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My Best Fiend -- Klaus Kinski
New Yorker Films


8.6

based on 17 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

based on 5 votes
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FILM:

Internet Movie Database

MPAA RATING: Not rated

Starring Klaus Kinski, Werner Herzog, and Claudia Cardinale

Werner Herzog's documentary profiles his turbulent relationship with the actor Klaus Kinski over the course of the five feature films they made together.

GENRE(S):	Documentary
DIRECTED BY:	Werner Herzog
RELEASE DATE:	DVD: August 22, 2000 Video: August 15, 2000 Theatrical: November 5, 1999
RUNNING TIME:	95 minutes, BW / Color
ORIGIN:	UK / Germany / Finland / USA
LANGUAGE(S):	English and German (with English subtitles)

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

100

San Francisco Chronicle Peter Stack

One of the great portraits of artists fighting, even with murderous rage, to reach the sublime.

100

Boston Globe Michael Blowen

Reflective, haunting, hilarious documentary.

Austin Chronicle Marc Savlov

Like a car crash in slo-mo, it's a riveting, beautiful mess.

Baltimore Sun Ann Hornaday

Absorbing, artfully executed.

Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman

Herzog's fascinating, rambling, love-hate documentary about their friendship and creative partnership, and in its discursive, anecdotal way it gets at the essence of one of cinema's indelible crackpots.

LA Weekly F. X. Feeney

(Herzog's) tribute to Kinski doubles as a life-affirming monument to creation in all its variety.

Time Richard Corliss

This documentary, a gallivanting time trip through a bolder film era, is Herzog's final collaboration with Kinski: an act of love and exorcism.

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

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.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer William Arnold

A documentary that is half confessional memoir.

New York Post Lou Lumenick

German director Werner Herzog's fascinating, fond and often bitchy documentary recalling the late star of his most celebrated movies.

Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt

Herzog soft-pedals his cinematic ingenuity in this personal documentary about his love-hate relationship with Kinski, whose performances in Herzog classics...helped both of them become towering figures on the international movie scene before Kinski's untimely death.

The New York Times Janet Maslin

Serves as an eloquent coda to their unforgettable creative partnership.

Mr. Showbiz Michael Atkinson

From the beginning of his career a fervent, epic documentarian, Herzog is a personal filmmaker as well, and My Best Fiend is certainly his most intimate and introspective film.

Village Voice J. Hoberman

A first-person doc assembled largely from footage taken in the course of the five features they made, being madmen together.

TV Guide Maitland McDonagh

Hugely entertaining.

Film.com John Hartl

The evidence Herzog serves up is impossible to dismiss.

Chicago Reader Jonathan Rosenbaum

Compels questions about Kinski's bravado and artistry, and suggests that it might not always be easy to distinguish his from Herzog's.

The average user rating for this movie is 8.6 (out of 10) based on 5 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Pat C. gave it a 7:
Mostly prologue, but it becomes clear that Kinski wielded insanity as a gift. Such a touching ending - makes one wonder who's really crazy.

Yoon Min C. gave it a 7:
A love/hate tribute from the legendary German director Wernor Herzog to his longtime partner, the deranged actor Klaus Kinski. It illustrates madness as source of creativity and vice versa. Ultimately touching and sad, the movie is also a confession of how Herzog exploited Kinski's self-destructive impulses to fuel his obsessive visions, the difference being Kinski went the full distance whereas Herzog is still alive, well, and very sane. Does this mean that 'mad artists' have to be con men to survive, to feign their fiendishness while their partners may be truly teetering over into madness? This could well be the story of Mick Jagger and Brian Jones, or of Pete Townshend and Keith Moon. What keeps some artists from going over the edge while their partners take the full leap?

Jack S. gave it a 10:
I was only vaugly aware of these two people, but within the first few minutes I was engrossed by this film. If you enjoyed Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker's Apocalypse, there's a good chance you will like this as well.

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My Best Fiend -- Klaus Kinski New Yorker Films

My Best Fiend -- Klaus Kinski
New Yorker Films