Special thanks to ScreenAnarchy's own Ardvark for providing German translation for this piece.
At times, Klaus Kinski's reputation as a provocateur seemed to overshadow his prowess as an actor. Peter Geyer's new full-length documentary Jesus Christus Erlöser (Jesus Christ Saviour) seems to support the notion that prevarication was an integral and inseparable part of the actor's work. Geyer's film documents Klaus Kinski's November 20th, 1971 theatrical reading at Deutschlandhalle in Berlin. It was on this evening that the golden-locked, hippy-garbed Kinski engaged an audience of thousands in a reading of a 30 plus page interpretation of the story of Jesus Christ.
The audience quickly took umbrage at Kinski's readings, and the evening turned into a multiple-hour battle of heated words and raised fists. Scenes from this event were very briefly featured in Werner Herzog's documentary Mein Liebster Feind (My Best Fiend) but Geyer reconstructs the evening's events using extensive, previously unseen footage. What might Kinski have done to create such a scene? Transcription of brief German language clips available on the film's web site indicate that Kinski did a lot.
His presentation and words struck many as an attempt to present himself as Christ. Instead of calmly responding to the audience, Kinski went on the offensive. For example, after someone stated that shouting down people who disagreed with him was unlike Christ, Kinski responded with a different take on how Christ might respond: “No, he didn’t say 'shut your mouths', he took a whip and beat them. That’s what he did, you stupid sow!" In another scene, he brow beats the audience by saying "can’t you see that when someone lectures thirty typewritten pages of text in this way, that you must shut your mouths? If you can’t see that, please let someone bang it into your brain with a hammer!” The evening's festivities also turned physical as an audience member is shown getting bounced from the stage by a bodyguard. Someone responds that “Kinski just let his bodyguard push a peaceful guy, who only wanted to have a discussion, down the stairs! That is a fascist statement, Kinski is a fascist, a psychopath!”
Jesus Christus Erlöser is in the German language and is available with English subtitles. The film is currently playing festival dates throughout Europe. As of this date, there is no distribution in North America or the United Kingdom. One can hope that a thoughtful distributor will bring this film to a worldwide audience in the near future. Jesus Christus Erlöser looks to be an exciting, if not unnerving, glimpse into the bent personality of one of the 20th century's greatest actors.