The News and Observer from Raleigh, North Carolina • 57

THE NEWS OBSERVER FRIDAY NOVEMBER 26 1999 Entertainment NR Documentary reveals artistry behind Kinsld's madness BY GILBERTO PEREZ INE NEW YORK TIMES went into his madness on camera 'lb see Jason Robards and Mick Jagger in Herzog's first attempt at Robards became ill) and then to see Kinsid in the part is to appreciate what an actor he was The actor's death is represented with the dying scene of the vampire he played in Herzog's remake of "Nosferatu" (1979) of nature was a pose and yet he leaves us with this image of the actor posing with a butterfly this metaphor of lcmski as a butterfly this memory of the fiend the friend with a pretty fluttering creature perched now on his hand now on his chin now on his shoulder now on his ear The film that opened with ferocity closes with affection "Sometimes I want to put my arm around him again" Herzog says "but I guess I only dream about this because I've seen this in old footage of the two of us" And we see the old film of the director putting his arm around the actor the two laughing together Then the film cuts back to Kinski as the screaming Jesus Herzog claims that Kinsld's love AV I( 1 I A '1 i 4144 I 'A '7Vtdit L' 4 I "ht ''t- 1 1 Irt'7 )1 a A 0 German actor and bad boy Klaus Kinski died in 1991 Inspired by Nature Perfected by Armstrong Introducing Natural Inspirations' y4- -i -i ws harmony by design from the leader in vinyl 'I'' 4 irk flooring Armstrong- o''' Who inspired our blends of 4 color pattern texture? 'I rn '-'r Mother Nature naturally Bring timeless style and design harmony into your home fro'-' -z--- :1 with all the ease and Ni -0 convenience of vinyl! 1 Ls '''''24 I insanity He insists "I'm quite sane clinically sane I was never certainly never out of my senses" not even that time he says when "I seriously planned to firebomb him in his house" and "was prevented only by the vigilance of his Alsatian shepherd" Earlier he describes how "the Indians offered to kill Kinski for me" during the shooting of "Fitzcarraldo" (1982) another film they made together in the Peruvian wilderness "They would have killed him undoubtedly if I had wanted it I at once regretted that I had held the Indians back from their purpose" Yet these Indians told him that it wasn't "that screaming madman" Kinski they were scared of "They were actually afraid of me because I was so quiet" Herzog says He goes on about Kinsld's egocentricity how it was nothing short of egomania without appearing to recognize his own He maintains that Kinski's love of nature his sense of the jungle as an erotic place was only a pose Then we see his own mustachioed younger self expressing his sense of the jungle as obscene "overwhelming and collective murder" Was this any less of a pose? In three of the films Herzog made with Kinski "Aguirre" "Fitzcarraldo" and the lesser-known "Cobra Verde" (1988) the actor embodies the insanity of the colonial enterprise: as Aguirre the madman in quest of El Dorado as Fitzcarraldo the opera zealot driven to build an opera house deep in the Amazon jungle as Cobra Verde the slave trader Yet Herzog doesn't adequately recognize that these Kinski characters are doubles of himself In each case the character's mad venture into alien territory his domination of others are projects parallel to the director's own In "Fitzcarraldo" the character crazily has a steamboat carried across a mountain for the sake of his opera house just as the director had actually done for his film and everybody Kinski included thought he was crazy to go through with it If Herzog would admit to a certain insanity in himself it would be the insanity of genius of the creator not of the conqueror not of the exploiter One way "My Best Fiend" succeeds as a documentary is by showing us Kinsid's madness off camera making us better aware of the artistry and control that NEW YORK The film opens with a man in the spotlight clutching a microphone He points at the audience and shouts with ferocity "First cast the beam out of thine own eye and then the mote from mine!" This man is not merely quoting Scripture he is also speaking as Jesus Christ himself: "I am not the Jesus of the official Church whom the police bankers judges hangmen officers church bosses politicians and other powerful people tolerate I am not your Superstar" Is he out of his mind? Is he part of some crazy cult? He pushes aside an audience member who climbs onstage and tries to speak When another spectator grabs the microphone and talks about Jesus' tolerance the man who speaks as Jesus invokes his anger and furiously walks oft Then the title of the film comes onto the screen: "My Best Fiend Klaus laski" Kinski is this fierce Jesus It's his peculiar brand of intensity bordering on insanity He comes back into the spotlight then off the stage in angry response to a spectator this time hurling not only insults but the microphone and its stand "My Best Fiend" screened earlier this month in New York is the German director Werner Herzog's documentary about his tumultuous relationship with Klaus Kinski the actor who starred in five of Herzog's feature films When Kinsld published his autobiography "Kinski: I Need Love" Uncut" in the English translation) just before his death in 1991 he wrote disparagingly of Herzog: "rve never in my life met anybody so dull humorless up-tight inhibited mindless depressing boring and swaggering" Now with "My Best Fiend" Herzog has a chance to set the record straight or at least to tell his side of the story Herzog though much younger than ICmsld presents himself in the documentary as a kind of father figure to Kinsld's bad boy Standing in the German countryside near where the actor used to live Herzog holds Kinsld's autobiography in his hands and says Kinski explained that no one would read the book unless he wrote bad things about the director According to Herzog he gave his consent to his own vilification He even helped Kinski find expletives in the dictionary to use against him In his autobiography Kinski takes credit for his most famous screen role as the demented conquistador in Herzog's 1972 film "Aguirre the Wrath of God" "I tell Herzog that Aguirre has to be crippled because his power must not be contingent on his appearance" and not just for his performance but for everything that is good about the movie "Every scene every angle every shot is determined by me" Kinsld writes "and I refuse to do anything unless I consider it right So I can at least partly save the movie from being wrecked by Herzog's lack of talent" Kinski is an unreliable narrator it's part of his persona as a bad boy But is Herzog any more reliable? Taking us back to the Peruvian locations of 'Aguirre" and sitting by the mountain that appeared in that film's opening shot he tells us that KinSki wanted a picture postcard view of the ruins of Machu Picchu Then he shows us that wonderful opening shot Without any signs of civilization we seem to be present at the dawn of creation and the invading Spaniards coming down the mountain resemble a parade of insects foolishly intruding on primeval nature The shot is so good and so characteristic of Herzog at his best that just showing it again in "My Best Fiend" is a rebuttal to Kinski's boast From a close-up of laski as Aguirre his eyes transfixing us with a deranged gaze the film cuts to Herzog in close-up telling us that Kinsid had accused him of mtperal (inspirations eo --T ail'' 'i It- i': 1 l' '17 ''e 2- 4 if- i P' 1 i A jt Ts 4 ') I i S''-l''11-71: '1' r- f'' i -7' L'' i- ''I 41 WI 4k 4' f0z' 0 i 41 '''''r i at rinspiratiops 9: luit-- 1 1 THE HOME CENTER INC Flooring Wallcovering Lighting 5900 Fayetteville Road Raleigh NC 27603 (919) 779-2405 Fax (919) 779-4641 Please visit our website at: homecentercitysearchcom THE HOME CENTER INC Flooring Wallcovering Lighting VINYL FLOORING The beauty is it stays that way- WM 11111 SPACE DEPOT SALE ly tt 3 ADEIL70 0 g'01105AMO (all in original cases) 1111: :14 Ill 'II: ''1'L '----t--- 4 '''si mog--lx-ii--- 4' 'g ''''1 C' I 'CI: 1 A': Aii: ICA '4 ('' '''a 0 1'4 a 0 I- ir 4 4- -c ri-1-ria--11 44' 4 --i r'' fi t- 4r- fl: e' i 1 ''''-'-'-'1 1 alb 1(110 ') 12t1' ff ''0 aonuna 7mE4ma glinw EIM rommilr 0 will be offered to the public starting midnight tonight! 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