Citizendia
Your Ad Here

My Best Fiend
Directed by Werner Herzog
Produced by Lucki Stipetic
Written by Werner Herzog
Narrated by Werner Herzog
Starring Werner Herzog
Klaus Kinski (archive footage)
Eva Mattes
Claudia Cardinale
Music by Popol Vuh
Cinematography Peter Zeitlinger
Editing by Joe Bini
Release date(s) 7 October 1999 (Germany)
Running time 95 min. Werner Herzog (born Werner H Stipetić; September 5 1942 is a German Film director, Screenwriter, actor and Opera director Lucki Stipetić (also Lucki Herzog) is a film producer and the younger Half brother of filmmaker Werner Herzog. Werner Herzog (born Werner H Stipetić; September 5 1942 is a German Film director, Screenwriter, actor and Opera director Werner Herzog (born Werner H Stipetić; September 5 1942 is a German Film director, Screenwriter, actor and Opera director Werner Herzog (born Werner H Stipetić; September 5 1942 is a German Film director, Screenwriter, actor and Opera director Klaus Kinski ( October 18, 1926 &ndash November 23, 1991) was a German Actor, famous for his ability to project onscreen Eva Mattes (born on 14 December, 1954, in Tegernsee, Germany) is a German - Austrian Actress. Claudia Cardinale (born April 15, 1938) is an Italian actress born in Tunis, Tunisia. Popol Vuh was a German Krautrock band founded by pianist and keyboardist Florian Fricke in 1970 together with Holger Trulzsch (percussion and Frank Fiedler Joe Bini, born Guiuseppe Gaetano Bini in 1963 to Aurora Cerro Bini and Louis John Bini in San Mateo California Events 3761 BC - The epoch (origin of the modern Hebrew calendar ( Proleptic Julian calendar) Year 1999 ( MCMXCIX) was a Common year starting on Friday (link will display full 1999 Gregorian calendar)
Country Germany
Language German
Allmovie profile
IMDb profile

My Best Fiend (German: Mein liebster Feind - Klaus Kinski, literally My Dearest Enemy - Klaus Kinski) is a 1999 documentary film by Werner Herzog about his tumultuous yet productive relationship with German actor Klaus Kinski. Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany ( ˈbʊndəsʁepuˌbliːk ˈdɔʏtʃlant is a Country in Central Europe. The German language (de ''Deutsch'') is a West Germanic language and one of the world's major languages. The German language (de ''Deutsch'') is a West Germanic language and one of the world's major languages. The year 1999 in film involved some significant events and was arguably the most successful year for films released in the 1990s Documentary film is a broad category of visual expression that is based on the attempt in one fashion or another to " Document " reality Werner Herzog (born Werner H Stipetić; September 5 1942 is a German Film director, Screenwriter, actor and Opera director Klaus Kinski ( October 18, 1926 &ndash November 23, 1991) was a German Actor, famous for his ability to project onscreen It was released on DVD in 2000 by Anchor Bay. DVD (also known as " Digital Versatile Disc " or " Digital Video Disc " - see Etymology)is

Contents

Summary

“ People think we had a love-hate relationship. Well, I did not love him, nor did I hate him. We had mutual respect for each other, even as we both planned each other's murder. ”
 
— Werner Herzog, [1]

The film opens with shots from one of Klaus Kinski's Jesus tours, in which he performed – after his own interpretation – the role of Jesus. Klaus Kinski ( October 18, 1926 &ndash November 23, 1991) was a German Actor, famous for his ability to project onscreen Jesus of Nazareth (7–2 BC / BCE —26–36 AD / CE) Kinski harangues the audience for not paying attention to him, curses wildly, has the microphone taken away from him, and, screaming, steals it back. Kinski had to leave one of these tours in order to star in his first Herzog film, Aguirre, The Wrath of God. Aguirre the Wrath of God (Aguirre der Zorn Gottes is an independent 1972 German Film written and directed by Werner Herzog This was the first of five films that the two would make together, including Nosferatu: Phantom der Nacht (1978); Woyzeck (1978); Fitzcarraldo (1982); and Cobra Verde (1987). Nosferatu the Vampyre ( Ger. Nosferatu Phantom der Nacht, Eng. Woyzeck is a 1979 Film by the German director Werner Herzog that stars Klaus Kinski and Eva Mattes Fitzcarraldo is a 1982 film written and directed by Werner Herzog and starring Klaus Kinski as the title character Cobra Verde (also known as Slave Coast) is a 1987 German drama Film based upon Bruce Chatwin 's

Herzog presents selected pieces of Kinski's biography. He tours a substantially renovated apartment in which Kinski lived, looks at a film clip of the first time he ever saw Kinski, and presents a large amount of footage from the sets of their various movies. Herzog recounts the heated arguments and sometimes violent altercations between them, including the oft-repeated story of Herzog threatening to shoot Kinski should he leave the production of Aguirre. He draws heavily on footage from Burden of Dreams, a documentary of the making of Fitzcarraldo, a particularly difficult film for their relationship. Burden of Dreams (1982 is a feature-length documentary and making-of directed by Les Blank, shot during and about the chaotic production of Werner Herzog

The Kinski that Herzog presents, however, is not solely the raving madman he is sometimes remembered as. Herzog has a deep respect for Kinski's acting talent. He also displays a tender side of Kinski. From interviews with two of the women who starred opposite him, Eva Mattes (from Woyzeck) and Claudia Cardinale (from Fitzcarraldo), one would get the impression that Kinski was a loving and gentle, indeed a calm man. Eva Mattes (born on 14 December, 1954, in Tegernsee, Germany) is a German - Austrian Actress. Woyzeck is a 1979 Film by the German director Werner Herzog that stars Klaus Kinski and Eva Mattes Claudia Cardinale (born April 15, 1938) is an Italian actress born in Tunis, Tunisia. Fitzcarraldo is a 1982 film written and directed by Werner Herzog and starring Klaus Kinski as the title character Perhaps most moving is the final sequence in the film, which is a series of shots of Kinski playing with a butterfly in the Peruvian jungle. A butterfly is an Insect of the order Lepidoptera. Like all Lepidoptera butterflies are notable for their unusual life cycle with a Peru (Perú Piruw Piruw officially the Republic of Peru ( reˈpuβlika del peˈɾu is a country in western South America.

Herzog describes Kinski's death as the result of living so strenuously and fully ("like a comet" as he describes it). As he talks, the documentary shows the final scene from Cobra Verde, in which Kinski collapses in the surf as he tries to pull a large boat out to sea. The film, then, is something of an elegy to Kinski, Herzog's dear friend and sometimes foe. The term " elegy " was originally used for a type of poetic meter ( Elegiac metre but is also used for a Poem of mourning from the Greek

Critical reception

As of August 2007, My Best Fiend held a 77% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes. August 2007 is the eighth month of that year It began on a Wednesday and 31 days later ended on a Friday. Rotten Tomatoes is a Website devoted to reviews information and news of Movies. [2]

Janet Maslin of the New York Times, admiringly called the film, "[a] captivating documentary, a film that serves as an eloquent coda to their unforgettable creative partnership. Janet Maslin (born 1948 is an American Journalist. She is best known as a film and literary critic for The New York Times "[3]. Roger Ebert gave the film three stars out of a possible four, saying:

“ As a meditation by a director on an actor, it is unique; most show-biz docs involve the ritual exchange of compliments. Roger Joseph Ebert (iːbɝt born June 18, 1942) is an American film critic and Screenwriter. 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. [4] ”

Jonathan Rosenbaum, writing for the Chicago Reader, was less enthusiastic, calling the film, "The art-movie equivalent to writer-director Blake Edwards's Trail of the Pink Panther. The Chicago Reader is an Alternative newsweekly in Chicago, Illinois, USA Blake Edwards (born July 26, 1922) is an Academy Award -winning American Film director, Screenwriter, and producer Trail of the Pink Panther is a 1982 Comedy film starring Peter Sellers.

“ Edwards and Peter Sellers reportedly were at each other’s throats throughout their many collaborations on Pink Panther comedies—largely, it appears, because of Sellers’s hyperbolically neurotic behavior. Herzog and Kinski had a similarly volatile relationship, which ended only after Kinski died, in 1991. Herzog got his revenge by releasing outtakes of his difficult star, much as Edwards continued to fiddle around with unreleased footage of Sellers as Inspector Clouseau in Trail of the Pink Panther. Herzog offers a personal documentary about Kinski and himself—recollecting particular tantrums and outrages while speculating on their significance, revisiting the Peruvian locations of some of their joint efforts, interviewing former crew members, showing Kinski behaving vilely to everyone around him. [5] ”

References

Sources consulted
Endnotes
  1. ^ Herzog, quoted in "Biography" at IMDb
  2. ^ My Best Fiend at Rotten Tomatoes
  3. ^ Janet Maslin's review, New York Times
  4. ^ Roger Ebert's review, New York Times
  5. ^ Jonathan Rosenbaum's Review, Chicago Reader

External links

© 2009 citizendia.org; parts available under the terms of GNU Free Documentation License, from http://en.wikipedia.org
 Dapyx Software network: MP3 Explorer | Ebook Manager | Zenithic