This is a film that must be loved by few and hated by many. This film is one of the most narcissistic, mad movies of CINEMA I have seen in a long time: The need to express, relive and explore the famous mythos of PAGANINI drools from every frame of the film - PAGANINI as a symbol of KINSKI himself. It is no secret that he thought of his life similar to the musicians... controversial, aggressive, impulsive, violent, poetic, expressive and in need for attention and love.
This film lacks very much in a continuous narrative storyline, as KINSKI never gave a lot about that... the film is a compilation of moods, moments, music, poetry - dreamlike, like a memory and drunken visions about the future. If you expect this film to make some SENSE, you will be highly disappointed.
To me, this is a piece of ART, rather than conventional cinema. A highly intense autobiographic painting, sliced into intense, wild and aggressive erotic scenes, beautiful celluloid cinematography, all layered over a concert by PAGANINI.
Here are some elements of the film that impressed me the most:
To me, personally, this film is a masterpiece - even if it is a highly MAD one, filled with rampaging aggression, exaggerated erotica, and way too many narcissistic elements. This film is not a conventional FILM, it is the expression of a life-long pain. The story of longing for love, a need to feel at peace in the world. The wild, blindly executed lust and the only thing that seemed to calm KINSKI/Paganini down: the love for his son... maybe BECAUSE it was so un-sexual. To me, this is proof and example how FILM can actually express the whole inner world of one person, turned into a fictional period adaption of a musician... the whole film speaks to me.
If you watch it, watch it alone and FEEL... don't judge. This is the closest you will ever get to KINSKI or... even so... to the core of a human being.
This film lacks very much in a continuous narrative storyline, as KINSKI never gave a lot about that... the film is a compilation of moods, moments, music, poetry - dreamlike, like a memory and drunken visions about the future. If you expect this film to make some SENSE, you will be highly disappointed.
To me, this is a piece of ART, rather than conventional cinema. A highly intense autobiographic painting, sliced into intense, wild and aggressive erotic scenes, beautiful celluloid cinematography, all layered over a concert by PAGANINI.
Here are some elements of the film that impressed me the most:
- The sound design of the film is highly erratic, wild and purely mad - a wild interpretation of a concert by PAGANINI. The music nearly plays continuously, and if not, mostly the void is filled by erratic pleasure-screaming women, crying of babies or crowds cheering and screaming their souls away. There are rare silent moments and it are those that feel equally intense: closeups on Paganinis/Kinskis Son Achille, which is surrounded by nearly unbearable fatherly love - or silent moments where Paganini/Kinski sits, contemplating about the mess, madness and longings he lives in.
- The montage of images/scenes is highly poetic, not at all narrative - and very outrageously provocative. It goes straight to the soul, as it feels so pure and un-filtered, what KINSKI really moved...: may it be a masturbating women riding in a carriage combined with horses fornicating... may it be the loving gazes of his son, cuddling a kitten, while KINSKI plays, splattered with his own blood, his last madly furious interlude on the staircase. May it be the endless, highly graphic depictions of - very - aggressive intercourse with wild, nearly otherworlds insatiable young women mixed with screams and close ups onto his erratic expressions. The list is endless. Endless poetry, that makes you ask more questions that it could ever answer.
- The quality/beauty of cinematography. It seemed like KINSKI took at times the camera in his own hand for extra footage or slow-motion dreamlike chases of witchy women dancing in floating dresses: his vision becomes what we see on screen. Also the other imagery comes together with a constructed, distorted version of the period (set design), closeups, un-orthodox angles, beautiful pastel colors, dark blues, greens and browns, light by soft daylight or dreamy candle light. The images feel so dreamlike, it leaves you wondering if you are - still - dreaming.
- The pure expressive POWER of KINSKI, that could only unfold because he was narcissistic and mad enough to take on the main role, the direction and the montage of the film itself: he had the control and he poured all his pain, experiences, struggles, thoughts and emotions into each department. Surely, it would have been a pure PAIN in the back to work with him on set, but the result, even 30 years later, lost nothing of its energy.
To me, personally, this film is a masterpiece - even if it is a highly MAD one, filled with rampaging aggression, exaggerated erotica, and way too many narcissistic elements. This film is not a conventional FILM, it is the expression of a life-long pain. The story of longing for love, a need to feel at peace in the world. The wild, blindly executed lust and the only thing that seemed to calm KINSKI/Paganini down: the love for his son... maybe BECAUSE it was so un-sexual. To me, this is proof and example how FILM can actually express the whole inner world of one person, turned into a fictional period adaption of a musician... the whole film speaks to me.
If you watch it, watch it alone and FEEL... don't judge. This is the closest you will ever get to KINSKI or... even so... to the core of a human being.