This is a film about the love-hate relationship between Werner Herzog and Klaus Kinski - utterly puzzling to outsiders - about the deep trust between an actor and a director, and their independently and simultaneously hatched plans to murder one another.
My Best Fiend is about two men who both wanted to be dominant, who both had all the answers, who were inseparably bound together in love and hate, and who created extraordinary work -- while all the time each resented the other's contribution.
What's the difference between artistry and bravado? This isn't a question I generally feel inclined to ask, but I'm compelled by the work of Werner Herzog, who scrambles the two until it's difficult to tell which is which.
Herzog offers some evidence of Kinski's great human warmth, somewhat more of his rage of unimaginable proportions, and a good demonstration of Kinski's uncanny capacity to corkscrew his way into the frame.
While My Best Fiend -- does a splendid job of chronicling the high drama and creative pinnacles of their work together, it emphasizes the most public and bleakly amusing aspects of their story.
With generous clips from Herzog and Kinski's collaborations, My Best Fiend is one of the great portraits of artists fighting, even with murderous rage, to reach the sublime.
The pairing of the director and actor invariably resulted in extraordinary creative collaborations. These men -- arrogant, ambitious, sadistic, fanatical, and in Kinski's case, probably insane -- certainly deserved each other.
Kinski wasn't the wrath of God, but he was a damn fine actor, and this documentary so entranced and informed me, that I plan on going out and seeing every one of his films again.
As documentaries go, this one is second-rate, consisting of almost nothing but Herzog sitting in locations at which he and Kinski once filmed and reminiscing.
Klaus Kinski was one helluva showman, and no filmmaker was better able to capture the explosive talent of his favourite fiend than the director of this fine documentary, Warner Herzog.
In this very unusual documentary filmmaker Werner Herzog revisits the Peruvian jungle and other locations throughout Europe, where he filmed movies with his long-time protagonist Klaus Kinski. Throughout this journey that mostly consist of interviews with fellow companions and Herzog's unbelievably funny anecdotes
about the love-hate relationship with the egomaniac actor. While all that's filmed and presented really calmly and may sound boring for many, it is still full of humor and very interesting insights both into film making and Kinski's personality. There is also some original footage of his tantrums, which is clearly the highlight of this film. The fact that there was more to Kinksi than met the superficial eye is the surprise of this film. And the final scene with the butterfly is so incredibly sweet and beautiful, you actually feel maybe he wasn't such an asshole after all.
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