Developing an Unhealthy Obsession with a Dead Celebrity: Starring Klaus Kinski
Klaus Kinski is possibly one of the most fascinating and discomforting figures in cinema.
Written entirely in the present tense, Kinski composed an autobiography under the title All I Need is Love: A Memoir (now available as Uncut). Most of it deals with his discovery of sex and his outrageous desire for it and reads not unlike hardcore erotic literature, however, he also offers some insight into a terrible childhood during which he starved and would steal for his family.
In the first chapter we discover his inspiration, as stated unsaid to his mother:
"What I really want to say is: You can count on the fact that I won't give up. Never. That nothing and no one will ever force me to my knees. That one day I will repay your brave love. That I will see to it that you don't have to labor like a slave anymore. That one day I will make so much money by my own wits that I'll even be able to buy you a winter coat, mittens, and warm shoes. And that you will drink as much real coffee and eat as many rolls with real honey as you desire." The rest of this chapter details Kinski’s first sexual encounters with his sister.
One of the highlights in chapter two involves a face-off with death. Kinski develops a growing throat infection that will eventually cause him to suffocate to death. Without money for the necessary operation or treatment, he gets a loan, but must then wait for a doctor's appointment. In a fit of agony and desperation, Kinski shoves a knife down his throat, rupturing the infection and causing him to vomit green pus, allowing him to keep the money.
Page 65. “Each time I touch her, she tears herself away from me. After two hours of this, I rip her blouse off with one swipe. Her tits force themselves into my mouth. We tug at each other's clothes, stumble, stumble, fall onto the floor, pant, gasp, scream as if our lives depended on shredding our clothes.”
Page 180. Klaus is talking about his adventures with two lesbians, an actress and a hairdresser. He wants the hairdresser. They are in his bedroom suite. The actress masturbates while Klaus dances with and fondles the hairdresser. His current lover shows up at the front door. He delays her long enough for the lesbians to dress.
Here are some more quotes to appease any interest the above may have developed:
“Naked, we crouch in front of each other, bite each other. Hit each other. Our bodies. Our faces. Our genitals. Attack each other dangerously. Painfully.”
“She throws herself onto her belly, her ass juts up, her cheeks gape wide, as I shove my twitching cock into her hot, wet cunt.”
“I actually get venereal disease more often than most people catch colds.”
“I was in an apartment, and next door, they put on the radio, so I struck the wall with my fist, but they did not put the radio down. I took a tool and banged until I made a hole through the wall.”
Kinski: I am not the Jesus of the official church who the police, bankers, judges, hangmen, officers, church bosses and other powerful people tolerate. I am not your Superstar.
Audience member: I doubt that Jesus was like Kinski. Jesus was a patient man, he didn't say 'shut up' to those who contradicted him!
Kinski: No, he didn't say shut up. He took a whip and smacked their ugly faces! That's what he did you stupid pig! And if only one of you wants to hear me he has to wait until this fucking scum has left.
“The people from Ghana are friendly and peaceful. Herzog knew how to use them for his purpose. I knew his criminal and enslaving methods since Peru, where he always went for the most helpless. I called him Adolf Hitler.”
“I have to shoot without any breaks. I yell at Herzog and hit him. I have to fight for every sequence. I wish Herzog would catch the plague, more than ever.”
“Now I absolutely despise the murderer Herzog. I tell him to his face that I want to see him perish like the llama he executed. He should be thrown to the crocodiles alive! An anaconda should throttle him slowly! The sting of a deadly spider should paralyze him! His brain should burst from the bite of the most poisonous of all snakes! Panthers shouldn't slit his throat open with their claws, that would be too good for him! No. Big red ants should piss in his eyes, eat his balls, penetrate his asshole, and eat his guts! He should get the plague! Syphilis! Malaria! Yellow fever! Leprosy! In vain. The more I wish the most horrible of deaths on him and treat him like the scum of the earth that he is, the less I can get rid of him!”
“Now for the first time appears the lie that Herzog forced me to act before the camera at gunpoint. Newspapers, radio, television eat the bullshit up. In every interview I call Herzog a cretin.”
“Fellini wants me in his next film and asks me to come to Rome. In Rome Dominique drives me to Fellini's home. He struts around for hours speaking French, because I don't speak Italian yet. He starts to get on my nerves. It's all so very important! I whisper to Dominique, 'Let's get out of here!”
“Steven Spielberg wants me to do RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK, and someone brings the script from Hollywood to Paris. But as much as I think that Spielberg is the best director America has to offer, the screenplay is the same tired old shit.”
“The truth is, I can never die. For I will be in everything and see you in everything and watch over you. I am your reaction in the water of a mountain lake.”
“I knew there were, in myself, the souls of millions of people who lived centuries ago; not just people but animals, plants, the elements, things, even, matter. All of these exist in me.”
“Where a beast would have claws, I was born with talent.”
“I sell myself for the highest price. Exactly like a prostitute. There is no difference.”
“The ultimate acting is to destroy yourself.”
“One should judge a man mainly from his depravities. Virtues can be faked. Depravities are real.”
(If this is not enough, visit http://dantenet.com/er/Kinski/kinskispeaks.html for soundbites of Kinski in German--anyone speak German?)
Written entirely in the present tense, Kinski composed an autobiography under the title All I Need is Love: A Memoir (now available as Uncut). Most of it deals with his discovery of sex and his outrageous desire for it and reads not unlike hardcore erotic literature, however, he also offers some insight into a terrible childhood during which he starved and would steal for his family.
In the first chapter we discover his inspiration, as stated unsaid to his mother:
"What I really want to say is: You can count on the fact that I won't give up. Never. That nothing and no one will ever force me to my knees. That one day I will repay your brave love. That I will see to it that you don't have to labor like a slave anymore. That one day I will make so much money by my own wits that I'll even be able to buy you a winter coat, mittens, and warm shoes. And that you will drink as much real coffee and eat as many rolls with real honey as you desire." The rest of this chapter details Kinski’s first sexual encounters with his sister.
One of the highlights in chapter two involves a face-off with death. Kinski develops a growing throat infection that will eventually cause him to suffocate to death. Without money for the necessary operation or treatment, he gets a loan, but must then wait for a doctor's appointment. In a fit of agony and desperation, Kinski shoves a knife down his throat, rupturing the infection and causing him to vomit green pus, allowing him to keep the money.
Page 65. “Each time I touch her, she tears herself away from me. After two hours of this, I rip her blouse off with one swipe. Her tits force themselves into my mouth. We tug at each other's clothes, stumble, stumble, fall onto the floor, pant, gasp, scream as if our lives depended on shredding our clothes.”
Page 180. Klaus is talking about his adventures with two lesbians, an actress and a hairdresser. He wants the hairdresser. They are in his bedroom suite. The actress masturbates while Klaus dances with and fondles the hairdresser. His current lover shows up at the front door. He delays her long enough for the lesbians to dress.
Here are some more quotes to appease any interest the above may have developed:
“Naked, we crouch in front of each other, bite each other. Hit each other. Our bodies. Our faces. Our genitals. Attack each other dangerously. Painfully.”
“She throws herself onto her belly, her ass juts up, her cheeks gape wide, as I shove my twitching cock into her hot, wet cunt.”
“I actually get venereal disease more often than most people catch colds.”
“I was in an apartment, and next door, they put on the radio, so I struck the wall with my fist, but they did not put the radio down. I took a tool and banged until I made a hole through the wall.”
Kinski: I am not the Jesus of the official church who the police, bankers, judges, hangmen, officers, church bosses and other powerful people tolerate. I am not your Superstar.
Audience member: I doubt that Jesus was like Kinski. Jesus was a patient man, he didn't say 'shut up' to those who contradicted him!
Kinski: No, he didn't say shut up. He took a whip and smacked their ugly faces! That's what he did you stupid pig! And if only one of you wants to hear me he has to wait until this fucking scum has left.
“The people from Ghana are friendly and peaceful. Herzog knew how to use them for his purpose. I knew his criminal and enslaving methods since Peru, where he always went for the most helpless. I called him Adolf Hitler.”
“I have to shoot without any breaks. I yell at Herzog and hit him. I have to fight for every sequence. I wish Herzog would catch the plague, more than ever.”
“Now I absolutely despise the murderer Herzog. I tell him to his face that I want to see him perish like the llama he executed. He should be thrown to the crocodiles alive! An anaconda should throttle him slowly! The sting of a deadly spider should paralyze him! His brain should burst from the bite of the most poisonous of all snakes! Panthers shouldn't slit his throat open with their claws, that would be too good for him! No. Big red ants should piss in his eyes, eat his balls, penetrate his asshole, and eat his guts! He should get the plague! Syphilis! Malaria! Yellow fever! Leprosy! In vain. The more I wish the most horrible of deaths on him and treat him like the scum of the earth that he is, the less I can get rid of him!”
“Now for the first time appears the lie that Herzog forced me to act before the camera at gunpoint. Newspapers, radio, television eat the bullshit up. In every interview I call Herzog a cretin.”
“Fellini wants me in his next film and asks me to come to Rome. In Rome Dominique drives me to Fellini's home. He struts around for hours speaking French, because I don't speak Italian yet. He starts to get on my nerves. It's all so very important! I whisper to Dominique, 'Let's get out of here!”
“Steven Spielberg wants me to do RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK, and someone brings the script from Hollywood to Paris. But as much as I think that Spielberg is the best director America has to offer, the screenplay is the same tired old shit.”
“The truth is, I can never die. For I will be in everything and see you in everything and watch over you. I am your reaction in the water of a mountain lake.”
“I knew there were, in myself, the souls of millions of people who lived centuries ago; not just people but animals, plants, the elements, things, even, matter. All of these exist in me.”
“Where a beast would have claws, I was born with talent.”
“I sell myself for the highest price. Exactly like a prostitute. There is no difference.”
“The ultimate acting is to destroy yourself.”
“One should judge a man mainly from his depravities. Virtues can be faked. Depravities are real.”
(If this is not enough, visit http://dantenet.com/er/Kinski/kinskispeaks.html for soundbites of Kinski in German--anyone speak German?)