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If Anita Pallenberg was, in the words of her obituary in The New York Times in 2017<\/a>, \u201cbest known for her relationships with members of the Rolling Stones,\u201d the documentary \u201cCatching Fire,\u201d<\/a> directed by Alexis Bloom and Svetlana Zill, shifts the focus to Pallenberg herself: the model, actress and life force who embodied a certain image of \u201960s freedom.<\/p>\n Made in collaboration with Pallenberg\u2019s son <\/strong>Marlon Richards, \u201cCatching Fire\u201d is a redemptive portrait that nevertheless plays like a downer. Pallenberg\u2019s story involves an unremitting cascade of drugs, addiction, volatile relationships and parenting tragedy, along with a 1979 incident in which a 17-year-old shot himself at her home<\/a>, possibly playing Russian roulette. No excess is too excessive for this film, until it\u2019s time to chronicle the later (and admittedly less sensational) period when Pallenberg calmed the turbulence surrounding her. To that, the doc devotes 10 minutes.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n The narrative\u2019s spine comes from an unpublished memoir by Pallenberg. Scarlett Johansson reads excerpts in voice-over. We hear of Pallenberg\u2019s upbringing in wartime Europe (\u201cI didn\u2019t learn to walk \u2014 I ran\u201d), her encounters with Andy Warhol and Allen Ginsberg, and her abandonment of modeling for psychedelics (\u201cYou couldn\u2019t do both, and I loved acid\u201d). While her relationship with the Stones\u2019 Brian Jones fell apart, a result of his reputed drug use and physical abuse, she landed in the arms of Keith Richards, the Stone closest to her rock. We\u2019re told that, as a child, Marlon was treated as the household\u2019s adult.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n There is plentiful \u2014 maybe too much \u2014 archival footage to illustrate all this. The film amasses an insightful array of talking heads, from Volker Schl\u00f6ndorff, who directed Pallenberg in her film debut, to Theda Zawaiza, a former nanny for Marlon who describes Pallenberg at the time as being a virtual prisoner of a record company. Pallenberg is finally in focus. But the picture is tough to look at.<\/p>\n Catching Fire: The Story of Anita Pallenberg<\/strong>
Not rated. Running time: 1 hour 50 minutes. In theaters and available to rent or buy on most major platforms<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n