Klaus Kinski was, without much doubt, a genuinely unhinged individual, capable of brilliant on-screen performances and with a somewhat dubious off-screen life that’s been well documented in several books. This documentary is a record of a live 1970’s stage performance given by Kinski in a packed theatre where he gives an astonishing, ranting performance that quickly turns into a screaming match between him and the audience. A spoken word piece from the point of view was always going to be controversial, but Peter Geyer’s assembly of archive footage depicts a man at the end of his tether, a horrifying but hypnotic document of Kinski at his best and worst.
an herzog hero …..
Kinski is such a dominant force at times that it is hard not to become addicted to him to see where he’s going to go next. And to think he refused Raiders of the Lost Ark for 5000 dollars (supposedly) Damn!
But he got to do Venom instead, and work with Oliver Reed, who hated him. I’d think twice before getting life-coaching from Klaus.
Now Reed was a guy I love reading about and watching. Venom was trashed but fine in its exploitation kind of way.