KLAUS Kinski was a madman, on and off the screen.

In his five teamings with Werner Herzog, the actor portrayed a white-suited gentleman obsessed with build ing an opera house high in the Andes (“Fitzcaraldo,” 1982), a blood-sucking vampire (“Nosferatu the Vampyre,” 1979) and a wild-eyed Spanish conquistador losing his mind as he makes his way through a South American jungle in search of the lost city of El Dorado (“Aquirre, the Wrath of God,” 1972).

“Aquirre,” one of the finest Kinski-Herzog pairings, is getting a long-overdue revival, Friday through Oct. 25 and Oct. 30 and 31 at the Film Forum.

I haven’t seen the film in at least 15 years, but there are two scenes that still stick in my mind: A head continuing to talk after being lopped off somebody’s body and the finale, which I won’t divulge so as not to spoil your fun.

Kinski, who died in 1991 at age 64, and Herzog often didn’t get along, which is putting it mildly.

During the shooting of “Aguirre,” Kinski threatened to walk off the film – in the middle of the jungle. During another shoot, the German director seriously thought of killing the actor.

(The amazing details of their feuds are explored in the 1999 Herzog documentary “My Best Fiend.”)

The Forum is on Houston Street, west of Sixth Avenue; filmforum.org

* Several blocks uptown, the IFC Center is preparing to release Herzog’s “The Wild Blue Yonder” (2005), which he describes as a “science fiction fantasy.”

The IFC Center press notes describe the film as “the secret history of extraterrestrials who left behind the frozen sky of their dying planet – the Wild Blue Yonder – dreaming of empire, only to fall flat on Earth.” That’s enough info to get me there.

“The Wild Blue Yonder” will begin a one-week run Oct. 27 at the IFC Center, Sixth Avenue and Third Street; ifccenter.com

V.A. Musetto is film editor of The Post; vam@nypost.com