Catching Fire: The Story of Anita Pallenberg Review – Honest, Intimate, Inspirational

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Category: Indies, Docs, Foreign Film

Published on Wednesday, 15 May 2024 10:06

Written by Janet Walker

Catching Fire: The Story of Anita Pallenberg, from Magnolia Pictures, presents a unique vibrant portrait that navigated the intensity of 1960s rock star fame, love, and family based on Keith Richard's first wife Anita Pallenberg's unpublished memoir.

The documentary, which begins with Marlon Richards, the son of Keith Richards and Anita Pallenberg, explaining how this story came to life. After his mother died, he and his children were putting things in order and found a completed manuscript, an autobiography.

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The story of Anita Pallenberg, for those familiar with pop culture, seemed to fade somewhat after her divorce from Keith Richards. But her life before the tragedy that sent them spiraling into a darkened abyss is one that is well known in some circles, but not widely exposed.

Catching Fire: The Story of Anita Pallenberg begins in Europe. Pallenberg of German, Italian descent lost everything in World War II. She explains they were transported in cattle cars, and the chaos of German occupation, the bombs, and not learning to walk but learning to run to save her life.

After the war she had a zest for life, and soon it was the 1960s and she was determined to live life on her own terms. She traveled to America and became involved in the Andy Warhol Factory scene and began modeling; throughout the documentary we see many never published images of her involvement with the tastemakers of the day.

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At this same time, the Rolling Stones were part of the British Invasion and becoming quite well known. Pallenberg's memoir explains how she loved hated modeling but loved the travel. Soon she was in Munich on assignment at the same time the Rolling Stones were playing. Her friend dared her to kidnap one of them; she explains Brian Jones was her doppelganger, the two had the same look, so she offered him hash, and soon they were together.

The rise of the 1960s rock star also included the rise of the psychedelic invasion. In her desire to embrace life, Anita began to travel with the band. Her relationship with Jones was abusive and the two were headed for disaster. By chance, she and Keith and Brian all decided to take a European road trip and somewhere along the way, Brian ended up in the hospital, and Anita, as Keith Richard's explains, said, "let's go." And the two continued the road trip.

Courtesy of Magnolia Pictures.

Through this new part of the documentary, we understand through the weaving of words from Keith, pictures, and friends, that once she and Keith were alone, they became friends, and soon they were each as surprised as the other that the person of their affection actually loved them back with the same intensity. The vulnerability in this portion of the documentary is illuminating. It shatters the façade of celebrity and allows viewers to see a genuineness of emotion.

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She was also a working actress starring opposite Jane Fonda in Barbarella, and had her own fame, and starred opposite Mick Jagger, which drove Richard's to write "Gimme Shelter." Soon she became pregnant, and to hear Keith tell it, it was opening a whole new chapter of his life. By this time, Pallenberg and Richards, and Mick and Marianne Faithfull were heading to Brazil on a freighter.

And as she explains, life was both new and exciting and change was in the air. And as new life begins, a new phase of the Rolling Stone's superstardom began, and an uncontrollable effort by police in nearly every country they lived were determined to turn them into examples as police tried to stop the influx of drugs and addiction. The documentary travels from the South of France to the Swiss Alps.

Catching Fire: The Story of Anita Pallenberg is a vital portrait of the charismatic and fierce woman, actress, muse, and mother who rose to become a cultural icon and creative in her own right.

The documentary vividly highlights the journey of life, as she evolved in each phase, even in the deepest despair, through the grief, she was able to evolve again, and even as the documentary shows, in the last season of her life she was once again acting and influencing.

An honest and intimate look at a life well-lived on her own terms, unrestrained by convention or society, Pallenberg lived, and when the bottom fell out, she didn't allow the intense grief and despair destroy whatever life held after. Filled with never-seen-before home movies and family photographs that document Pallenberg's life though each of her phases, Catching Fire: The Story of Anita Pallenberg is a must see.

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Country: UK.

Language: English.

Runtime: 113 minutes.

Director: Alexis Bloom, Svetlana Zill.

Producer: Alexis Bloom, Charlie Corwin.

Writer: Based on the words of Anita Pallenberg's unpublished memoir.

Featured: Scarlett Johansson, (voices Anita Pallenberg), Marlon Richards, Angela Richards, Keith Richards, Mick Jagger, Brian Jones, Kate Moss, Metka Kosak, Volker Schlondorff, Stash Klossowski, Jake Weber, Sandro Sursock, Theda Zawaiza, Arnold Bocklin, Scott Cantrell, Marianne Faithful, Jane Fonda, James Fox, Allen Ginsberg, Jasper Johns, Sanford Lieberson, Arnold Pallenberg, Howard K Smith, Andy Warhol, Paula Wiederhold.