Klaus Kinski
Kinski Paganini

It really makes me think that each of us, after a more or less intense life, has the face we deserve. If it's well known that often politicians have faces like their backsides (excuse my French..), for certain people the face is truly a business card. And appearances can be genuinely telling. To me, for example, as soon as I see a photo or any film featuring Klaus Kinski, an instinctive sense of repulsion arises as if encountering an anaconda, a viper, or a tarantula. It might be because of his fanatic German demeanor that tends toward Nazi-like (and we Italians have some old scores to settle with the Teutons dating back to the barbarian invasions...) but for me, Kinski is the perfect embodiment of evil, unfit for an Oscar for amiability or for bright comedic roles. To the point that when I see him in the movie "For a Few Dollars More" by Sergio Leone getting killed by the bounty hunter played by the great Lee Van Cleef, I spontaneously think "one filthy son of a gun less". A thought certainly not very Christian, but as proven by millennia of history, not all God's children deserve to end well. And it doesn't get better in other spaghetti westerns and high-level films directed by Herzog: the German actor is so irritating that I wish someone would take him out, sparing us his mephitic presence.

Moreover, in artistic fiction as in life, the presence of evil is inevitable as a yardstick for good, aiming to foster healthy competition between the two poles with the hope that the latter prevails. And as long as he was alive (he kicked the bucket in 1991 and given his history, God probably decided to put him to soak for eternity in the waters of the infernal Styx), actor Kinski was an unmatched character actor for certain villainous roles.

In his long career he still deserves to be remembered for the only time he took on directing—namely with "Kinski Paganini" made in 1989 and released the following year (I unearthed it a few days ago on YouTube). The film features him as the great 19th-century violinist who, in a life of intense musical application, achieved great success (particularly among female audiences) as compensation for various ailments that afflicted his health. Unfortunately, the entire affair is rendered by the novice director Kinski in a jumbled and chaotic manner. Amongst confused flashbacks and predictable external shots among the Venetian alleys and the countryside around Parma, we witness the erotic exploits of the artist Paganini, overwhelmed by debts, mainly intent on satisfying his desires with as many women as possible (some of whom are even driven to frenzies of self-pleasuring at the sound of the violinist's music), as if he were a tireless, impassioned stallion fit for a Tinto Brass movie. The film progresses like this and ends up offering a superficial and reductive view of the protagonist, who was a great, genius musician, as if he were a predecessor of rock stars (just to say, there would be another more recent virtuoso musician like Jimi Hendrix, a skillful guitarist also known for certain amorous talents, but it would result in an equally superficial film...).

In short, while salvaging the musical commentary that offers us the best of Paganini, I had the impression that Kinski embarked on an endeavor too great for him, to the point of exposing a musical genius for certain sensual passions he shared both inside and outside the set (the filmed embraces are very raw, among the actresses is his lover Deborah Caprioglio..). I remain, therefore, with all my reservations towards Kinski and, considering that a few years ago his first daughter revealed in her autobiography that she had been abused by 'dear old dad' ever since she was only five years old, as soon as I see him in any of his films I think, "Courage, kill the Kraut!"