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Cinematic magician, legendary provocateur, author of the infamous HOLLYWOOD BABYLON books and creator of some of the most striking and beautiful works in the history of film, Kenneth Anger is a singular figure in post-war American culture.
A major influence on everything from the films of Martin Scorsese, Rainer Werner Fassbinder and David Lynch to the pop art of Andy Warhol to MTV, Anger’s work serves as a talisman of universal symbols and personal obsessions, combining myth, artifice and ritual to render cinema with the power of a spell or incantation.
Covering the second half of Anger’s career, from his legendary SCORPIO RISING to his breathtaking phantasmagoria LUCIFER RISING, Fantoma is very proud to complete the cycle with this long-awaited final volume of films by this revolutionary and groundbreaking maverick, painstakingly restored and presented on DVD for the first time anywhere in the world.
In production for over 5 years, THE FILMS OF KENNETH ANGER VOLUME 2 surpasses the standard set by Volume 1, easily one of 2007’s most acclaimed DVD releases. Painstakingly restored by Fantoma under the personal supervision of Kenneth Anger himself, these shorts represent the beginning of the independent film movement as we know it today and Anger’s revolutionary use of blending film to music has often been credited as giving birth to the music video. The films contained in this set include: SCORPIO RISING (1964), KUSTOM KAR KOMMANDOS (1965), INVOCATION OF MY DEMON BROTHER (1969), RABBIT’S MOON (1979 version), LUCIFER RISING (1981).
THE FILMS OF KENNETH ANGER VOLUME 2 contains the following special features:
-High Definition transfers from newly restored elements.
-Screen specific audio commentary for all films from Kenneth Anger.
-48 page full color book with written appreciations of Kenneth Anger by legendary filmmakers Martin Scorsese, Gus Van Sant, Guy Maddin and others, introduction to LUCIFER RISING by Bobby Beausoleil, rare photos, and extensive notes for each film.
-THE MAN WE WANT TO HANG (2002), Kenneth Anger’s film on the art of Aleister Crowley.
-Restored stereo soundtrack for LUCIFER RISING, re-mastered from the original session tapes.
-Additional audio track to INVOCATION OF MY DEMON BROTHER.
| Catalog Number: MC-744 |
Type: Shorts Compilation |
Genre: Experimental |
| Copyright: 2007 |
Length: 140 minutes |
Format:
DVD Region: 0 (All) |
| TV System: NTSC |
ISBN: |
UPC: 695026704928 |
| Label: |
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Films In Compilation
Scorpio Rising directed by
Kenneth
Anger
USA,
Experimental,
1964,
Color,
Magnetic Stereo,
00:00:00
A picture every film student has read about but not that many have seen. Anger spends time with a Brooklyn motorcycle club and records their homoerotic rituals; in his commentary we learn that he befriended the club members and seized the opportunity to visualize their lifestyle. With a background of 50s rock 'n' roll songs, including one by Elvis, we see first the preparation of a motorcycle and then one of the cyclists dressing in a room filled with fetishistic mementos of James Dean, Marlon Brando, etc. Chains, black leather, motorcycle caps and Nazi symbols proliferate, all appropriated not for their original meanings but for their ability to provoke reactions. We see some hazing at an alcohol-fueled gathering, and then an apparently staged scene in an abandoned church, with Swastika flags supplied by Anger. The ending scene is at a Walden bike race, where the camera lingers on a club member killed in an accident. With Anger supplying the demonic subtext and his choice of bikers reinforcing the perverse mood, Scorpio Rising distills the basics of the biker subculture in one swoop: Bikers are suicidal anti-authoritarians that revel in their ability to shock outsiders. We can practically hear Roger Corman rushing to his telephone to put together The Wild Angels, which 'borrows' most of Anger's iconography. - Glenn Erickson
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Kustom Kar Kommandos directed by
Kenneth
Anger
USA,
Experimental,
1965,
Color,
Magnetic Stereo,
00:00:00
is a successful fragment of another larger film Anger wanted to make about youth culture. It's mostly an adoring look at a beloved Hot Rod, the "All Chrome Ruby Blush Dream Buggy' that's every bit as sexually charged as the fabrics in Anger's earlier Puce Moment. Anger covers the Dream Buggy's ugly garage surroundings with a colored backing, and bathes the machine in light. Every chromed surface gleams with five or six highlights. When the owner climbs into the driver's seat, the car resembles a multicolored mechanical womb. - Glenn Erickson
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Invocation of my Demon Brother directed by
Kenneth
Anger
USA,
Experimental,
1969,
Color,
Magnetic Stereo,
00:00:00
Invocation of My Demon Brother represents a leap upward in ambition. Anger draws together a number of elements from the San Francisco fringe, especially the growing Satanist movement as represented by his interest in Aleister Crowley, noted occult visionary from an earlier era. The eleven-minute movie pulls in a wide range of visuals, including a 'Magick Theater' presentation with Anton Szandor LaVey as 'His Satanic Majesty.' Anger approached future Manson family member Bobby Beausoleil to play Lucifer and Mick Jagger provides the squawking Moog synthesizer soundtrack. Using many graphic superimpositions, Invocation communicates a sense of pagan pageantry and comes off as a strange ancient artwork in need of translation. Kenneth Anger's commentary explains what we're seeing in literal terms, at which point most of the magic (or Magick?) is lost. On the other hand, I can see someone well versed in comparative religious symbolism finding a compelling structure in this rich visual text. - Glenn Erickson
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Rabbit's Moon directed by
Kenneth
Anger
USA,
Experimental,
1950,
Color,
Magnetic Stereo,
00:00:00
Pierrot waxes romantic, entranced by the moon. Harlequin appears and bullies him, then uses a magic lantern to project an image of Columbine. Pierrot tries to court the illusory Columbine unsuccessfully, then enters a mystical moon-realm from which he returns dead.
A Japanese fairy tale meets commedia dell'Arte. All in white, the naïf Pierrot lies in a wood. Doo-wop music plays as he rises, stares about, and reaches for the moon. Although music abounds and the children of the wood are there at play, Pierrot is melancholy and alone. Harlequin appears, brimming with confidence and energy. He conjures the lovely Colombina. Pierrot is dazzled. But can the course of true love run smooth?
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Lucifer Rising directed by
Kenneth
Anger
USA,
Experimental,
1981,
00:00:00
Lucifer Rising was finished in 1981 but apparently languished for years until Anger gave up on waiting for Jimmy Page of Led Zeppelin to deliver a full score. It instead has a fairly effective soundtrack produced by Bobby Beausoleil from his prison cell, where he was (and still is) serving a life sentence for murdering Gary Hinman. The relatively lavishly produced show was filmed on location in Egypt, England and Germany. Interesting faces play a gallery of ancient gods, with Marianne Faithful as Lilith and Donald Cammell (Performance) as Osiris, all in stunning Anger-designed costumes. Miriam Gabril is an impressive Isis. The 'characters' move through various locales and contexts -- Lilith begins amid the pyramids but ends up in a German eyrie once used to indoctrinate Hitler Youth. The imagery is more polished and Anger's visual sense keeps it all unified, even though a cosmological tour guide is required to decipher the filmmaker's intentions. Again, it all culminates in the appearance of Lucifer, who in the creed followed by Anger is not the Devil but God's fallen angel working his way back to the light. Anger's final image of a flying saucer over the sphinx, was supposedly inspired by the writings of Aleister Crowley - Glenn Erickson
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