Machu Pichu raving to Herzog to shoot a picturesque landscape of the city like what you'd find on a postcard and Herzog outright denying Kinski his wish. The clouds were thick enough to obscure sight to a sixteenth of a mile, they were seven thousand feet above sea level, and had a film company of more than 800 cast and crew of Europeans and native Indians and the two were arguing about aesthetics. Such was the professional relationship between Klaus and Werner. Kinski was a certified raving maniac and Werner was never going to give up his vision for the film. Together they fought bitterly with each other to create what each saw as how films should be made. Eventually the clouds parted and the long line of Spanish conquistadores and indians travelling down the steep mountain trails is what you can see today to begin the masterpiece Aguirre, the Wrath of God (1972).

If one looks closely at the film Aguirre, one can see the true to life duress the filming put upon the actor Klaus. Because of Klaus' near willingness to explode into a raving fit where he could continue to yell and scream for hours while white foam would begin to form at the edge of his mouth from dehydration, Werner would use this to achieve some of the looks of desperate abandonment Klaus held as the film progressed. As Werner would begin to plan for a particular scene, he would make comments to Klaus that he knew would push him over the edge. Then he would tell Klaus to do the scene after his hour or two of yelling, and he would achieve greatness.

In 1982, Werner and Klaus worked on another film involving the jungle of South America. In Fitzcarraldo, the obsessive nature of filmmaker Werner Herzog is mirrored in Klaus' character of Fitzcarraldo, an Irishman with visions of grandeur to see an opera house built in the jungle city of Iquitos, Peru. In the film, Werner demands that a real steamship be pulled over a mountain using an elabroate pulley system. This idea of raw power and brute force, cutting down acres of jungle to fit a round plug through a square hole speaks for the determination of the director and in no way was Werner going to let anybody stand in his way, not even Klaus. In an often recounted story, Klaus once threatened to leave the set during the middle of the shoot. Werner hearing of this approached Klaus and threatened him with the proposal that before Klaus could reach the next bend in the river with his speed boat, there would be eight bullets from a rifle in his head with the ninth in Wener's own head.

Wow.

My Best Fiend draws footage from many sources to paint the picture of Klaus. Archive footage of Klaus on his acting tour where he played the role of Jesus on stage in front of a crowd who paid to see him is used to show Klaus' raving side. From the film Burden of Dream (1982) [the best documentary I have seen in my life] by documentarian Les Blank, we are allowed to see some of the many sides of Klaus including footage of Klaus delicately playing with a butterfly who simply wanted to be near Klaus. Far to the opposite we are given footage of Klaus raving for what feels like time stretched to the limits to producer Walter Saxer about the quality of food that everybody else had to eat but only Klaus couldn't stand. While on the other side of the spectrum, interview footage of some of the leading ladies who starred opposite to Klaus in his movies describe him as a calm and timid man with impccable manners. Klaus' story is the story of a star that burned twice as bright but for half as long. Archive footage of Klaus and Werner meeting at a film festival shows deeply felt love and affection for each other as they embrace for the first time in years. Arms around each other they chatter on about life as if they were brothers. Klaus was a man who only wanted to be loved. But his was a love of love. And when love was not present before him, he hated like only a man who had been scorned his whole life could hate.

To hear Werner's recollections of the time he spent with Klaus seven years after Klaus died of a heart attack in his apartment in uptown San Francisco, I could hear the compassion in his voice. How he wished to hold Klaus around the neck and walk with him and talk about the world. These are people meant to be with each other. I too could feel this closeness through Werner's aging voice. In my opinion, Werner's personality and physiology changed after Klaus' death in 1992. His voice became less dominating and his ego diminished. But the legend of Klaus Kinski and Werner Herzog continues to live strong. They will continue to live on as best of fiends forever and we will continue to watch their films forever.

[Mofo Rising]

Well, with a recommendation like that, how I could not see this?

Actually, it's been in my list for quite a while, might have to bump this one up.  AGUIRRE is one of the most intriguing films I've ever seen.  Still have to get around to seeing FITZCARRALDO.

Honestly, Herzog is quite hit or miss with me.  He can't seem to make an uninteresting film, but they fluxuate between dazzling and simply odd (often both at the same time).  Can't say I've seen anything else with Kinski in it.

Now his daughter, Nastassja, that's another story.

[Neville]

This one is a must see if you are into Herzog's or Kinski's careers. Funny thing, I started feeling hatred towards Kinski, but the more I saw of this documentary, I noticed I was starting to transfer my anger at Herzog, specially when he mentioned he learned how to tell if kinski was going to explode and shot scenes accordingly, or when he even recognised he made him explode several times on purpose.

No doubt Herzog is a gifted filmmaker, but i was left with a couple of questions, such as if his films with Kinski would have been as mesmerizing without him or that if despite presenting himself as a victim of Kinski he was in fact vampirizing his maniachal energy for art's sake.

The image of Kinski playing with the butterfly will always be on my mind.

[Scottie]

I feel no hatred to either of the two. Their relationship was not unbalanced in any way. Kinski made it extremely difficult to make movies or plays, being known to wreck entire productions (I think Herzog mentions upwards of 40 productions) by walking out, and Herzog simply knew how to control him the best while also getting outstanding performances from him. Kinski undertsood that Herzog knew what he was doing and so the two, in my opninion, were in a fine balance that leeched off each other. I cannot be upset at Werner because he is a very moral filmmaker who does not ask people to do things he would not do himself. In that way he is fair and equal and not crazy like people think. I think. Kinski was bipolar with a strong work ethic for acting. However he also believed himself to be a descendant from God and his word was the word of God. And if God's word was not met, God became very wrathful.

[peter johnson]

I own Fitzcarraldo & Herzog's Nosferatu, and have seen Cobra Verde, Augirre, Wozyeck.
The thing that impresses most about Herzog is his matter-of-fact allowing of the camera to linger in real time on a given event, whether it's a ship being pulled up a mountain in the jungle, or Kinski trying to drag a boat into the ocean by himself.
Some of this stuff is almost "beyond film" -- and I'm trying not to be pretentious -- but Herzog can sometimes create a sort of "Meta-film", like metaphysics -- You can forget you're watching a movie and just get sucked into this supernatural world that seems real.
A great Kinski role is that of a hunchbacked gunslinger opposite Clint Eastwood in "A Fistful of Dollars" -- Eastwood strikes a match on Kinski's face --
And, of course, where would Dr. Zhivago be without Kinski on that train?
peter johnson/denny crane

[RCMerchant]

I saw the doc about Kinski and Herzog on IFC. Fantastic.

[LH-C]

I have the box set put out by Anchor Bay that includes this documentary, but I have yet to watch it. I guess I should watch it now.

[Yaddo 42]

I have the Herzog/Kinski box set also. I highly recommend it to any fan of either man (or both). I've loaned the documenatry to friends, who have had mixed reactions, most were not fans of either guy. But one was utterly fascinated by their relationship and the time when they were both plotting to kill each other.

I also have Kinski's memoir "All I Need Is Love". It's the original version which was withdrawn due to lawsuits from book publishers or from his daughter (maybe both), not the later "Kinski Uncut" version with material removed, Sick, chaotic, rambling, and disconnected from time (you can only figure out what year something is happening in by references to films he takes on or turns down). More like undated journal entries than an organized writing effort, makes me wonder if Herzog helped Kinski punch up the writing about their venom and hatred for each other, as he claims into the film.