Kenneth Anger Movies

Elio Gelmini's Anger Me paints an enduring biographical portrait of Kenneth Anger, one of the most fascinating, controversial and brilliant cinematic artists of the past sixty years, and a veritable godfather of independent film. Raised in Tinseltown, Anger was a mere seven years old when he acted in his first motion picture (as the Changeling Prince in William Dieterle's 1936 version of A Midsummer Night's Dream). He turned to filmmaking as a young man, crafting a series of surrealistic, abstract short films, heavily laden with cryptic, multilayered imagery, including Rabbit's Moon (1950), The Inauguration of the Pleasure Dome (1954), Scorpio Rising (1964), Invocation of My Demon Brother (1969) and Lucifer Rising (1980). Though considered 'underground,' the works nonetheless impacted such contemporary mainstream directors as Martin Scorsese and David Lynch and have since become pillars of the American avant garde. Meanwhile, Anger acquired an enduring fascination with film history and Hollywood gossip, which led to two infamous books and turned him into a bestselling author: Hollywood Babylon (1976) and Hollywood Babylon 2 (1984). He also cultivated a network of acquaintances that included Warhol, Mekas, Ginsberg, Alfred Kinsey, Mick Jagger and everyone in-between. Gelmini pays homage to Anger via an extended monologue that finds the director discussing his life experiences, as well as the content and significance of his work ~ Nathan Southern, Rovi

This documentary captures rhythms in the life and career of famed cinema choreographer Busby Berkeley (1895-1976). In the late '20s, Berkeley's work on Broadway led Eddie Cantor to recommend him to producer Sam Goldwyn for the film version of the 1930 Whoopee! (remade in 1944 as Up in Arms). After 42nd Street (1933), Berkeley's reputation in Hollywood was established. Reading from interviews by Dave Martin and critic Tony Thomas, Larry Robinson provides the voice of Berkeley. The hour-long profile intercuts interviews with Thomas, Esther Williams, director Kenneth Anger, film historian Richard Barrios, critic J. Hoberman, and others. After the December 1997 premiere of this documentary on the BBC, a re-edited version (eliminating rare footage of Florenz Zeigfeld) premiered in the U.S. on January 26, 1998 on Turner Classic Movies. ~ Bhob Stewart, Rovi

Few films have disgusted and outraged the Hollywood community from top to bottom as thoroughly as this one. Though it purports to be a documentary/docudrama based on filmmaker Kenneth Anger's book Hollywood Babylon, it uses the book's theme -- scandals in the early Hollywood era -- as a takeoff point for making a softcore porn film. That in itself would not be cause for particular disgust. What arouses professional scorn is that it rehashes nearly every salacious rumor ever heard in Hollywood from the 1920s to the '70s. Even that, perhaps, might not have so deeply offended the movie world, if it were not so clear that the makers of this film had money-grubbing rather than honest muckraking in mind. As it stands, the movie violates just about every ethical standard going, without actually breaking the law. Abounding in simulated sex with unknown actors standing in for their famous counterparts, it has a certain stomach-churning fascination. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi

Filmed at the Alhambra in Spain in just one day, according to Marie Menken. Arabesque for Kenneth Anger concentrates on visual details found in Moorish architecture and in ancient Spanish tile. The date 1961 refers to the addition of Teiji Ito's soundtrack and its subsequent completion, but the film was likely shot in 1960 or earlier. ~ David Lewis, Rovi

Set to the "Winter" concerto in Antonio Vivaldi's The Four Seasons, Eaux d'Artifice focuses on columns of water jets from the Tivoli Fountains and features a mysterious, masked woman, "the Water Witch," darting in and out of the scenes. Although the film was shot in black-and-white, it was printed through a cyan filter to give the artificial appearance of being filmed at night. The fan held by the the Water Witch is hand-painted lime green, and the witch itself is played by a midget in order to give a false sense of scale. ~ David Lewis, Rovi

Le Jeune Homme et la Mort was a ballet film, based on the Ballet de Champs-Elysées' production of Roland Petit's famous 1946 work, which was itself based on the eponymous poem by Jean Cocteau. Urged upon Kenneth Anger by Cocteau, the finished film was to be shot on 35 mm and in color. Anger shot a number of black-and-white test rolls in preparation for the larger project, which never got off the ground due to a lack of financing. Had it been made in 35 mm, Le Jeune Homme et la Mort would've been one of the first full-length ballet films in history. When it was eventually made into a film in 1966, it was still one of the first full-length ballet films in history! This version was directed by Roland Petit himself, with Rudolf Nureyev in the title role. The status of Anger's 16 mm black-and-white footage -- how long it may have run, who the dancers were, and if it still survives -- remains a mystery. The unfinished film would still be valuable, as it would provide a glimpse of one of the most influential European ballet productions of the immediate post-war era at a remove of only five years distance from the premiere. ~ David Lewis, Rovi

The Love That Whirls was based on a passage found in The Golden Bough, the pioneering anthropology book by Sir James George Frazer. In sum, a boy is declared a god for a year, and ultimately serves as a king. But at the end of the year, he is sacrificed. This was shot in Mexico, and the climactic scene would have featured an Aztec-style human sacrifice conducted mostly in the nude. The information above is based upon Kenneth Anger's own description of this project, and that will have to suffice, as no one has ever seen this movie -- not even Anger himself. After wrestling the raw stock from Mexican customs officials who sought to seize it, the Eastman Kodak laboratory that processed the film refused to return it to Anger on the grounds that it was pornographic. It is presumed that The Love That Whirls was destroyed then and there. ~ David Lewis, Rovi

A landmark of both experimental and gay/lesbian filmmaking, Kenneth Anger's film is a bizarre, disturbing dreamscape of violation, rape, and homoerotic sadomasochism. 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, manhandled, and molest him. 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. ~ Jonathan Crow, Rovi

Escape Episode was a wholly atypical project for filmmaker Kenneth Anger, and yet it was the most well-received of his early films. Based on the myth of Andromeda, a girl is held captive in a decaying mausoleum located by the seaside by a "religious fanatic dragon" (according to Anger). The girl secretly carries on a romance with a "beach-boy" who struggles to rescue her from her plight -- but in the end the girl manages to escape on her own. This Anger-directed heterosexual romance was shown widely in California at independent film screenings in the 1940s, garnering praise and winning numerous awards. Escape Episode was even screened by Hollywood studio heads in order to evaluate the 17-year-old Anger's promise as a filmmaker. In 1946, Anger revisited the title, trimming it to 27 minutes, adding music by Scriabin ("The Poem of Ecstacy") and some "non-realistic" surf and seagull calls to heighten the drama of this stylized seaside yarn. Although it was circulated on 16 mm through 1967, Anger then withdrew Escape Episode. It is possible that the film no longer exists, but it may be among a few extant titles that Anger has stated he prefers not to show. Of all the "lost," pre-Fireworks titles that Kenneth Anger made, Escape Episode is believed to have been the Anger film that was the most interesting, relevant, and vital in terms of his future output. ~ David Lewis, Rovi

Made when Kenneth Anger was only 14 years old, Tinsel Tree was a short that demonstrated his early disdain for the Christmas season. Anger shows the Christmas tree as it is decorated in a series of close-ups, then the post-Christmas tree is shown burning in a garbage can colored in a burst of hand-painted gold flame. Although circulated on 16 mm through 1967, Anger then withdrew Tinsel Tree. It is possible that the film no longer exists, but it may be among a few extant titles that Anger has stated he prefers not to show. From written descriptions, the connectivity of this very-short short to Kenneth Anger's later work is obvious. ~ David Lewis, Rovi