Reviews (4)

release your anger
att: mystic fire, criterion, soemone. release the films of kenneth anger.
the importance of angers films is indsiputable and the time is long past to make them accesible.
if you haven seen angers films then be prepared for something unlike what youve seen in cinema.
his films also go a long way to show exactly what can be done with this relatively young medium.
for film students anger is a must.

A selection of short films by Kenneth Anger
More than half a lifetime ago I was in art school, studying film, and at that time Kenneth Anger was one of my major heroes. Another one of my heroes was Aleister Crowley, who is also a hero of Kenneth Anger and a key to watching many Anger's films. Since then Aleister Crowley has become something I "used to be into" (it feels like several lifetimes ago), so when I now view Kenneth Anger films it's not only with the eyes of a man whose been middle-aged for some time, but also it's with the sensibilities of a man who has zero interest or appreciation of the occult.

The Phoenix Library has a copy of this video and I checked it out a few years back for a week (I believe they have since lost their copy, though I'm not sure). I was familiar with all the films in this collection since the school I went to had copies of most of these 16 mm films and during the period I attended Kenneth Anger was a regular visiting artist, presenting his work usually once a year. But like I said, that was a long time ago.

I was disappointed to find that "Rabbit Moon" has since become shorter and less accessible, no longer having a soundtrack of early 60's music, songs like: "There's A Moon Out Tonight", "I Only Have Eyes For You" and another I believe was called "There Will Be Tears On My Pillow Tonight". Instead it was replaced by some obnoxious song that didn't convey any of the original meaning and the feeling that I was anticipating. And what's worse, this one terrible song is repeated! I'm sure Anger probably had trouble getting the rights to use the prior music he had on the early 1970's version of "Rabbit Moon", but the solution he found to the problem, as well as the reediting, had ruined a film that I had fond memories of. I remember when I first saw it I thought was one of the corniest movies I'd ever seen. But I grew to love it.

The film I now like best in this collection is the quirky "Puce Moment", which I once thought was the weakest and most expendable of all his films. But age has got a hold of me and I responded to the images and the music, the way the two both complimented and contended with each other, relaying an unusually poignant (also eerie and humorous) statement on narcissism.

"Eau D Artifice", "Kustom Kar Kommandos" and "Fireworks" (which I like, pretty much, in that order) were how I remembered them -- though "Fireworks" seemed less compelling now that I know Kenneth Anger was over 20 years old and not 17 when he made it (like his hero, Aleister Crowley, Anger likes to manipulate his image and his own history in ways most of us would find a little less than honest).

Despite all the above complaints I'm still recommending this video. And I'm a little sad Mystic Fire Video has stopped making it (as I'm sad Kenneth Anger has done little work since the 1970s). I recently bought a DVD copy of "The Experimental Films of Maya Deren" directly from Mystic Fire Video and I asked them on three separate occasions, over their 800 number, if they have any copies of the Kenneth Anger videos (they also used to produced videos of "Lucifer Rising" with "Invocation of My Demon Brother" and "Inauguration of the Pleasure Dome"). On each occasion the person on the other end of the line -- a different person each time -- was helpful and pleasant until I asked about the Kenneth Anger films, at which point they became annoyed and said they only offered the videos listed on their Internet site and nothing more. None said "I'll look that up" -- they knew the answer right away -- nor did any give any explanation other than "we no longer offer those selections". Either it's a question they get a lot which they've lost patience with answering or there's some bad blood there between Mystic Fire Video and Kenneth Anger. Given the stormy life of Kenneth Anger, the later is quite possible.

My hope is that someday "Criterion Collection" does with the complete works of Kenneth Anger what they did with a selection of Stan Brakhage films by producing a terrific DVD. If you agree please e-mail Criterion with that suggestion. I already have.

Bad Copy
Favorable reviews regarding this short film are themselves legendary and all appear to derive from the same source. "Mystic Fire Video" has made an extremely bad copy of Mr. Anger's film and no DVD is available. On the event someone lies about this you can see that the opening title card appears at normal brightness for a split second and then appears to be immediately subject to a nuclear explosion in light, remaining so for the length of the tape. Consequently, this careless, shoddy and roughshod copy renders the film so unadjustably bright that it pains the eyes and makes it thoroughly impossible to view. Prejudging the source of this sale as the typical USA retailing social parasite that would sell rat poison if the victims lived long enough to pay the substantial sum: I wrote to Mystic Fire about this in order to avoid loss of treasure in ping-ponging entirely worthless copies back and forth. They promised to exchange the tape and after two months fail to correspond with me or answer any of my queries. Another company "Canyon Cinema" actually rents copies of Mr. Anger's films and apparently if you ever want to be able to view them, properly, you have to rent a copy of the actual film or find a film festival in a large metropolitan area that might happen to be showing it/them. This situation is rather unfortunate since Mr. Anger has apparently been ripped off and ground down throughout most of his 53 year career undoubtedly due to jealously of his talent, individuality and creativity - the dreaded virtues every tyrant fears most - for example a recent interview appears at the revamped "disinformation" site, apparently overthrown by the "W" junta requiring acceptance of cookies in order to touch the buttons on your own keyboard. Consequently, I have been restricted from downloading the files and the site's Master refuses to sell copies of the interview at any price I care to offer - perhaps someone willing to disclose their Social Security number, bank and brokerage accounts with DNA sample might have better luck. To finally dink out this fiasco attempting to contact anyone to remedy this unfortunate situation, including Mr. Anger, is futile.

Influential and important...oh and it happens to rock pretty
There are not many underground films made by a 17 year-old gay kid on the weekend when his parents were away that I would recommend for the population at large. In fact, this may be the only one. If you appreciate great editing, and can further appreciate the foreshadowing of the styles used in this film, please see it. Be warned, Anger is very often a gateway to other film-makers that have even more unusual histories and sometimes as exceptional films. Others by Anger (though not on Amazon yet) Kustom Kar Komandos and The Rebel. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

Along with Eisenstein, the best editor in film history
I've had this in my collection for a good decade and still rate it very highly. The editting and sybolism fuse into a stunning whole which seems to put the viewer into an altered state. My favorite sequence is the bathtub/spear/murder scene. This film works on you, so watch out. I think Anger once said he wished he could bypass film completely and project images directly into the viewer's mind. This comes close enough!

Awesome Movie
Seeing this video tends to put one in a altered state IMO...Of course one does need a magickal background in order to appreciate it fully...lots of esoteric meaning to this video...really kewl images and sound....."Every man and every woman is a cosmic star" (Book of the Law) and Kenneth Anger is truley a star in his own orbit. ... Read more

Reviews (4)

release your anger
att: mystic fire, criterion, soemone. release the films of kenneth anger.
the importance of angers films is indsiputable and the time is long past to make them accesible.
if you haven seen angers films then be prepared for something unlike what youve seen in cinema.
his films also go a long way to show exactly what can be done with this relatively young medium.
for film students anger is a must.

A selection of short films by Kenneth Anger
More than half a lifetime ago I was in art school, studying film, and at that time Kenneth Anger was one of my major heroes. Another one of my heroes was Aleister Crowley, who is also a hero of Kenneth Anger and a key to watching many Anger's films. Since then Aleister Crowley has become something I "used to be into" (it feels like several lifetimes ago), so when I now view Kenneth Anger films it's not only with the eyes of a man whose been middle-aged for some time, but also it's with the sensibilities of a man who has zero interest or appreciation of the occult.

The Phoenix Library has a copy of this video and I checked it out a few years back for a week (I believe they have since lost their copy, though I'm not sure). I was familiar with all the films in this collection since the school I went to had copies of most of these 16 mm films and during the period I attended Kenneth Anger was a regular visiting artist, presenting his work usually once a year. But like I said, that was a long time ago.

I was disappointed to find that "Rabbit Moon" has since become shorter and less accessible, no longer having a soundtrack of early 60's music, songs like: "There's A Moon Out Tonight", "I Only Have Eyes For You" and another I believe was called "There Will Be Tears On My Pillow Tonight". Instead it was replaced by some obnoxious song that didn't convey any of the original meaning and the feeling that I was anticipating. And what's worse, this one terrible song is repeated! I'm sure Anger probably had trouble getting the rights to use the prior music he had on the early 1970's version of "Rabbit Moon", but the solution he found to the problem, as well as the reediting, had ruined a film that I had fond memories of. I remember when I first saw it I thought was one of the corniest movies I'd ever seen. But I grew to love it.

The film I now like best in this collection is the quirky "Puce Moment", which I once thought was the weakest and most expendable of all his films. But age has got a hold of me and I responded to the images and the music, the way the two both complimented and contended with each other, relaying an unusually poignant (also eerie and humorous) statement on narcissism.

"Eau D Artifice", "Kustom Kar Kommandos" and "Fireworks" (which I like, pretty much, in that order) were how I remembered them -- though "Fireworks" seemed less compelling now that I know Kenneth Anger was over 20 years old and not 17 when he made it (like his hero, Aleister Crowley, Anger likes to manipulate his image and his own history in ways most of us would find a little less than honest).

Despite all the above complaints I'm still recommending this video. And I'm a little sad Mystic Fire Video has stopped making it (as I'm sad Kenneth Anger has done little work since the 1970s). I recently bought a DVD copy of "The Experimental Films of Maya Deren" directly from Mystic Fire Video and I asked them on three separate occasions, over their 800 number, if they have any copies of the Kenneth Anger videos (they also used to produced videos of "Lucifer Rising" with "Invocation of My Demon Brother" and "Inauguration of the Pleasure Dome"). On each occasion the person on the other end of the line -- a different person each time -- was helpful and pleasant until I asked about the Kenneth Anger films, at which point they became annoyed and said they only offered the videos listed on their Internet site and nothing more. None said "I'll look that up" -- they knew the answer right away -- nor did any give any explanation other than "we no longer offer those selections". Either it's a question they get a lot which they've lost patience with answering or there's some bad blood there between Mystic Fire Video and Kenneth Anger. Given the stormy life of Kenneth Anger, the later is quite possible.

My hope is that someday "Criterion Collection" does with the complete works of Kenneth Anger what they did with a selection of Stan Brakhage films by producing a terrific DVD. If you agree please e-mail Criterion with that suggestion. I already have.

Bad Copy
Favorable reviews regarding this short film are themselves legendary and all appear to derive from the same source. "Mystic Fire Video" has made an extremely bad copy of Mr. Anger's film and no DVD is available. On the event someone lies about this you can see that the opening title card appears at normal brightness for a split second and then appears to be immediately subject to a nuclear explosion in light, remaining so for the length of the tape. Consequently, this careless, shoddy and roughshod copy renders the film so unadjustably bright that it pains the eyes and makes it thoroughly impossible to view. Prejudging the source of this sale as the typical USA retailing social parasite that would sell rat poison if the victims lived long enough to pay the substantial sum: I wrote to Mystic Fire about this in order to avoid loss of treasure in ping-ponging entirely worthless copies back and forth. They promised to exchange the tape and after two months fail to correspond with me or answer any of my queries. Another company "Canyon Cinema" actually rents copies of Mr. Anger's films and apparently if you ever want to be able to view them, properly, you have to rent a copy of the actual film or find a film festival in a large metropolitan area that might happen to be showing it/them. This situation is rather unfortunate since Mr. Anger has apparently been ripped off and ground down throughout most of his 53 year career undoubtedly due to jealously of his talent, individuality and creativity - the dreaded virtues every tyrant fears most - for example a recent interview appears at the revamped "disinformation" site, apparently overthrown by the "W" junta requiring acceptance of cookies in order to touch the buttons on your own keyboard. Consequently, I have been restricted from downloading the files and the site's Master refuses to sell copies of the interview at any price I care to offer - perhaps someone willing to disclose their Social Security number, bank and brokerage accounts with DNA sample might have better luck. To finally dink out this fiasco attempting to contact anyone to remedy this unfortunate situation, including Mr. Anger, is futile.

Influential and important...oh and it happens to rock pretty
There are not many underground films made by a 17 year-old gay kid on the weekend when his parents were away that I would recommend for the population at large. In fact, this may be the only one. If you appreciate great editing, and can further appreciate the foreshadowing of the styles used in this film, please see it. Be warned, Anger is very often a gateway to other film-makers that have even more unusual histories and sometimes as exceptional films. Others by Anger (though not on Amazon yet) Kustom Kar Komandos and The Rebel. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

an intense and colourful ritual
Anyone with an interest in underground film or occultism, especially Thelema, should check this film out. Of Course as a "Crowleyite" Ken's film is very rich and extreme and he combines some striking imagery with some beautiful music. I have no idea what the music is that he uses but he manages to relate the on screen imagery to it perfectly. I have seen two versions of the film with different soundtracks - One of them had a soundtrack consisting of old pop tunes and I found this version to be not as good. Anyways - check it out! ... Read more

Reviews (1)

an intense and colourful ritual
Anyone with an interest in underground film or occultism, especially Thelema, should check this film out. Of Course as a "Crowleyite" Ken's film is very rich and extreme and he combines some striking imagery with some beautiful music. I have no idea what the music is that he uses but he manages to relate the on screen imagery to it perfectly. I have seen two versions of the film with different soundtracks - One of them had a soundtrack consisting of old pop tunes and I found this version to be not as good. Anyways - check it out! ... Read more

Reviews (2)

Along with Eisenstein, the best editor in film history
I've had this in my collection for a good decade and still rate it very highly. The editting and sybolism fuse into a stunning whole which seems to put the viewer into an altered state. My favorite sequence is the bathtub/spear/murder scene. This film works on you, so watch out. I think Anger once said he wished he could bypass film completely and project images directly into the viewer's mind. This comes close enough!

Awesome Movie
Seeing this video tends to put one in a altered state IMO...Of course one does need a magickal background in order to appreciate it fully...lots of esoteric meaning to this video...really kewl images and sound....."Every man and every woman is a cosmic star" (Book of the Law) and Kenneth Anger is truley a star in his own orbit. ... Read more