veneta1
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Re: Aguirre on telly
Jan 25, 2015, 18:52
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One of my fantasies is to listen to a conversation between Herzog and Patrick Stewart. My two favourite speaking voices on the planet. I'd pay good money to witness that.
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spencer
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NOSFERATU THE VAMPYRE
Jan 28, 2015, 01:09
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Saturday, Film4 23-10. I love Popol Vuh's soundtrack and Bruder des Schattens, Sohne des Lichts
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necropolist
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Re: Aguirre on telly
Jan 28, 2015, 10:02
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Sin Agog wrote: Actually, I think the film was shot in English, dubbed into German, then dubbed back into English again. Herzog always liked to do things the quixotic way.
It's true! Tho it was only translated back into German cos the guy who was meant to be syncing the english back in ran off with the money
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spencer
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Re: Aguirre on telly
Jan 28, 2015, 10:42
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Hey, you're right on that I'm sure, rings a bell from the telly doc on the film's making from way back... may have been an ITV/South Bank Show one. Would love to see that again if it still exists. Really the catalyst for my regard for Herzog, anyhow.
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elegant chaos
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Edited Jan 28, 2015, 11:54
Re: Aguirre on telly
Jan 28, 2015, 10:54
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"He was a raging narcissistic rapist psychopath"
Words which his own daughter, Pola, can testify to. Natassja said he tried his advances on her too but she refused.
When he died his two daughters did not attend the funeral.
After his death Natassja was asked what she would say if she could still talk to him - she just replied - "I would do anything to put him behind bars for life. I am glad he is no longer alive."
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Sin Agog
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Edited Jan 28, 2015, 15:08
Re: Aguirre on telly
Jan 28, 2015, 15:05
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Don't ever read his book, either his own spittle-flecked translation from German, All I Need Is Love, or the toned down (and ironically titled) Kinski Uncut. He comes across as one of history's great psychos, who tried to fuck everything that moved, and practically held his son- the only one of his offspring young and helpless enough to stick around in his later years- hostage. Really appalling man, whose gravitas onscreen doesn't even begin to justify his personal life. I still can't help be drawn to his work, though. Even his self-directed Paganini biopic holds a strange appeal to me. It's the movie that killed him, burnt away his soul. Wrote this review right after seeing it:
"Music comes from fire..."
Note: I thought it would be more in line with the spirit of the film if I capitalised every instance of KLAUS KINSKI's name being used throughout this review
I have no doubt that this is the most narcissistic film ever to see the inside of a cinema. Even the very title KINSKI Paganini shows a total lack of restraint.
It begins with an audience of pretty women frigging themselves senseless as KINSKI lashes at his violin. The whole movie is pretty much a montage of women losing complete control of their senses at the mere thought of KINS--- I mean Paganini. Even eleven year old girls wish they could, for but one second, experience the full thrust of his virility. He even sends sea-animals into a dizzy frenzy of lust- and horses, too. You see two horses going at it early on in the film and I'm sure both of them were secretly thinking of KINSKI. At least that's what he probably wanted us to think.
Just like with Dennis Hopper's The Last Movie, whatever plot may have been present whilst shooting was completely torn to shreds in the editing suite. What remains is a lot of strangely pretty shots of KINSKI power-walking through a lush 19th Century Europe or cavorting with buxom underage actresses inside ornate manor houses. It's mostly shot in a cinéma vérité style. If it weren't for the fact that he's on screen for almost every second of the movie, I wouldn't be surprised if it was KINSKI himself manning the camera. The only time you see shots of anyone else is when a beautiful woman is rubbing herself lustfully, her thoughts occupied by the eponymous scowling Nosferatu with sweaty jet-black hair and a bald patch.
Ah, but KINSKI has a more sensitive side, too. Just like that memorable scene in My Best Fiend where he gently plays with a butterfly that's become strangely enamoured of him, we see him care for his exceptionally pretty young son (played by KINSKI's real-life boy, Nikolai). Although even this relationship seems oddly lusty.
The camera-work, well-staged as most of it is, has far too many close- ups. You almost never see any wide shots showing off the beautiful locations. There's absolutely no doubt in my mind at all this is because KINSKI wanted KINSKI to fill up the frame as much as possible. According to his ol' sparring partner Herzy, KINSKI threw a tantrum for not having the opening shot to Aguirre be a close-up of him walking down that misty mountain, instead of the hundreds of people and cattle that we actually saw. Well, he finally got his way.
In all likelihood, you'll absolutely loathe this movie. And you'll probably be right to. But there is a strange energy coursing throughout- that of a man at the end of his tether, foreseeing his death, and spending all his remaining lifeblood on this one final work.
I believe KLAUS KINSKI may have been an incredibly rare genetic throwback to some transitional Cro-Magnon race. He shows no signs of the tempering of thousands of years of social evolution. He's like some purely physical being. You can tell that by the time this movie was shot, he didn't so much burn the candle at both ends as throw it into the fire and cackle maniacally as it melted. He died two years after this was released. It was the last film he shot in a career that spanned over 130 movies. I can't think of a more fitting way to go out.
If you came here as a Paganini fan rather than a KINSKI fan (as if anyone could be a bigger fan of KINSKI than KINSKI himself), you can always just imagine this is a sexy 80-minute music video to some of Paganini's works. The interpretations by Salvatore Accardo are wonderfully performed.
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IanB
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Re: Aguirre on telly
Jan 28, 2015, 15:10
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Have you read Kinski's autobiography? Nauseating but in many ways, and incest aside, probably no worse than the attitudes and behavior of a lot of other rockers, celebrities and people in positions of power in that or most other eras.
IIRC Kinski claimed later on that he and Herzog cooked up a load of the more extreme anecdotes demonstrating his sexual prowess in order to make it more marketable to a publisher and more tabloid in its appeal. Which could be true I suppose.
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IanB
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Re: Aguirre on telly
Jan 28, 2015, 15:14
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Well put
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Sin Agog
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Re: Aguirre on telly
Feb 01, 2015, 08:59
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Wow, just saw Klaus Kinski's memoirs referenced in the wonderful comedy Bored To Death. The scene's on youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=olOpyw70Cq8
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Stevo
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Re: Aguirre on telly
Feb 01, 2015, 10:55
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That is Kinski as the hunchback that Clint Eastwood lights a match from in one of the Dollar films isn't it? I'm not fully aware of his chronology so don't know if he was already recognised in Germany at that point.
Stevo
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