“Catching Fire: The Story of Anita Pallenberg”: https://tinyurl.com/2dwp2duv
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It’s on Hulu. And if you’re a dedicated Stones fan it’s a must-see. But if you’re just looking for a film to watch, and not interested in how all the pieces fit together, you can skip it.
I know, I know, I’m supposed to write about the fires.
I get it. And I respect those who’ve lost their houses. And if the wind kicks back up tonight the way they say it’s going to, that puts us back in harm’s way.
However, life goes on.
That sounds terrible, I know. But it’s the truth. We’re human beings, and if we don’t march forward…
Having said that, if you live in L.A. you’re in shock. Kind of like when a parent dies. I don’t really think the true effect will be felt for a month, when the reality truly sinks in, when we realize those houses are truly gone and people are displaced and the Palisades will never come back…
Oh, it will. I can’t tell you in how long, but it will. That’s the nature of America, we rebuild, even when we shouldn’t. Like all those seashore houses in the east.
I’d be lying if I didn’t say that all this California bashing bugs me.
Forget all the lies. No, the fire department budget was not cut, in fact it went up. As for North Carolina…do you know the Republicans in that state changed the law so they could build houses on floodplains and then…it flooded?
The funny thing is we in California are getting the last laugh, because we know how good life is here. We get the benefit, like in that old 10cc song. You don’t know how great life is out here. Move back if you want to. But there’s nowhere I’d rather live than Los Angeles. I can complain about the traffic, but I’ve been around the world and this is my favorite place. You don’t have to agree. But that column that stated if California falls the rest of the country is screwed had it right. Bitch about us all you want, but the country depends upon us. This is where innovation is fostered and dreams come true.
We could go all the way back to the beginning, there wouldn’t even be much of a Los Angeles if it weren’t for Mulholland and his waterway. Then again, we’re not the only western state that depends upon diverted waters. The entire nation is jerry-rigged. And long in the tooth to boot. We need to rebuild our infrastructure, we should have done it when interest rates were low, but we’re so busy bitching at each other, fearful of being taxed and ripped-off, that we can’t get anything done. If you were alive in the fifties and sixties, when the U.S. was still a can-do country, you don’t recognize our nation anymore.
But this is where we live.
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I was talking to David Gray today, he’s got a new album, and he was saying that music means something different to his two daughters, ages 20 and 22. Oh, they’re fans, but back in his day it was EVERYTHING!
And it all started with the Beatles, and the Stones were not far behind.
Now in truth Brian Jones and John Lennon had it good, because they died with their images intact. Because if you live long enough…it turns out you’re just like the rest of us. Maybe with a few more bucks, vacationing in more exclusive places, but the truth is we can all screw and eat and laugh and…
The internet has leveled the playing field. It’s shown we truly live in a global village. That no one is above anybody else. Try raising your head and thinking otherwise. Elon Musk is cruisin’ for a bruisin’.
But in the sixties…
We knew Cynthia Lennon, and ultimately Jane Asher.
And eventually we knew Anita Pallenberg. And just from looking at her, we knew she played by her own rules. And had her own fame, she didn’t need to trade on that of the Stones. But in the sixties music drove the culture, even a movie star wanted to get closer to the musicians. And Anita Pallenberg did. She zoomed in on Brian Jones.
Who is viewed as a sad story today, but he was the coolest Stone before he fell off the edge. And Anita made him cooler. Everybody wanted to hang at their apartment, despite it being a mess, because that’s where the action was.
The film goes into Anita’s transition from Brian to Keith. Makes the case that Brian cooked his own goose, that Anita wasn’t just an opportunist. But you get insight into how those songs from “Let It Bleed” were written.
Mick Jagger couldn’t always get what he wanted, Anita wouldn’t fall for him. One of the great tossed off lines in the movie is when Pallenberg says something happened before Mick danced. I love that! Since Mick’s dancing is so jive and so not rock and roll. Back then he was just shaking his maracas and singing and…
You get today’s laid back pirate Keith Richards in this movie, but in the sixties, he appears to be a caught in the spotlight suburbanite. Unsophisticated. Anita affected the musicians’ clothes and look and…
Keith wrote “You Got the Silver” spontaneously for Anita.
As for “Sister Morphine”… That was written about Anita.
And they go to South America to avoid the spotlight, when the average American couldn’t even find Peru on a map (maybe they still can’t find Peru on a map…)
And you get Marlon and his rarely viewed sister Angela, who was raised by her grandparents. I’m always fascinated by the progeny of rock stars, especially when they’re superseded by a second family. We hear about Keith’s kids with Patti Hansen… I remember the Osbournes’ TV show, when Ozzy’s older kid Louis showed up, he was so out of place.
And then there’s the escapade in the Catskills where Anita’s young lover plays Russian Roulette inspired by the scene in “The Deer Hunter” and kills himself,
Anita’s living on the edge. And some of those in her orbit fall off it.
But she survives.
And it’s hard being a has-been movie star/rock star significant other. She’s living in New York where everybody knows her name (at least the in crowd), but she’s got no money, and very little portfolio.
But she carries on…acts, walks the fashion runway and gets no plastic surgery.
You’re gonna watch this movie and say to yourself…THAT’S A STAR!
Anita lived her life unconstricted. She was always testing limits. Sure, she was beautiful and that greased the rails, but it was her personality, her feminine wiles that had men glued to her, women paying attention to her.
And they go into what was going down during the making of “Exile on Main Street” in France and living in Switzerland to avoid the law…
And the rich hangers-on. One who is their dope dealer in the South of France. And another who is just a friend who is there when Tara Jo dies of SIDS.
That’s one thing the average person doesn’t know, but in the world of celebrities, of star musicians, there’s this whole coterie of rich hangers-on, who in exchange for access provide money, housing, a shoulder to cry on…
And all that is in “Catching Fire.” Which is based on the writings of Anita herself. And in truth, I was skeptical. Too often these documentaries of those from half a century ago depend upon very little archival material and are made on a shoestring budget and are pure hagiography. This film deserved to be made. It illuminates so much about the Stones.
Like I said, if you’re a fan, if you know those albums by heart…
You’ve gotta see it.
