The Films of Kenneth Anger (Vols. 1 & 2)

[Mystic]

I recently picked up & since watched The Films of Kenneth Anger, Vol. 1 (2006) and Vol. 2 (2007), together a collection of several of Anger's short films dating from 1947 to 1972. I'd remembered enjoying these shorts for their visual and literary content when I first saw them in the mid 1980s. What I did not recall is the important role that the soundtrack, the music, played in the films. In my opinion, the visual impact of several of these "avant-garde" shorts would be quite ordinary sans their musical accompaniment. Case in point is the 1979 version of the film Rabbit's Moon, the soundtrack of which is a brilliant & obscure song "It Came in the Night", a single-only release by the UK band A Raincoat. By contrast, the 1972 version of Rabbit's Moon has a soundtrack featuring such 1950s and 1960s doo-wop & soul classics as "There's A Moon Out Tonight", "Oh What A Night", "Bye Bye Baby", "I Only Have Eyes For You" and "Tears On My Pillow". Great stuff, in both cases. Similarly blessed are the soundtracks of the rest of Anger's films, with soundtrack accompaniment ranging from Leoš Janáček's Glagolitic Mass and Bobby Beausoleil's original score for the film Lucifer Rising.