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Year One
Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
My Best Fiend -- Klaus Kinski
Generally favorable reviews
Based on 17 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 5 votes
Read user comments
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Movie Info
Genre(s): Documentary
Written by:
Directed by: Werner Herzog
Release Date:
Theatrical: November 5, 1999
DVD: August 22, 2000
Running Time: 95 minutes, BW / Color
Origin: UK / Germany / Finland / USA
Language(s): English and German (with English subtitles)
Summary
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.
Also On Metacritic
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Also On The Web: Internet Movie Database
What The Critics Said
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...
San Francisco Chronicle Peter Stack
One of the great portraits of artists fighting, even with murderous rage, to reach the sublime.
Read Full Review >Austin Chronicle Marc Savlov
Like a car crash in slo-mo, it's a riveting, beautiful mess.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >LA Weekly F. X. Feeney
(Herzog's) tribute to Kinski doubles as a life-affirming monument to creation in all its variety.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >Seattle Post-Intelligencer William Arnold
A documentary that is half confessional memoir.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >The New York Times Janet Maslin
Serves as an eloquent coda to their unforgettable creative partnership.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >What Our Users Said
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.
