Memorable, crazy movie

Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

As somebody who had not heard any of this before, it became a curious phenomenon to sit and watch a film and slowly have the realities begin to click into place.

One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

I walked into this one completely cold: I'd never heard of Kinski or Herzog before. I was completely blown away and the artist-on-artist format was as appropriate as it was effective: only a talented director could hope to communicate a little bit about someone as unique as Kinski. Many amazing scenes and lines are highlighted in this compilation and Herzog generously lets several film production secrets slip, some on purpose and some indirectly. It's my very limited assessment that Kinski only "acted" while off-camera, and what he did while it was rolling was not "acting" at all: he may have simply been one of the most intense and honest people ever to have lived.

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.

This is an interesting documentary, at least for those like myself who have seen and are fans of the cycle of films starring Klaus Kinski and directed by Werner Herzog, who helms this largely autobiographical and highly subjective documentary as well. It retraces the steps of their friendship to unlikely places such as a boarding house in Germany where Kinski shared lodgings with the adolescent Herzog and his family. It follows the production of each of the 5 films Herzog and Kinski made together in order, spending perhaps 15 or 20 minutes on each.There is some very fascinating footage here from the filming of both "Aguirre: The Wrath of God" and "Fitzcarraldo", the duo's most impressive collaborations. Also Herzog interviews various co-stars such as Claudia Cardinale (who recalls an odd episode where Kinski became very frustrated with a small animal) and Eva Mattes (who brings up a poignant story about Kinski mentoring her in a moment of distress while filming "Woyzchek"). Herzog travels to some of the locations where they filmed in South America and recalls Kinski's sometimes extravagant demands.A lot of interesting aspects of Kinski's craft emerge, such as his way of entering the frame with a swivel to avoid showing the side of his profile, and his seemingly unstoppable need for drama. But the film on the whole is about Herzog and Kinski working together, not about Kinski himself. It's about a work relationship and a friendship, and if we're to believe Herzog the two of them sat together thinking up insults of Herzog for Kinski's autobiography. There have been many great collaborations in cinema, but few where the two artists so often attempted to anger or even kill each other. Herzog and Kinski seem to have seen each other as insufferable egomaniacs, and Herzog describes how Kinski would create tension on the set to ensure that all attention was focused on him. At times Herzog says that he instigated arguments with Kinski because it was the only way to get Kinski's energy down to a level appropriate for the character, specifically on "Aguirre." And Kinski's anger, which we witness in more than one filmed tirade, is indeed a thing of terror and strange beauty.Fascinating film for fans, and I even suspect that those with no familiarity at all with these films will want to seek them out afterward.

Throughout "My Best Fiend," German director Werner Herzog recalls times when short-fused actor Klaus Kinski accused him of being a megalomaniac; in return, Herzog shot back the sentiment. Watching this documentary, it's quite obvious that Herzog is infatuated with his own impassioned narration and anecdotes, that tends to dominate over outsider commentary (actresses, extras, cameramen, etc.), leading to what amounts to a mostly one-man show. That being said, the film is much like any Herzog film–slowly paced, and an acquired taste–with passages of emotional power. "My Best Fiend" is billed as something of a Kinski docu, but the archival footage of the actor's mad tirades is regrettably limited, and Herzog is left to fill in the gaps with his own memories, which are at times overwrought and pretentious. As far as documentaries go, this is somewhat entertaining, but those expecting a bittersweet tribute to Kinski will probably be left cold by the experience.5.5/10