My Best Fiend · reception & legacy

How My Best Fiend has been received, argued over, and remembered.

The arc

Warmly received at Cannes 1999 as the definitive account of cinema's most volcanic director–actor feud, it now reads differently: Pola Kinski's 2013 revelations about her father made the 'lovable madman' framing feel far darker in hindsight.

What's debated

Fans endlessly debate how much to trust it — it's Herzog's side of the story, told after Kinski's death, by a director who cheerfully admits to preferring 'ecstatic truth' over the factual kind.

Its footprint

The go-to reference point whenever a toxic director–actor collaboration comes up, and the source of endlessly-shared anecdotes: the trashed bathroom, the on-set death threats, and the Peruvian chief who quietly offered to kill Kinski for Herzog.

Where it stands

An essential companion piece to Aguirre and Fitzcarraldo and a Letterboxd documentary favourite — the film that turned the Herzog–Kinski legend into canon.