THE MAGICK LANTERN CYCLE

FIREWORKS
1947   14 min

A landmark of both experimental and gay cinema, Kenneth Anger's film is
 a bizarre, disturbing dreamscape of violation, rape, and homoerotic sado-
masochism. The film opens with Anger, who made this film when he was only
17, awaking from a troubled dream and leaving his house to go on a stroll.
 He is confronted by a band of buff sailors who proceed to beat, manhandle,
 and molest him.   Ends with the amazing image of a sailor unzipping his fly
and pulling out a lit roman candle. Recalling other surrealist  masterpieces
 such as Un Chien Andalou and Meshes in the Afternoon, this film uses
elliptical narrative structure and dream-like visual metaphors and puns.

"A dissatisfied dreamer awakes, goes out in the night seeking a
'light' and is drawn through the needle's eye. A dream of a dream,
 he returns to a bed less empty than before." -  Kenneth Anger

PUCE MOMENT
 1949  6 min

A fragment of a never-completed film called PUCE WOMEN.

"Dress after rhinestone-beaded dress wriggles at the camera.  Jonathan
 Halper's soundtrack blasts with Pink Floyd-style feedback broken by his
 folkie voice singing lyrics of omnipotence. Yvonne Marquis' face fills
 the camera. Her eyes look glassy under long, black lashes.  Huge black
 deco earrings swing herky-jerky.  She wears heavy, dark eye makeup
and coral lipstick.  Yvonne raises her dress to fill the camera frame.
 She's naked and laughing, looking up through the dress at the sky.
  She drops it over her head and it falls to her toes. Her steps seem unsure
 and unsteady, and she puts on shoes laid on a pillow.   More soundtrack
 feedback highlights a shot of her makeup table, with its enormous bottle of
 perfume.  The Puce Woman strikes Nazimova poses in front of a mirror as
 she applies the perfume.  She looks at herself again in the mirror to Halper's
 lyrics.  She throws her head back, striking a glamour pose on her puce day
 bed.  The day bed moves.  She sighs.  The day bed is being taken on a trip.
 Her eyes roll back in ecstasy and sexual anticipation.  Shadows turn light
 and dark again as though the bed is moving through a passageway.  Then
she's lying on her porch again.  In the background are the Hollywood Hills. 
Now holding the leashes of her six Rashimov hounds, the Puce Woman
 surveys her kingdom.  From the camera angle, the hounds are on the level
 of her house.  The camera pans up the leashes for a close-up of her hand.
The Puce Woman has a petulant and bored expression, like Clara Bow,
 as her dogs lead her down the steps.  Her face fades into the camera
as Fini appears in deco lettering."      Bill Landis, Anger

"Anger used a rich pancultural texture of myth to explain his own psychological
 condition in Rabbit's Moon. The rabbit in the moon is lifted out of Japanese myth,
 with the moon in Crowleyan terms representing the female principal. The character
Pierrot was based on Crowley's tarot card of the Fool, which meant divine inspiration
in spiritual or creative matters, but folly, mania, or death in everyday affairs.  The highly
 stylized mime movements of the actors, which was part of early 20th century avant-garde
theatre, recalls both Kabuki and commedia dell'arte, where Columbine emotionally
tortures Pierrot with Harlequin's assistance.  The set itself resembles the art deco
 forest of silver trees in A Midsummer Night's Dream."  - Bill Landis, Anger

TWO VERSIONS AVAILABLE
1972 (16m) version (with a classic pop soundtrack, imbedded below)
1979 (7m) version (with a different soundtrack, unknown song).

"A blue-tinted and white figure appears.  A fountain spurts between trees, the
 beads of water shimmering in close-up.  The figure obscures the fountain and is
 shrouded in enigma under layers of gowns, a mask, and a huge headdress.  The
 figure descends steps, passing fountains, a stream, water over stone.  A devil face spurts
 water from its mouth.  Water cascades, goes down steps, transforms into a waterfall,
and erupts in geysers. The devil-face eyes the figure from behind.  From this point on,
objects blend and melt into each other in blue-gray tones.  Two circular objects appear,
 separated by a crater.  The figure descends a huge, well-lite stairwell.  An enormous
 shower spills over circles surrounded by fountains, ten fountains at once.  The devil-face
 continues to spit water as the figure slowly passes and is enveloped by the fountains.
 Water cascades over steps, leading into larger fountains.  The figure is seen through
 a wall of water, fluid against a black background.  Water flies into the air, the peak of a
 fountain.  The figure is at the head of the stairs.  Another devil-face is drenched in water.
  The figure produces a hand-tinted gold fan and spreads it. The leering face spits liquid.
  The figure descends the stairs, and again the lewd, leering devil-face is seen spewing water.
 Another foundtain peak.  The figure runs past the fountains in daylight, away from the
camera, toward the camera, in side view, then from behind again.  It runs up stairs.  Water
 spurts from stone as a giant fountain is superimposed. The figure runs past.  The figure
fades into an incandescent spray of water beads.  There's a shell-like stone. The figure
 emerges from a cave, walking toward the camera as black water envelops the images.
"Fin" appears in arcane lettering.  -  Bill Landis, Anger

EAUX D'ARTIFICE

INAUGURATION OF THE PLEASURE DOME
 1954-56  40 min.

A key work of American experimental film. It has been cited as an influence
on Roger Corman's Edgar Allan Poe series and on certain shots in Martin
Scorsese's Kundun. The film varies in length from 38 to 43 minutes, depending
 on the print or video, and also exists in a version altered by Anger in 1966.
 The color film is dedicated to British writer and occultist Aleister Crowley.
  Anger's tribute presents a "Dionysian revel." Includes appearances by erotica
 author and diarist Anaïs Nin and by avant-garde filmmaker Curtis Harrington.

The title of the film comes from the poem "Kublai Khan" by the English
 Romantic poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge. Coleridge claimed that the poem
 came to him during an opium dream. The poem tells the story of the Mongol
general and statesman who built a pleasure dome. The film. subtitled
"Lord Shiva's Dream" is a complex meditation of ideas that Anger
absorbed from his interest in the occultist Aleister Crowley.

"A convocation of magicians assume the identity of gods in a Dionysian revel.
 Lord Shiva, the magician, awakes. The Scarlet Woman, whore of heaven,
smokes a big, fat joint; Astarte of the moon brings the wing of snow; Pan
bestows the grapes of Bacchus; Hecate offers the sacred mushroom, yage,
 wormwood brew... The orgy ensues - a magick masquerade at which Pan is
 the prize. Lady Kali blesses the rites of the children of light as Lord Shiva
 invokes the godhead with the formula Force and Fire." - Kenneth Anger

 SCORPIO RISING
 1963   30 min.

"A death mirror held up to American culture.  Brando, bikes, black leather."

Decried as obscene upon its initial release, this short documentary-style feature
contains no dialogue and rapidly inter-cuts images against a score of slyly selected
 pop tunes, predating the advent of the music video by a decade and a half. 
Delving into the homoerotic world of bikers, Anger focuses his camera on
 Scorpio (Bruce Byron), a leather-wearing, crystal methamphetamine-snorting
 bad boy who is alternately compared to Jesus Christ, Adolf Hitler and the Devil,
depending on his activities. Scorpio is seen strutting his stuff, racing his bike,
vandalizing a church and attending a rowdy party where a fellow reveler is
 tortured and humiliated by the bikers. Through it all, Anger draws clear
parallels between Scorpio's crowd, sadism and homosexuality, with alternately
 subtle and obvious montages depicting snippets of other films, comic strips,
plenty of gleaming phallic chrome, & symbols like the Nazi swastika. Considered
 by many to be one of the first post-modern films, the film was a controversial
 hit only on the underground circuit, but its style greatly influenced a
 generation of popular filmmakers, most notably director Martin Scorsese.

"Like an auto emblem, the title appears against a pink backdrop in gold
letters.  Two boys are seen checking on a perfect engine, highlighted by
 stunning orange and pink pastel colors.  The darker, Italian-looking boy
is in black. The other boy (Sandy Trent) is wearing a white tank top and
 jeans.  An engine roars.  The Paris Sisters' version of Dream Lover purrs
 as the camera observes the hot rod's red vinyl seats with white piping.
 Sandy's muscular body rises between twin dual cam-heads.  He gets up
slowly, with his tremendous basket next to the silver engine. His hands are
 on his hips.  The camera closes in on his crotch.  A huge pink powder puff
 methodically massages the candy-apple red card over its silver machinery.  The
 camera lingers over the phallic engine.  There's a shot of Sandy's statue-perfect
ass.  He looks at himself in the shine of the car's paint job.  The camera pans down
 to the California license plate, KBL 852.  A gust of wind gently flutters the powder
 puff as it rises up out of frame. Cut to the seats.  The door opens and Sandy gets
 in with his legs slightly raised.  Shoeless, his sky-blue socks pump the pedals; he
 starts the engine, loosens the clutch, and shifts the gears.  Seen mostly in profile,
 Sandy is a remnant of the Dick Dale surf era, with his neat, oiled pompadour.
 He accomplishes the act of looking pristine without being prissy, a rare
accomplishment for a grease monkey.  He is also freshly bathed.  The
 work has been done.  He's ready to ride his baby.  A human could never
 compete with the dead, impassive perfection of the car... He smirks a little
 and blinks a lot.  Fade to overhead shot of the car taking off, its hot-rod
 engine roaring as Dream Lover ends. ANGER '65 is seen in yellow as
 someone politely polishes a hood ornament."  -  Bill Landis, "Anger"

In 1967, the footage for Anger's Lucifer Rising was allegedly stolen by Anger's
 "Lucifer", Bobby Beausoleil, who was later convicted for his participation
 in the Manson murders (Beausoleil denies stealing the footage to this day). 
Anger went into a deep depression and publicly renounced filmmaking via
a full-page "In Memoriam" in The Village Voice.  He later moved to London
 and met up with Mick Jagger and the Stones.   By this time, Anger had begun
 editing two other versions of what was to be Lucifer Rising, although by the
 final edit it had taken on a very different form, which led to the incarnation
 of Invocation, a mind-bending collage of sonic terror and subversion and fast
paced ritual ambiance which found the union of the circle and the swastika,
 a swirling power source of solar energy. Mick Jagger contributed
 a suitably eerie soundtrack with a newly acquired synthesizer.

It is Anger's most metaphysical film: here he eschews literal connections,
 makes the images jar against one another, and does not create a center of
 gravity though which the collage is to be interpreted, as the images of Christ
 could be interpreted through the actions of the motorcyclists in Scorpio or as
 the images of Crowley could be interpreted through the ritual of Inauguration.
 Thus deprived of a center of gravity,the very image has equal weight in the film,
 and more than ever before in an Anger film, the burdenof synthesis falls upon
 the viewer. The most demonic of Anger's films, as well as the most fast moving.

Perhaps Anger's most elaborate film, Lucifer Rising takes place at various
historically magick spots in Egypt, England and Germany. The odd rock-
tinged soundtrack (composed and recorded by Beausoleil in prison, after a
 reconciliation with Anger) pulls viewers through a series of obsessively staged
 and hauntingly realized ceremonies, movements and rituals.  Experimental editing
 techniques, mixed with more traditional cinematic structures, add to the eerie and
 compelling visual quality of this avant-garde masterpiece.   Marianne Faithfull,  the
 Rolling Stones (Anger had wanted Jagger to play Lucifer), Satanism, lightning, pyramids
and extravagant costumes are only a few of the contributing elements that bring this film
 to a fever pitch of strangeness and cultural abstraction.  Like other Anger films, it reads
 like a music video from outer space or Ancient Egypt ... or wherever the two may meet ...

_________________________________________
 

LUCIFER RISING

THE MAN WE WANT TO HANG

THE MAN WE WANT TO HANG

JEAN GENET's
UN CHANT D'AMOUR

BOBBY BEAUSOLEIL
in front of the
KENNETH ANGER
SF Bay Area mansion
(mid sixties)

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