The art world has the myth of the muse, the inspiring woman for creators, and the rock world had that of the groupiethe young fan dazzled by the brightness of the stars. Euterpe was the muse of musicians, one of the nine described by Hesiod. And Anita Pallenberg, model and actress, has been seen equally as the muse and as the groupie The Rolling Stones in their wildest years. In 1965 she sneaked into the band’s dressing room during a concert in Munich and did not leave them for more than a decade, during which time she brought a certain sophistication to the band’s image. She had a toxic relationship with Brian Jones, which ended before she drowned in her swimming pool in 1969; she had affairs with Mick Jagger, and ended up paired with Keith Richards, with whom she had three children, one of whom died at ten weeks. She was with the Stones in their exiles: in Nice, where they took refuge from the British tax authorities, and in Switzerland, from where they fled after a raid for heroin possession; later they were imprisoned for the same reason in Toronto. She got high at the same pace as the band, and that was a lot; then she had an affair with a young man who committed suicide in her bed. After so much tragedy she was abandoned by everyone and ended up begging for the next fix. And, when the world seemed to have forgotten her, she rehabilitated herself and had a few years in which she once again tasted glory.
The documentary Catching Fire: The Story of Anita Pallenberg (Anita Pallenberg: muse of the Rolling Stones)which premiered in Cannes last summer and Now on Movistar+, reconstructs his life from first-hand material, especially the autobiographical text, entitled Black Magicwhich her children found after her death in 2017. This book remained unpublished and here it is voiced by Scarlett Johanson. Her two children Marlon and Angela also speak, as well as some friends and collaborators, and we hear a voice in off Richards himself, who still considered her the woman of his life long after their separation. There is good material recorded in those wild years. The tone of the documentary is not moralistic, and tries to pay attention to what this woman contributed to the legendary band of Rock And Roll; if anything, it is she who sometimes judges herself harshly. But she also says: “I don’t need to settle accounts with the past.”
Born in Rome in the middle of World War II, to a family of German origin that she never spoke about, she was an irresistibly beautiful young woman who gave off an image of freshness and naturalness that opened many doors for her. Not even in her autobiography does she refer much to her parents, who a childhood friend describes as very conservative, which clashed with her desire to dive into the pop scene. At 20, she moved to New York, where she rubbed shoulders with Andy Warhol, Allen Ginsberg and Jasper Johns. She jumped onto the catwalks and into magazines, although she says she never saw herself as a professional model. She shot a science fiction film with Jane Fonda: BarbarellaAnd in Munich he invites Brian Jones, then considered the most cool The Stones. But this relationship went wrong: Brian was an impulsive and violent guy who mistreated her. One day, when he attacked her during a stay of the band in Morocco, Keith intervened and took her away. She was his partner from then on, and Mick never stopped flirting with her; she does not confirm how far the singer’s harassment went, beyond the fact that they filmed a movie together, Performance, which included a steamy scene between the two. It is clear that the internal competitiveness between the Stones extended to their sexual conquests.
Keith doesn’t come off as badly as Brian in the story, but he doesn’t come off as good either. At first he was protective of her, although too possessive, because he pressured her to stop working. They shared abusive vices. Everything fell apart after the sudden death of little Tara in 1976. The images of the concert that Keith was giving that night with the Stones in Paris are very striking: After learning of the misfortune, he was determined to act. The show must go on, a motto maintained by the band for six decades in which their machinery has withstood everything.
Depressed and feeling guilty about her consumption during pregnancy, she stayed in New York with her eldest son; Keith took the youngest to his paternal grandmother’s house in England. The guitarist rarely appeared at home and took refuge in his career. The boy, Marlon, was there the day she died. Scott Cantrella 17-year-old casual crush of his mother, shot himself in his home, according to the official version while playing Russian roulette after watching the film The hunterMarlon helped clean the room of traces of illegal substances, as his parents had taught him, he accompanied his mother until the police arrived and then he left her side as well. Anita, alone and depressed, went through her worst phase. She says that she even stole drugs from friends, walked the most sordid streets in search of something to shoot up. She saw herself as a source of death and destruction.
The story is bittersweet, but it ends with a short story of redemption. Anita was able to rehabilitate herself and reappear in fashion and film as a mature woman. Her glamour shines again, inspiring younger models such as Kate Moss, with whom she becomes friends, and Sienna Miller. One of her last jobs was playing Queen Elizabeth II in Mister Lonely. She reestablishes her relationship with her children, although it is striking that both of them now refer to her as Anita, just as they also refer to Keith by his name.
Anita Pallenberg was at the centre of what was brewing in a few dizzying years, as memorable for music as they were devastating for some of its figures. A free and hedonistic woman surrounded by alpha males in the very testosterone-fuelled world of rock. She was a creature of her time, an unrepeatable time. It was not a question of judging her but of understanding her. That is what this film achieves.
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