''Kinski Paganini'', also known simply as ''Paganini'', is a 1989

biographical film A biographical film or biopic () is a film that dramatizes the life of an actual person or group of people. Such films show the life of a historical person and the central character's real name is used. They differ from Docudrama, docudrama films ...

written, directed by and starring

Klaus Kinski Klaus Kinski (, born Klaus Günter Karl Nakszynski 18 October 1926 – 23 November 1991) was a German actor. Equally renowned for his intense performance style and notorious for his volatile personality, he appeared in over 130 film roles in a ...

. Based on the life and career of

composer A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. Etymology and def ...

and

virtuoso A virtuoso (from Italian ''virtuoso'', or ; Late Latin ''virtuosus''; Latin ''virtus''; 'virtue', 'excellence' or 'skill') is an individual who possesses outstanding talent and technical ability in a particular art or field such as fine arts, ...

violin The violin, sometimes referred to as a fiddle, is a wooden chordophone, and is the smallest, and thus highest-pitched instrument (soprano) in regular use in the violin family. Smaller violin-type instruments exist, including the violino picc ...

ist

Niccolò Paganini Niccolò (or Nicolò) Paganini (; ; 27 October 178227 May 1840) was an Italian violinist and composer. He was the most celebrated violin virtuoso of his time, and left his mark as one of the pillars of modern violin technique. His 24 Caprices ...

, it was Kinski's only film as director as well as his final acting appearance before his death in 1991. Kinski felt that he and Paganini had led similar lives, and both gave "demonic" performances in their own fields that often sparked great controversy.

Plot

biopic A biographical film or biopic () is a film that dramatizes the life of an actual person or group of people. Such films show the life of a historical person and the central character's real name is used. They differ from docudrama films and histo ...

about the life of Niccolò Paganini, who many consider to be one of the greatest violinists who ever lived.

Cast

* Debora Caprioglio (credited as Debora Kinski) as Antonia Bianchi * Nicolai Kinski as Achille Paganini *

Dalila Di Lazzaro Dalila Di Lazzaro (born 29 January 1953) is an Italian model, actress and writer. Life and career Born in Udine, Di Lazzaro started as a fashion model and was the subject of famous photographers such as Andy Warhol. She then gained attention ...

as Helene von Feuerbach * André Thorent as Galvano *

Eva Grimaldi Eva Grimaldi (born Milva Perinoni; 7 September 1961) is an Italian actress and model. Biography Born in Nogarole Rocca, Italy, Grimaldi debuted as a nude model in ''Playmen'' and as a soubrette in the Antonio Ricci's TV-show '' Drive In''. ...

as Maria Anna Elisa Bonaparte *

Marcel Marceau Marcel Marceau (; born Marcel Mangel; 22 March 1923 – 22 September 2007) was a French mime artist and actor most famous for his stage persona, "Bip the Clown". He referred to mime as the "art of silence", performing professionally worldwide ...

as Pantomime *

Donatella Rettore Donatella Rettore, also simply known as Rettore (born 8 July 1955, in Castelfranco Veneto, Province of Treviso) is an Italian singer and songwriter. Biography Rettore started her singing career in 1973. Her early recordings were oriented tow ...

as Miss Wells *

Bernard Blier Bernard Blier (; 11 January 1916 – 29 March 1989) was a French character actor. Life and career Blier was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, where his father, a researcher at the Pasteur Institute, was posted at the time. His rotund featu ...

as Father Caffarelli * Beba Balteano as Carol Watson * Fabio Carfora as Mr. Watson * Feodor Chaliapin Jr. as Judge * Tosca D'Aquino as Angiolina Cavanna

Production

In his 1999 documentary '' My Best Fiend'', frequent collaborator

Werner Herzog Werner Herzog (; né Stipetić; born 5 September 1942) is a German filmmaker, actor, opera director, and author. Regarded as a pioneer of New German Cinema, his films often feature ambitious protagonists with impossible dreams, people with unusu ...

explains that Kinski repeatedly asked him to direct the film, but Herzog refused because he thought the script was "

unfilmable Unfilmability is a type of medium specificity which prevents a work of literature from undergoing successful film or television adaptation. A wide variety of considerations can lead to a work being seen as unfilmable. These include aesthetic conven ...

". Herzog also states that the preparation for his role in ''Kinski Paganini'' caused the actor to take on an uncomfortable "alien" air that disrupted Kinski's performance in their last film together, ''

Cobra Verde ''Cobra Verde'' (also known as ''Slave Coast'') is a 1987 German drama film directed by Werner Herzog and starring Klaus Kinski, in their fifth and final collaboration. Based upon Bruce Chatwin's 1980 novel '' The Viceroy of Ouidah'', the film d ...

''. Tosca D'Aquino recalled with shock her experience in the film: "I suffered the harassment of Kinski's very difficult nature. Going back I would not make this film because I suffered a lot. He was a very violent man. I had a complicated relationship, he was bossy, I had bruises." In his autobiography, Kinski, describing one of these scenes with D'Aquino, wrote, "She was embarrassed and closed her legs. I had to block them violently. When I penetrated her with my fingers, she squirmed and moaned."

Home media

Since its theatrical run, the film had only been released on

DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for digital video disc or digital versatile disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any ki ...

and

VHS VHS (Video Home System) is a discontinued standard for consumer-level analog video recording on tape cassettes, introduced in 1976 by JVC. It was the dominant home video format throughout the tape media period of the 1980s and 1990s. Ma ...

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

, but in late 2011, the film was released for the first time in North America on a two disc special edition DVD. The release contained deleted and extended scenes,

Cannes Film Festival The Cannes Film Festival (; ), until 2003 called the International Film Festival ('), is the most prestigious film festival in the world. Held in Cannes, France, it previews new films of all genres, including documentaries, from all around ...

interviews, and a director's cut (95 minutes). In April 2024, it will be released on

Blu-ray Blu-ray (Blu-ray Disc or BD) is a digital optical disc data storage format designed to supersede the DVD format. It was invented and developed in 2005 and released worldwide on June 20, 2006, capable of storing several hours of high-defin ...

for the first time by

Vinegar Syndrome Vinegar Syndrome is an American home video distribution company which specializes in "protecting and preserving genre films". The company was founded in 2012 in Bridgeport, Connecticut by Joe Rubin and Ryan Emerson, who created it to restore ...

sublabel Vinegar Syndrome Labs.

References

External links

* 1989 films 1989 directorial debut films 1980s Italian-language films 1980s biographical drama films Biographical films about musicians Cultural depictions of Niccolò Paganini Films about classical music and musicians Films about composers Films about violins and violinists Films directed by Klaus Kinski Films set in the 19th century Italian biographical drama films French biographical drama films {{bio-film-stub