"My Best Fiend", directed by Werner Herzog

Documentary, 1999

Recollections and clips of Klaus Kinski, mainly from Herzog, though occasionally balanced with other acquaintances involved in the films the two men made together. Kinski comes across as damaged and deranged, a method actor to beat all method actors and as self-obsessed and violent as a documentarian could wish for. On the one hand, this film has the feel of a hatchet job - we hear nothing from Kinski himself who had died long before the film was put together. There are, however, times when Herzog is more generous, not in giving Eva Mattes and Claudia Cardinale time to praise Kinski, but also in describing his own working relationship and admiration.

"Fear and Trembling", by Amélie Nothomb

Fiction, 1999

The story of a Belgian woman's rapid descent through the ranks of a Japanese corporation, which is funny, thought provoking and, in places, moving. All quite an achievement in such a slim volume which sees the protagonist struggle and opine on the differences between cultures and touching on the role of women in Japanese society. A brisk read running a few jokes, some splendid and bizarre passages on work and, at the end, after all the humiliation and ritual, some kind of circularity.