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 THE
FILMS OF KENNETH ANGER: VOLUME 2 (Fantoma)
94 minutes. Not rated, brief nudity. Born Feb 3, 1927, Kenneth Anger was
one of the first openly gay filmmakers and is a fixture in the underground
avant-garde film scene and author. This collection includes: Scorpio
Rising (1964, 28 min), Kustom Kar Kommandos (1965, 3 min), Invocation of
My Demon Brother (1969, 11 min), Rabbit’s Moon (1979, 7 min), Lucifer
Rising (1981, 28 min), The Man We Want to Hang (2002, 14 min).
Because they are knee deep
with symbolism and I am simply just not that deep, none of the above five
short films made much sense to me, but I sill enjoyed them enough to write
this review and even do bsome actual research. To me, the history of some
of the shorts are more interesting than the shorts themselves. Scorpio
Rising invloves bikes and Coney Island bikers, is backed with a cool
soundtrack of 13 popular songs from 1959-64 (Elvis
Presley, Ray Charles,
The Rondelles, Bobby Vinton, etc), and was denounced
by both the L.A.P.D. and the American Nazi Party. Now that’s what I call
an accomplishment! Mick
Jagger composed the synthesizer soundtrack for Invocation of My Demon
Brother. Anger hired Jimmy Page to write and perform the soundtrack
for Lucifer Rising, but when it was delivered three years late and
minutes short, Anger ditched Page and used music written and recorded by
Bobby Beausoleil (Charles Manson family associate) while in prison. The
Jimmy page soundtrack was later illegally released, but lawsuits put an
end to that nonsense. This version of Rabbit’s Moon is the
shorter version found on Volume 1 and is about mimes and shot with a blue
tint. For The Man We Want to Hang, Anger filmed a number of artwork
by Occultist Aleister
Crowley. The shorts are hard to review because
100 viewers will have 100 thoughts and opinions, and I have my own.
However, I shall not bore you with my silly words concerning Kenneth
Anger’s work, other than offering that I am unsure if these shorts are
gay themed or if they just have a gay slant due to being directed by a gay
man. There is insightful commentary by Kenneth Anger for each of the
shorts and a very nice, high quality 48-page book is included with the DVD.
– Denis Sheehan
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