As far as counterculture icons go, Anita Pallenberg is certainly one of the most fascinating, despite not being as widely known or revered as some of her peers. Someone whose career path was as layered and complicated as her ancestry, she was Italian-born of German parents, and who spent almost her entire life oscillating between being an actor, singer, model and fashion icon, amongst a wealth of other positions that made her quite a significant figure for decades, and someone whose influence is much larger than we would expect. Her life is the subject of Catching Fire: The Story of Anita Pallenberg, in which directors Alexis Bloom and Svetlana Zillwork to craft a fascinating narrative centered around Pallenberg’s life, starting in her early days as a young working actress, who mainly collaborated with European enfant terribles such as Volker Schlöndorff and Nicholas Roeg, or most notably playing one of the antagonists in Barbarella, which was one of the first major moments in an otherwise varied career, and the one that got her noticed. The film was inspired by the discovery of a manuscript found by her family after her death a few years ago, in which she had written a detailed account of her life, but which she never chose to publish. This autobiographical manuscript formed the foundation for this film, with the directors extracting a few of the more notable segments, using them to examine her life from many different perspectives, and presenting a bold and captivating account of the various trials and tribulations she endured throughout the decades. Looking at everything from her professional pursuits to her relationship with some of the most notable artists of their generation (both romantic and platonic), as well as offering fascinating insights into her existence, Catching Fire is a thrilling and complex documentary that paints a vivid portrait of one of the 20th century’s most enigmatic but endearing figures, whose extraordinary life is equally inspirational and thought-provoking.

For years, Pallenberg has been viewed as nothing more than an eccentric footnote in the history of The Rolling Stones, with her relationships with multiple members of the band unfortunately being the quality for which she was most remembered, despite it only being one part of her life and career. Catching Fire is formed around the clear intention to explore her story in much more detail, looking at various moments from both her personal and professional life to shade in her ambiguities and present a more three-dimensional portrait of a truly fascinating individual who deserves much more than just being tacked-on into the history of one of the world’s most famous bands. Her life is far too interesting to only be seen through the perspective of other, more famous people, even if some will argue she is a perfect example of someone who only gained their status through association. The misguided belief that Pallenberg was one of the more blatant examples of a celebrity who was only famous due to their proximity to those with higher degrees of fame is immediately disproven when it becomes clear that she was a remarkable talent whose incredible work as an actor, model and musician was obscured by personal controversies and scandals emerging from her drug use, as well as several other aspects of her life that became fodder for the tabloids, who were perhaps her most significant adversary in terms of how they crafted a particular narrative from which she was never quite able to escape. Bloom and Zillwork work laboriously to ensure that Catching Fire says more about Anita as an individual rather than as just another member of the entourage that defined the public perception of the Rolling Stones, and the result is a heartfelt and moving portrait of a truly incredible individual.

Considering her storied existence, it only made sense that a documentary exploring the subject’s life would need to be somewhat unconventional, at least in terms of delivering the details and presenting them in a way that was decidedly not merely recounting her biography, but rather providing insights into her life behind the scenes. Centring the film around this manuscript in which Pallenberg recounts the past is a simple but smart decision, since it serves several purposes. Primarily, it gives the film structure – her life was one that benefits from a chronological system of delivering information, since her rise and fall, and then eventual comeback, are almost Shakespearean in how they explore tragedy and triumph. She was someone who lived her entire life in a forward trajectory, resulting in a film that earns a lot of momentum simply through how it arranges this information to create quite a compelling narrative. The film doesn’t feel like it is taking an entirely novelistic approach, since it is very much indebted to the visual medium, but it does make use of frequent voice-over narration, the majority of it being Pallenberg’s own words as taken from these unpublished memoirs. Unfortunately the subject herself passed away years before the film went into production, so it is Scarlett Johansson who is enlisted to be her voice, her distinctive timbre giving voice to these personal, intimate recollections that persist throughout the film and give Catching Fire such a deeply poignant feeling, much more than just a traditional, run-of-the-mill narrative that doesn’t earn our attention. It’s an approach that feels simple but effective, and it ultimately proves to give the subject herself the chance to tell her own story – and even if it is after her death, this is a film about celebrating her legacy in a manner that feels befitting to her fascinating and complex life.

Catching Fire is a film that understands that it doesn’t need to resort to anything unnecessarily complex or daring to be effective – a simple but inventive structure, coupled with the right information, can ultimately be the foundation for a truly terrific film. It’s in this simplicity that we realise the filmmakers were not only presenting a portrait of Pallenberg as a person, but also as a concept. In addition to the fascinating insights we get into her daily life and the experiences she earned over the years, the film also presents her as a symbol of the past. She was an icon of the 1960s, whose contributions to the world of fashion, acting and celebrity in general was matched only by her sordid personal life, which include her long struggle with mental health and drug addiction, and which this film does not avoid exploring (albeit in a manner that never feels inappropriate or exploitative, drawing more on her discussion about her substance abuse and subsequent recovery, rather than exclusively through how the tabloids shaped the public perception), knowing that the darker moments of her life are as integral to shaping her life and legacy as the more positive and exuberant ones. In many ways, Pallenberg was the ultimate representative of the 1960s – she was a citizen of the world, being of complex ancestry and spending her life bouncing between France, the United Kingdom and the United States, as well as many other places around the globe. She never followed one single path, and instead preferred to just pursue whatever interested her at any given time, which is why she left such an impression in many fields without actually mastering any of them, or at least not enough to have a particular medium define her career. To understand Pallenberg’s story is to comprehend the sheer scope of the post-war period, and how the world was changing rapidly throughout the 1960s and 1970s, which is reflected in her story and its multicultural, layered nature. It’s both poignant and heartfelt, and the directors pay sufficient tribute to a true cultural icon.

It is entirely possible that a significant portion of the audience entering Catching Fire: The Story of Anita Pallenberg may not have heard of the titular character or have much knowledge of her life outside of being related to the Rolling Stones during their heyday. However, by the time the final credits roll, we have all gained what feels like a thorough introduction into her life and career, and exit the film feeling like we’ve just spent two hours learning about an old friend. This is a credit to both the directors and their determination to tell her story vividly and in detail, as well as Pallenberg herself, as she speaks to us from beyond the grave in the form of the memoir she wrote but never published. It’s a simple approach, but one that is perfectly complementary to her entire existence and everything she represented. There are a few small flaws embedded within the film – primarily, it spends almost its entire running time on the first two decades of her career, whereas everything she achieved after her relationship with Keith Richards ended (their life together being the main focus of most of the film) is relegated to the final few minutes, which are enthralling but far too brief to capture the sheer scope of the impact she had in those later years, ageing gracefully and becoming an elder of the very industry that almost destroyed her when she was younger and more impressionable. Yet, even with such shortcomings scattered throughout the film, Catching Fire is still a major achievement – a bold and uncompromising documentary that offers invaluable insights into the life of a true icon, paying tribute and showing the appropriate reverence, but also making sure that it demonstrates her as a deeply flawed individual who may have teetered dangerously close on the edge of self-destruction at many points in her life, but ultimately demonstrated that it is possible to recover and become stronger than ever, one of the many lessons we glean from this poignant and genuinely exceptional homage to one of the great icons of the past.