Grethiwha

Herzog fans know the story, that the great actor and notorious madman Klaus Kinski tried to get him to direct a screenplay he'd written, some kind of biography of Italian violinist Niccolò Paganini. When Herzog told him his script was awful and had zero cinematic potential, he became enraged and decided to make the film himself. A wildly incompetent, deranged vanity project, Paganini was the last film Kinski made before his death, and his sole credit as director and screenwriter, and it's been little-seen since then. Now, in the year of our lord 2024, the deviants at Vinegar Syndrome have decided to give this film the deluxe blu-ray treatment that it certainly doesn't deserve, and allow us to see and judge this fascinating historical document for ourselves. Well then...

So, uh, 8 minutes into the movie, a narrator tells us "Every time he played, Paganini's phallus would become erect", while women attending his violin recital are shown to be apparently orgasming in their seats. This is pretty much the type of material I expected from Kinski. There is some occasionally amusing, depraved or gonzo filmmaking here, of which these opening scenes are rather a highlight. It also gets into some fairly creepy territory - exploring Paganini's apparent love of specifically underage girls, and there's something very off as well about how Kinski portrays his relationship with his son - all of which seems about right from a guy who sexually abused his daughter in real life.

What I less expected is that he's really moreso trying to make an arthouse film here, maybe even to direct it the way he thinks that Herzog would. I will say that the period costumes and set dressing are actually pretty good. But the thing is, most of the film, nothing is happening. And this is actually my biggest complaint about the film. Most of the time we're either watching Kinski pretend to play the violin, or, just, barely doing anything, while violin music nonetheless incessantly carries on in the soundtrack. This is maddening to the point where it's sometimes comical, as in a (shall we say, "iconic"?) five-minute scene that cuts back and forth at least 20 times between Kinski and a masked woman walking toward each other in slow motion.

As a biopic of Paganini, this is an epic fail. I didn't know anything about Paganini before, and I still don't think I learned anything. But, somehow, if you look closely enough, it feels almost autobiographical. Kinski in fact genuinely believed he was the living reincarnation of Niccolò Paganini. And from that perspective, as someone who's watched "My Best Fiend", and read "All I Need is Love" (aka "Kinski Uncut"), and seen countless interviews and media with Kinski (usually losing his s***)... As someone fascinated less by Niccolò Paganini and more by Klaus Kinski... I did find this film pretty interesting! Not on its own merits of course, but as a piece of film culture. And in that sense, the VinSyn blu-ray actually is deserved, and it's kind of an amazing release, especially given the wealth of supplemental features on it (including an hour of absolutely insane behind-the-scenes footage of Kinski directing, where, with his long black hair and delusional self-confidence, he looks like Tommy Wiseau - on cocaine... I think I found my review headline!)

The end credits of Butcher's Crossing inform us that the American bison population was hunted down from 60 million in 1860, to fewer than 300 by 1880. Madness. This film is a visually-stunning, impeccably-acted, slow-burn descent into madness.

I do love a good cinematic descent into madness, as evidenced by my adoration for the films of Werner Herzog. I couldn't help but notice Herzog's name listed amongst the 100+ names in the "Special Thanks" section of the credits; he was surely an inspiration on this one. I also adore Nicolas Cage, who again demonstrates his incredible talent and range as a actor in a role that calls for him to lose his mind, but not to go over-the top with it. It's a mesmerizing performance, reminiscent in a way of Klaus Kinski in "Aguirre, The Wrath of God", if I may extend the Herzog comparisons.

Earlier this year, "The Old Way" was noted as Nicolas Cage's first Western, but Butcher's Crossing came out before that on the festival circuit, and now that I've finally had a chance to see it, it's most definitely a Western, and a much less clichéd, more artful one too. Nicolas Cage's real first Western is one that I wouldn't hesitate to rank as one of the top Western films of the 21st century.

This may be a difficult film to watch for some people, given the mass slaughter and butchering of buffalo depicted in the film, which all looks perfectly real. While this film does not feature the boilerplate "No animals were harmed" disclaimer in the end credits, it is noted that all buffalo were handled by the Blackfeet Tribe Buffalo Program, an admirable Native-run conservation group that invited the filmmakers onto their land to tell this story.

While I'm sort of assuming we aren't actually watching buffalo be killed, it is clear that the Blackfeet Tribe hunt a small number of animals each year in the sustainable way of their ancestors, and presumably some of the scenes of animals being skinned are real. I would love to know more about how some of these scenes were achieved, because some of it is quite grim. Nonetheless, this is a movie I would recommend to animal lovers, given its portrayal of the evil of the buffalo hunt, and its admirable conservationist messaging.

Blonde is a relentlessly dark, disturbing movie presenting a portrait of Marilyn Monroe as deeply traumatized, and brutally exploited for her sex. It's a very remarkable movie, in the way it innovatively uses film technique to evoke a kind of schizophrenia - the plot is very jarring from scene to scene, shifting suddenly between realism and surrealism; it jumps frequently between black & white and colour, 4:3 and 'scope ratios, and tight camera compositions make you feel claustrophobic throughout. All of this has the effect of putting you into the psychotic mind-space of the main character.

As a work of art, as something that challenges you to rethink your preconceptions, that forces you to see the pop-culture icon - or even more broadly the "dumb blonde" archetype - in a new and different light, I think it will be very interesting viewing for a lot of people. It's a very feminist film but I can't speak to the level of revisionism versus reality in the overall portrayal of her life. It is so disjointedly nightmarish and bleakly humourless as to be overwhelming, and I think most people will reject it as such, but I'm inclined to think that it IS a more honest depiction of Marilyn's celebrity in the final evaluation, and perhaps the most boundary-pushing film about the brutality of Hollywood since Sunset Boulevard.

I'm not sure I'd want to watch it more than once, though, Ana de Armas' performance is fantastic, and the inspired direction includes at least one moment of light in the most artistic sex scene I've ever seen. The "Assassination of Jesse James" director Andrew Dominik has a unique cinematic voice and vision and I'm glad he's back after an extended (decade-long) hiatus from making feature films - with what will probably go down as the most controversial movie of 2022.