Arguably the only woman who could be deemed a member of the Rolling Stones, Anita Pallenberg’s life traced the apogee of the band’s most creative era. Her relationships with the band’s founder Brian Jones, then Keith Richards (including an interlude with Mick Jagger), put her front and center in the 60s and into the early 70s, when the band was at its most creative. The story is told through her own words, in an autobiography found by her children after her 2017 death. Directors Alexis Bloom and Svetlana Zill do an excellent job.
Her story is spoken by Scarlett Johansson (couldn’t they have found a British actress?) and through voluminous never before seen photographs and family film footage. Nothing is really heard from Mick, but Keith offers many insights. I’m uncertain if his voice recordings are from his autobiography, but it certainly becomes clear that as much as he loved the children he had with Pallenberg, he was always going to put the music above her.
Their son and daughter provide current talking heads, with the most tragic part about the rarely discussed death of their 10 week old sibling half a century ago.
Also providing insight is Marianne Faithfull, another muse who spiraled through the Stones’ orbit. She wrote the song “Sister Morphine,” describing Pallenberg’s effort to dry out from the drugs that saturated the scene. Faithfull’s version of the song is one of the better song placements in the film, and eclipses the Stone’s version on Sticky Fingers. Other choice music placements in the documentary include several Stones tracks from the era.
Completing the circular arc of her career, the film shows her late life return to acting with stops along the way as an influence to models like Kate Moss. With her most arresting acting gig in Performance at the end of her career, she again finds herself in bed with James Fox. As the Queen of England, no less. Pallenberg’s flame shone brightly.
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