Kenneth Anger
Kenneth Anger (born Kenneth Wilbur Anglemyer on February 3, 1927 in Santa Monica , California ) is an American underground / avant-garde filmmaker and author . He is considered a pioneer of American underground film and shot innovative and provocative works that influenced many later filmmakers. He is also known as the author of the book Hollywood Babylon , which deals with numerous scandals in Hollywood history.
The early years
Anger spun a web of legends over his early years. For example, he claimed to have played the changeling prince in Max Reinhardt's film adaptation of A Midsummer Night's Dream from 1935 as a child , a claim that has since been disproved. Later he claims to have attended the Maurice Kossloff Dancing School, where Shirley Temple also took lessons.
Anger started making films at the age of eleven. However, much of his early work no longer exists. His artistic expression is heavily influenced by his fascination for the supernatural and Aleister Crowley . From the beginning, Anger dealt with occult topics. He later also became a member of the Ordo Templi Orientis , which celebrates the Crowleyian religion called Thelema . With his award-winning short film Fireworks , Anger first managed to find a distributor in 1949. Many of his films are short to very short (3.5 minutes to 30 minutes) strips in which he realizes dark visions and moods.
In 1950 Anger traveled to Paris , where he met Édith Piaf , Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette and Jean Genet, as well as Jean Cocteau . Both Cocteau and Anger were impressed by each other's work. Anger used his stay in Europe in 1955 for a trip to Cefalù in Sicily to photograph the decaying ruins of Thelema Abbey owned by the British occultist Crowley. During this trip, the documentary Thelema Abbey , which is now considered lost, was made .
Anger became known to the general public in 1959 with the publication of the book Hollywood Babylon . In the book published in Paris, he ironically examines a series of scandals of Hollywood high society . Much of the book consists of rumors, and many anecdotes have been found to be false. In 1981 he published the second part of Hollywood Babylon .
Cinematic leitmotifs
The close proximity to Hollywood shaped Anger's work. His grandmother's profession, who was a costume designer in Hollywood, inspired him. Anger often accompanied his grandmother to work and tried on costumes himself, which manifested itself in his films as a travesty element. Themes of disguise, homosexuality , rituals of changing clothes and going out are repeated. The subject of homosexuality plays a special role in Angers' films. His official debut, Fireworks, is an elaborate homosexual fantasy that uses sailors as a homosexual symbol. At the time the film was made, there were serious consequences for practiced homosexuality. In Fireworks , the interaction of lust and death is being treated. The sailors are objects of homosexual desire, the presence of which first turns into excitement and then into violence. The motorcyclists in Scorpio Rising also combine the themes of violence and eroticism. Already in the opening sequences the actors present their muscles and pose for the camera in their leather and chain costumes. They do not represent objects of the film or for the recipient, but appear as objects of desire for one another. It looks like they admire each other's muscular bodies during various donning and doffing processes. By the second half of the film, homosexualism seems to be fully established. The motorcycle gang is portrayed as a brutal group full of sadism and self-destruction. The depicted sadism and masochism both in Fireworks and in Scorpio Rising make a socially critical interpretation difficult.
Dressing up rituals and masquerade are common in almost all Angers films, but especially Scorpio Rising , La Lune des Lapins and Eaux d'Artifice . The latter two consist of loosely connected paintings that show the costumes and dance movements of the performers. In these films, Anger places more value on the process of staging and the noble film equipment than on the narration. Textures, surfaces and gestures are integrated into the minimal plot. In some film sequences of Scorpio Rising , the narrative flow freezes and gives the characters the opportunity to present their appearance to the camera and transform themselves into pure spectacle. Here the costumes themselves play a major role: the leather outfits are intended to underline the image of the typical American motorcyclist. In Puce Moment the viewer becomes a voyeur who watches the actress putting on or trying on various clothes.
Anger's influence on 60s pop culture
Anger had a strong affinity with pop culture . As early as 1964, in Scorpio Rising, he depicted a fictional motorcycle gang with surf instrumentals , Motownhits and songs by Elvis Presley and Bobby Vinton ( Blue Velvet ) . He moved to London in the late 1960s , where he met Mick Jagger of The Rolling Stones , whom he inspired to write the song Sympathy for the Devil . Jagger wrote the music for the film Invocation of my Demon Brother in 1969 .
Work on the short film Lucifer Rising was often interrupted. The first version could not be completed due to the imprisonment of the main actor Bobby Beausoleil for murder. For the second version, Anger was able to win over the role of Lilith Marianne Faithfull and the director Donald Cammell for the role of Osiris . The second version failed initially due to the collaboration with the then drug addict Jimmy Page for the soundtrack . This was then ultimately recorded by Bobby Beausoleil in prison. Anger was only satisfied with the last revised version from 1980.
Popular music is featured frequently in Angers' films in general. Anger Puce Moment was accompanied by music by Jonathan Halper from the 1960s, which has a major influence on the film. Andy Arthur's modern American music is also used as the soundtrack in La Lune des Lapins , creating a special combination of sound and image. Anger's work influenced Martin Scorsese's handling of film music. Influences can also be found in the films by David Lynch , Donald Cammell, Roger Corman or in Rainer Werner Fassbinder's film Querelle .
present
In 2007, David Tibet , singer of Current 93 , and William Breeze, leader of the thelemic order Ordo Templi Orientis (of which Anger has been a senior member for many years) and musicians of both Current 93 and Coil , released a tribute CD known for Anger by the name of Brother Focus . The proceeds from this CD should go to Anger, who was recovering from a major operation at the time. The Fantoma company also released two DVD editions in 2007 ( The Films of Kenneth Anger Volume I & II), which, in addition to his films, also contain audio commentary by Anger himself and previously unpublished material. In 2007 the Canadian label filmswelike released Elio Gelminis documentary about Anger's life and work Anger Me .
Filmography
- 1941: Who Has Been Rocking My Dreamboat
- 1942: Tinsel Tree
- 1942: Prisoner of Mars
- 1943: The Nest
- 1944: Escape Episode
- 1945: Drastic Demise
- 1946: Escape Episode (shorter version set to music)
- 1947: Fireworks *
- 1949: Puce Moment *
- 1949: The Love that Whirls
- 1950 :, 1972 Rabbit's Moon *
- 1952: Maldoror (unfinished)
- 1953: Eaux d'Artifice *
- 1953: Le Jeune Homme et la Mort
- 1954: Inauguration of the Pleasure Dome (re-cut 1966) *
- 1955: Thelema Abbey
- 1961: Historie d'O
- 1963: Scorpio Rising *
- 1965: Kustom Kar Kommandoes *
- 1966: Lucifer Rising (lost version)
- 1969: Invocation of My Demon Brother *
- 1970: Lucifer Rising (second version)
- 1979: Rabbit's Moon * (third, revised version)
- 1980: Lucifer Rising (third, revised version)
- 2000: I want!
- 2000: Don't Smoke That Cigarette
- 2002: The Man We Want to Hang
- 2004: Mouse Heaven
- 2004: Anger Sees Red
Films marked with * are part of the Magic Lantern Cycle
Awards
- 2001: The Golden Gate Persistence of Vision Award for Lifetime Achievement
literature
- Olivier Assayas : Éloge de Kenneth Anger. Vraie et fausse magic au cinéma . Cahiers du cinéma, Paris 1999, ISBN 2-86642-228-7 .
- Liz-Anne Bawden: rororo film dictionary. People A – G. Edition of the German edition by Wolfram Tichy. Rowohlt, Reinbek bei Hamburg 1978, ISBN 3-499-16231-8 , p. 796
- Pierre Hecker: Les films “magicks” by Kenneth Anger . Éditions Paris Expérimental, Paris 1999, ISBN 2-912539-00-5 .
- Jack Hunter (Ed.): Moonchild. The Films of Kenneth Anger . Creation, London 2002, ISBN 1-8406-8029-6 .
- Alice L. Hutchison: Kenneth Anger. A demonic visionary . Black Dog Publishing, London 2004, ISBN 1-904772-03-X .
- Bill Landis: Anger. The unauthorized Biography of Kenneth Anger . HarperCollins, New York NY 1995, ISBN 0-06-016700-9 .
- Kim Newman: Scorpio Rising (1964). In: Steven Jay Schneider (Ed.): 1001 films. Edition Olms, Zurich 2004, p. 430
Web links
- Official website
- Literature by and about Kenneth Anger in the catalog of the German National Library
- Kenneth Anger in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Kenneth Anger in the Notable Names Database (English) (born 1930)
- Article on Kenneth Anger
- Spotting UFO's With A Manson Killer - An Interview with Anger
Individual evidence
- ↑ Juan A. Suarez: Pop, Queer, or Fascist? The Ambiguity of Mass Culture in Kenneth Anger's Scorpio Rising. In: Ders .: Bike Boys, Drag Queens and Superstars. Avant-Garde, Mass Culture, and Gay Identities in the 1960s Underground Cinema. Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana UP 1996, pp. 142-180.
- ↑ Kim Newman: Scorpio Rising (1964). In: Steven Jay Schneider (Ed.): 1001 films. Edition Olms, Zurich 2004, p. 430
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Anger, Kenneth |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Anglemyer, Kenneth Wilbur (maiden name) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American filmmaker and writer |
| DATE OF BIRTH | February 3, 1927 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Santa Monica , California |