Who would’ve thought that one of the best rock documentaries in recent memory would be about someone who lived on the periphery of the tempest rather than inside the storm itself? Perhaps the view of the circus that was the Rolling Stones during the ’60s and ’70s is more authentic when seen from the margins and not center stage. At least that’s how it felt watching Catching Fire: The Anita Pallenberg Story, a potent, delicately rendered portrait of the famed model and actress who found herself twisting in the eye of a rock and roll hurricane.
The ultimate “It Girl” of the ’60s, Pallenberg was a stunning European model who created friction for the Rolling Stones when she left founder and multi-instrumentalist Brian Jones for guitarist Keith Richards. She is also considered the penultimate “rock wife,” whose relationship with Richards lasted longer than anyone could’ve predicted. But as this film convincingly contends, Pallenberg was more than an annotation in the band’s bio or a muse to the band’s principal songwriters. She was also a highly intelligent force of nature who starred in some of the best avant-garde films of the era and became an important fashion icon. Her sense of style still inspires the industry today; Kate Moss is interviewed in the film.
Directed by Alexis Bloom and Svetlana Zill with a craftsmanship that’s equally loose and deceptively refined, the film is narrated by actress Scarlett Johansson, who reads excerpts of Pallenberg’s unpublished memoir. Johansson lends Pallenberg’s unsentimental words a spectral poeticism that floats through the film like a sparkling cloud. “I’ve been called a witch, a slut, and a murderer,” Johansson reads in the opening voiceover, as we watch a striking blonde twirling in a cape, floppy hat, and pair of go-go boots.
Born of German parents on April 6, 1942, in Rome (or perhaps Hamburg, Germany, according to her son Marlon), Pallenberg was sent to live with family in Germany…
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