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.

[leadlike]

I have the old VHS set with those films on it. Most of them are excellent for what they are. The two that I never got into were The Inauguration of the Pleasure Dome (which did have some cool visuals) and the fountain one-Euax d'artifice(?) which is a really crappy transfer. You are right, Anger loved to change his soundtracks around. I think only his last two in that set have a soundtrack that was planned with the film. These being Bobby Beausoleil's music for Lucifer Rising, and Jagger's tape loop music for The Invocation of My Demon Brother.

In college I was really into the Anger stuff, so much so that one semester was spent working on a color 16mm film in that style. It garnered an A, but horrified most of the class, although the Hippies in the back of the room really dug it. I keep meaning to dig it out, kinda historical in a way as it was shot on Kodak's last run of VNF ektachrome.

[Mystic]

Originally Posted by leadlike

...the fountain one-Euax d'artifice(?) ...

You got it right: Eaux d'artifice (1953). I too was cool on this one at first, but several viewings later I came to find it aesthetically pleasing. It is interesting to note that the woman clad in 18th century clothing who is seen wandering amidst the fountains was a "little" person, recruited by Anger to accentuate & exaggerate the might and size of the fountains, which are located in Tivoli, Italy.

[leadlike]

Mystic, do these DVDs cover Anger's later films, or is this a repackaging of his Magick Lantern films, ending with Lucifer Rising?

I forgot to mention this in my previous posting-Anger's films are really only half of his career. It is a must to pick up his book, Hollywood Babylon; which was the first book of its kind to really deal with the dirty side of the lives of Hollywood stars. It's a great primer on early Hollywood in general.

He wrote a sequel, Hollywood Babylon II, which in my opinion tends to pad itself out with total fiction. A primary example of is the death of George Zucco, who spent his last days in a sanitarium, suffering from dementia. Anger describes him dying as a raving lunatic, convinced to the end that he was being pursued by Lovecraftian Cthulu. Still worth reading as it covers the Black Dahlia case and other more truthful items.