As with almost anything by Herzog, this is a fascinating film. Although many aspects of My Best Fiend are captivating — on-set footage from amazing films, interviews with actors who were in some of those amazing films — the true value of this movie is in watching genius at work. Confusing genius. Raving genius. Genius that is hard to understand and almost seems like lunacy.
Clearly, Kinski either naturally was or worked hard to fashion himself as the embodiment of the Romantic artist, one who taps so deeply into self-expression that he appears a misunderstood madman who nearly kills himself with artistic expression.
Herzog, too, is a genius, but of a different sort, one that I’ve yet to figure out. In interviews and much behind-the-scenes footage, he is so calm and collected. Yet there is almost a maniacal air about him, too, the sense that, even in his quietness, there is a hidden madness and rage, an unquenchable desire to shape everything and everyone around him into a powerful — even overpowering — piece of art.
Would so many of Herzog’s masterpieces have been even close to what they are without not only Herzog and Kinski individually but also their tension, the conflict between their two visions of the great artist? I doubt it.
