Catching Fire: The Story of Anita Pallenberg (2023) Poster

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6/10
Another Bohemian Chick Biopic
torrascotia5 May 2024
Having been born in the 70's Anita isn't someone who was on my radar. I grew up in the 80's when electronic music had taken over and stories about the 60's and 70's weren't exactly being discussed with kids. The 90's was another nail in the coffin as far as rock music went, its fans were well into middle age.

This is a documentary about Anita Pallenberg who it appears she was a kind of "It girl" who is in the main known for her relationships with members of the Rolling Stones as well as a few acting gigs in the late 60's and early 70's. The question is just how did she get there? Well it appears on the face of it because of her looks and luck. The adage that "some women live life on easy mode" fits well with this story. The truth is that her looks opened the door to hanging around with famous rock stars which in turn opened up other doors into show business. I came to this conclusion because this doc doesn't suggest any actual talents or special gifts that would warrant access to A list celebs. Indeed she is apparently known due to her relationships with the famous going by this doc.

While the documentary does try to promote the hippy/druggy/bohemian lifestyle as something that is cool, to an adult it just looks like self centred hedonism. A bit too much cool guitar music and trippy visuals playing when discussing substances. Particularly when kids are around and it isn't long before bad things start to happen in Anita's life. Who knew?

What you will get from this doc is dependant on whether you knew who she was or if you have an interest in the Stones, its almost a Stones doc as much as it is hers. For me it was interesting enough as I enjoy biographies, its certainly well put together and has some positive aspects. Particularly as Anita seemed to enjoy a second life, which can't be said about some of the characters in her life. Which is always going to be the case when drugs are involved. This type of doc will be of most interest to guys of a certain age, who like a certain band but I reckon her book will be a better insight into her life.
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8/10
21st century woman in 1960s ?
Anyone who says she only got in there due to her loox misses the point olympically she came from a long line of artists; her great-grand father was Arnold Böcklin her father was a classical musician etc etc; she was quadrilingual; the "London hicks" which made up the Rolling Stones were very lucky to have her. Keith Richards says as much. You can see they were all 3; Mick Brian and Keith totally in awe of her. Spellbound. Anyone who has seen her perform in masterfilm Mord und Totschlag (1967) will fully understand. She was also luminous in Performance (1970)another great film She could be described as a truly modern woman; in many ways a precursor a path-clearer for women as they are now in the 2020s; and she was doing all this 20 years after the end of the war

It is interesting to note that she was ethnically 100% German; although she defined herself as Italian; since in effect she was born and grew up in Rome she was Italian culturally; so in fact modern here again as in a true EU denizen before there was an EU. Must be noted that Marianne Faithfull was also Germanic in her case Austrian. 20 years after the war the Deptford boys were not bitter ... 🙃😉

As regards the way it is all stitched together here; I was really put out by the überAmerican voice-over to read the autobiographical lines from Anita's unpublished writings; could they not find an English reader with a tinge of German in the voice. It would have been a lot less disconcerting

This is really my only gripe here. Apart from that the footage is very interesting; a lot of Super8; adored the footage of Peru ?!?! And Morocco when on vacation

She was a true catalyst, Muse, artist, and they show here how quite a few songs were triggered by her or even about her. When she filmed Performance (1970) and ended up having a dalliance with Mick ; says she never really fell for him; Keith was away and wrote Gimme Shelter; later on in Peru Mick writes "You Can't Always Get..." it is intimated that what he couldn't get was her ...

Not seen all of it yet will return if more info; thus far very good (apart from the miscast voice-over ) ha then i find out the voice is Scarlett Johansson a hugely brilliant New Yorker yep not first choice for a German-Italian but I guess the cachet, the cachet ,,,,
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