best film: Aguirre, the Wrath of God is the 31st best film of all-time and it is Herzog’s masterpiece. Kinski has actually been in some sneaky-good films outside of his famous collaborations with Herzog (Doctor Zhivago, For a Few Dollars More) but it’s Fitzcarraldo that gives Aguirre the closet run for its money as Kinski’s best work. Still, Aguirre pervades. Herzog’s haunting jungle experience is one of the most purely ambitious films of all-time (Fitzcarraldo would be one of the main rivals for that) and I admire that so much about Herzog.
best performance: Aguirre, the Wrath of God with again Fitzcarraldo as second. Actually it’s that trio of performances at the top that put Kinski so high up on this list despite the limited filmography. It’s impossible to picture an actor half as eerie (and just flat crazy) as Kinski and to pull off “Don Lope de Aguirre”. He’s terrifying– lost in his monomania.
stylistic innovations/traits: Kinski’s bug-eyes and distinct features make for a perfectly odd vehicle for Herzog’s explorations on obsession and ambition,. You could describe him as unnerving, mesmerizing, and disturbing for sure. He was a fine character actor in Italy and Hollywood during the 60’s and 70’s but it’s his collaboration with Herzog that will be remembered 50 and 100 years from now. Kinski could really only play a madman—but madmen make for such riveting viewing and there’s really nobody better. He gives one of the 5 best male performances of both the 1970’s and the 1980’s.
directors worked with: Herzog (5) and you can’t overstate the importance of this collaboration. The other names here below Kinski worked with once a piece (Sirk, Lean, Leone, Wilder) are misleading because Kinski isn’t crucial to any of these films. In his five films with Herzog he’s the film’s soul, almost always on screen, and the star.
Top 10 Performances:
- Aguirre, the Wrath of God
- Fitzcarraldo
- Nosferatu the Vampyre
- Cobra Verde
- Woyzeck
- The Great Silence
- Doctor Zhivago
- For a Few Dollars More
- Buddy Buddy
- A Time to Love and a Time to Die
Archiveable films
| 1958- A Time to Love and a Time to Die |
| 1965- Doctor Zhivago |
| 1965- For a Few Dollars More |
| 1968- The Great Silence |
| 1972- Aguirre, Wrath of God |
| 1979- Woyzeck |
| 1979- Nosferatu the Vampyre |
| 1981- Buddy, Buddy |
| 1982- Fitzcarraldo |
| 1987- Cobra Verde |
Just curious, would you consider Klaus Kinski to be Werner Herzog’s “muse”? Or is that term only used to describe relationships between a male director and female actress?
“a person or personified force who is the source of inspiration for a creative artist.”
@James Trapp- I use “male muse” on several of the pages http://thecinemaarchives.com/?s=male+muse but the term is probably best suited to a love/desire interest like von Sternberg with Dietrich. I did see this https://www.flavorwire.com/258508/directors-and-their-on-screen-muses which includes Scorsese/De Niro, Wes and Bill Murray, John Carpenter and Kurt Russell. Recently I saw Peele and Kaluuya talk about this https://faroutmagazine.co.uk/jordan-peele-to-daniel-kaluuya-youre-my-de-niro/
“Herzog’s haunting jungle experience is one of the most purely ambitious films of all-time (Fitzcarraldo would be one of the main rivals for that) and I admire that so much about Herzog.”
What else would be added to that list? I’d add 2001 A Space Odyssey, Apocalypse Now, Seven Samurai/Rashomon, Lawrence of Arabia, Brazil, Lord of the Rings, Tree of Life, Stalker, Blade Runner, The Godfather Part II, The Good the Bad and the Ugly, Kane. Maybe Goodfellas and Pulp Fiction for being so stylistically bold and innovative. It also feels like that-with some directors-basically everything they do could perhaps be on this list. Kubrick, Tarkovsky, Malick come to mind for me. I’m not as familiar with foreign cinema as American Cinema yet so I’m sure I’m missing some obvious ones. I watched Magnolia last night and was blown away by the size of the ensemble, how it weaved together and just the story as a whole, maybe that?
What about more contemporary cinema? Children of Men, Inception, There Will Be Blood, the ones mentioned above (Tree of Life and Lord of the Rings), either of Iñárritu’s from the 2010s?
What does everyone else think?
@Matthew – There’s a good thread on the Werner Herzog page (link below)
http://thecinemaarchives.com/2019/05/31/the-48th-best-director-of-all-time-werner-herzog/
Check out the post Graham makes on January 23, 2021 at 4:51 am
This post is a response to a question I posed very similar to the question you are asking here.
Ahh- thanks for the help