Catching Fire: The Story of Anita Pallenberg

Anita Pallenberg was a force of nature. Her free-spirit fearless approach to life was fascinating to all who came in contact with her, including The Rolling Stones. What made her fascinating also made her dangerous. This film beautifully takes the viewer on a journey through Anita's highs and lows while treating all involved with dignity. The ample archival footage makes this a joy to watch. Who knew that Keith Richards had a family man side and carried an 8mm camera around? Brilliantly edited, this documentary is highly watchable and avoids the melodramatic traps that could easily be fallen into while telling such a dramatic story.

Read a lot about Anita Pallenberg ever since I saw her many years ago in the cult movie "Performance". In articles and books she was described as a very influential person in the history of the Stones. The 5th Stone. Of course she was more than that. Over the years I puzzled together a big picture of her. Many pieces of information were missing, the makers of the movie regretted that too. I watched the film eagerly as I was happy to hear that close friends and family were involved in the making. So no sensationalism. The second half of her life was visually put together with photos and only short clips as she spent most of her life in private. Note to the makers: 🙏Please add all the material you didn't use for a feature length film onto DVD. And yes, the American accent is irritating in the beginning.

Having been born in the 70's Anita isn't someone who was on my radar. I grew up in the 80's when electronic music had taken over and stories about the 60's and 70's weren't exactly being discussed with kids. The 90's was another nail in the coffin as far as rock music went, its fans were well into middle age.

This is a documentary about Anita Pallenberg who it appears she was a kind of "It girl" who is in the main known for her relationships with members of the Rolling Stones as well as a few acting gigs in the late 60's and early 70's. The question is just how did she get there? Well it appears on the face of it because of her looks and luck. The adage that "some women live life on easy mode" fits well with this story. The truth is that her looks opened the door to hanging around with famous rock stars which in turn opened up other doors into show business. I came to this conclusion because this doc doesn't suggest any actual talents or special gifts that would warrant access to A list celebs. Indeed she is apparently known due to her relationships with the famous going by this doc.

While the documentary does try to promote the hippy/druggy/bohemian lifestyle as something that is cool, to an adult it just looks like self centred hedonism. A bit too much cool guitar music and trippy visuals playing when discussing substances. Particularly when kids are around and it isn't long before bad things start to happen in Anita's life. Who knew?

What you will get from this doc is dependant on whether you knew who she was or if you have an interest in the Stones, its almost a Stones doc as much as it is hers. For me it was interesting enough as I enjoy biographies, its certainly well put together and has some positive aspects. Particularly as Anita seemed to enjoy a second life, which can't be said about some of the characters in her life. Which is always going to be the case when drugs are involved. This type of doc will be of most interest to guys of a certain age, who like a certain band but I reckon her book will be a better insight into her life.

As "Catching Fire: The Story of Anita Pallenberg" (2024 release from the UK; 110 min) opens, we hear Anita introducing herself (in reality: Scarlett Johannson reading from "Black Magic", Anita's unpublished autobiography). We then hear from her son Marlon Richards, who informs us that upon Anita's passing, this unpublished autobiography was found, which now serves as the basis for this documentary. We then go back in time to Anita's youth and upbringing. At this point we are 10 minutes into the documentary.

Couple of comments: this is the latest from award-winning director Alexis Bloom ("Bright Lights: Starring Carrie Fisher and Debbie Reynolds"). Here she assesses the life and times of Anita Pallenberg. Let me state upfront that I was vaguely aware of Pallenberg, but really didn't know much about her life's story. This documentary fills that gap nicely, and then some. Pallenberg's claim to fame is of course as muse and mistress to several of the Rolling Stones, but as it turns out she actually had herself quite the career as a model and actress before all that. The documentary features tons of archive photo's and video footage previously unseen (from Pallenberg's personal archives), and interviews a ton of people that were there to witness it all.

"Catching Fire: The Story of Anita Pallenberg" was released in UK theaters in Spring,, 2024. Not sure if it saw a US theatrical release. This is now streaming on Hulu, where I watched it the other night. The documentary is currently rated 88% Certified Fresh on Rotten Tomatoes, which feels quite generous to me. If you have any interest in Pallenberg, or simply are a fan of the Rolling Stones, I'd readily suggest you check this out, and draw your own conclusion.

Anyone who says she only got in there due to her loox misses the point olympically she came from a long line of artists; her great-grand father was Arnold Böcklin her father was a classical musician etc etc; she was quadrilingual; the "London hicks" which made up the Rolling Stones were very lucky to have her. Keith Richards says as much. You can see they were all 3; Mick Brian and Keith totally in awe of her. Spellbound. Anyone who has seen her perform in masterfilm Vivre à tout prix (1967) will fully understand. She was also luminous in Performance (1970)another great film She could be described as a truly modern woman; in many ways a precursor a path-clearer for women as they are now in the 2020s; and she was doing all this 20 years after the end of the war

It is interesting to note that she was ethnically 100% German; although she defined herself as Italian; since in effect she was born and grew up in Rome she was Italian culturally; so in fact modern here again as in a true EU denizen before there was an EU. Must be noted that Marianne Faithfull was also Germanic in her case Austrian. 20 years after the war the Deptford boys were not bitter ... 🙃😉

As regards the way it is all stitched together here; I was really put out by the überAmerican voice-over to read the autobiographical lines from Anita's unpublished writings; could they not find an English reader with a tinge of German in the voice. It would have been a lot less disconcerting

This is really my only gripe here. Apart from that the footage is very interesting; a lot of Super8; adored the footage of Peru ?!?! And Morocco when on vacation

She was a true catalyst, Muse, artist, and they show here how quite a few songs were triggered by her or even about her. When she filmed Performance (1970) and ended up having a dalliance with Mick ; says she never really fell for him; Keith was away and wrote Gimme Shelter; later on in Peru Mick writes "You Can't Always Get..." it is intimated that what he couldn't get was her ...

Not seen all of it yet will return if more info; thus far very good (apart from the miscast voice-over ) ha then i find out the voice is Scarlett Johansson a hugely brilliant New Yorker yep not first choice for a German-Italian but I guess the cachet, the cachet ,,,,