Jesus Christ Savior

Production: A Kinski Prods. production. Produced by Peter Geyer. Executive producer, Michael Dreher. Directed by Peter Geyer.
Crew: Camera (color, 16mm-to-HD); editors, Geyer, Konrad Bohley, Michael Dreher; music, Florian Kaeppler, Daniel Requardt; sound, Juergen Svoboda, Joschi Kaufmann, Stephan Radom Stefan Kolbe. Reviewed at Berlin Film Festival (Panorama Documentaries), Feb. 11, 2008. Running time: 83 MIN.
With: With: Klaus Kinski.

July 17, 2024

A long-lost filmed record of a 1971 theatrical monologue by Klaus Kinski that turned into a confrontation with the hostile audience and an endurance test for the famously intense actor, “Jesus Christ Savior” is a time capsule of societal ideals and personal demons. Pic will play anywhere thesp’s subsequent work with Werner Herzog and eccentric career as a whole is appreciated.

Aud was apparently out for blood from the start, lying in wait for a scandal-plagued actor who had already achieved fame and fortune in spaghetti Westerns and crime films, and who was suspected of identifying rather too closely with the subject of his show. The jeers begin almost immediately, with cries of “Joker!,” “I want my 10 marks back!” and, imaginatively, “Heil Satan!”

A fellow comes onstage for a discussion. Kinski storms off and returns, attempting to begin the monologue again: “Wanted, Jesus Christ; crime, seduction, anarchistic tendencies … ” His eyes wide, a tear leaking slowly from his eyes, he alters the text to mock the hecklers. After numerous false starts, the event dissolves into chaos.

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After credits crawl at 73-minute mark, Kinski emerges into the nearly empty hall and delivers a complete text, with beginning and end captured here for 10 additional minutes. “My God,” he concludes in a hoarse whisper, “let them understand at last.” As if anyone ever could.

Tech credits are appropriately primitive, capturing thesp alone in a pool of light with the rustling beast lurking in the dark. Helmer Geyer has been the executor of Kinski’s estate for a decade, and has written a biography of the actor.