SPILL FILM REVIEW: CATCHING FIRE: THE STORY OF ANITA PALLENBERG

CATCHING FIRE: THE STORY OF ANITA PALLENBERG

MAGNOLIA PICTURES

MAY 3, 2024

“I’ve been called a witch, a slut, and a murderer. I’ve been hounded by police and slandered in the press. Maybe people confuse me with the characters I played in films, like I’m an empty sign on which they project their fantasies and their shortcomings. But I don’t need to settle scores. I’m reclaiming my soul. I write as a woman searching for another adventure.”—Anita Pallenberg

Catching Fire: The Story Of Anita Pallenberg brilliantly illustrates the life of the fashion icon, the actor, the influencer, and the muse. Pallenberg worked with several pivotal film directors of the era, including Roger Vadim, Jean-Luc Godard, and Harmony Korine. She also acted in the iconic films Barbarella and Performance, the latter which was written for her. She was a member of Andy Warhol’s circle, a frequent guest at his Factory. More than this however, her celebrity in life was anchored by her romantic relationships with three members of The Rolling Stones. Firstly, her volatile and abusive relationship with Brian Jones, her brief physical relationship with Mick Jagger, but more importantly her decades-long intimate relationship with Keith Richards, with whom she would have three children. More than just a muse who influenced some of the biggest songs by the Stones during that time, she was an alpha who was considered by many insiders as “one of the boys” in the band .

After her death in 2017, son Marlon Richards found himself with an array of unreleased home movie clips and family photographs, chronicling the intimate, detailed, and private moments of his mother’s charmed yet tragic life, as well as the draft of her unpublished memoirs, Black Magic. The film manages to brilliantly combine the clips detailing the magical and tragic periods in her life, narrated in part by Scarlett Johansson reading Pallenberg’s own words, culled from the memoirs. It also features appearances by Keith Richards, their two surviving children, Marlon and Angela, as well as a host of other key figures in her life who were part of her journey. One thing is clear, Pallenberg shared an incredibly warm and deep love with her family members, who will always mourn her loss, and had an indelibly profound effect on everyone she touched.

Through it all, Pallenberg is shown to struggle to maintain a sense of control over herself and her identity. Intelligent, confident, with a no-nonsense attitude towards everything in life, she wanted above all to be a good mother to her children. Marlon describes her as “a mother in a very chauvinistic environment, a very ugly, very unhealthy environment.” It was one that would eventually lead to her demise. Tragedy never seemed to be far away and was always very public. Blaming herself for the untimely, but seemingly inevitable death of Brian Jones, the tragically painful loss of Keith and Anita’s third child, 10-week-old infant son Tara Richards, and later the highly publicized death of 20-year-old Scott Cantrell after a round of Russian Roulette in Pallenberg’s own bed. Her descent into drugs and alcohol, as well as her subsequent struggles with mental health, are briefly touched on here, but are tastefully counterbalanced with her enormous and successful struggle to overcome these, and to re-establish her relationship with her family.

Ahead of her time, Pallenberg was touted as a pariah. Catching Fire: The Story Of Anita Pallenberg, sheds new light on a woman who was clearly the thread that helped sew together the foundation of one of the biggest bands in the world, during what is historically known as their most prolific and successful years. Pallenberg shunned the societal norms of the day, and through it all struggled to maintain her own identity. She was far more than merely the sum of her own parts.

In Catching Fire: The Story Of Anita Pallenberg, the newly revealed film clips, the narrated words of Pallenberg herself, and the incredibly warm and loving words spoken by those who really knew her, have forever changed the narrative of this woman who may arguably be the most important muse in the history of modern music. Anita Pallenberg has finally reclaimed her soul.

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