I'm a Cinemajunkie !
I'm very interested, what movie would you starting with ?
what order would you go in to view his films for the first time ?
Is there a good biography on him ?
[deleted]
Rabbit's Moon, possibly, but I wouldn't exactly say that's an easily accessible film.
shareWatch them in chronological order. You can download all of Anger's films from pirate bay. I usually don't suggest downloading over purchasing, especially when the artist is not "big," but in this case, you will have a hard time tracking all his titles down.
Fireworks (1947)
Inauguration of the Pleasure Dome (1954)
Scorpio Rising (1964)
Kustom Kar Kommandos (1965)
Invocation of My Demon Brother (1969)
Puce Moment
Lucifer Rising (1972)
Rabbit's Moon (1972)
The Man We Want To Hang
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I can't understand your crazy moon language.
I see this is a very old post, but to any others who stumble into this page, "The Complete Magic Lantern Cycle" is now readily available on DVD in the U.S., Blu-ray in the UK. The actual chronological order is thus:
Fireworks (1947)
Puce Moment (1949)
Rabbit s Moon (1950, the rarely seen
original 16 minute version)
Eaux d Artifice (1953)
Inauguration of the Pleasure Dome (1954)
Scorpio Rising (1964)
Kustom Kar Kommandos (1965)
Invocation Of My Demon Brother (1969)
Rabbit s Moon (1979 version)
Lucifer Rising (1981)
My first choice would be the beautiful 16 minute version of Rabbit's moon, shot in France, and much later released with doo wop music referencing the moon, and Blue Velvet, and some more jarring percussive work interrupting when certain symbols are shown. Shot in black and white, but with a beautiful blue tent, and amazing silent mime-like work by the three French actors.
My second choice would be Inauguration of the Pleasure Dome... very trippy with three films overlaid on one another, and, as usual with Anger, deeply occult... with French writer (mostly known for her erotica and journals) Anais Nin wearing a bird cage over her head... priceless. The inclusion of Anais Nin at the "come as your own madness" party were at least some of the film was shot makes me think many of the shots were made in France (Anger spent most of the 1950s there at the invitation of Cocteau.. mutual admiration), but it is hard to pin down much as some of the films, including both Rabbit's Moon and this one, have been in flux, re-edited, new soundtracks, multiple versions, and film shot for one thing would end up in another, and so on.
My third choice would be Scorpio Rising.
My forth choice would be Invocation of my Demon Brother. Bam! You're Pregnant! This is Witchcraft!
The others, I could take or leave, including Lucifer Rising, probably his most famous, with Marianne Faithful as Lilith, made more pale, I've read, by being powdered with morphine. Can't guarantee that's the truth... read it somewhere. Less than a year later, she appeared on The Midnight Special with David Bowie, her dressed up as a nun, Bowie in his Aladdin Sane get-up, doing a cover of Sonny and Cher's "I Got You Babe." It's a strange and wonderful world.
It would help greatly in watching these films to know that there is an intentional underlying occult message throughout the work, that Anger was a huge admirer of Aleister Crowley, that he was filming, as well as he could, the death of the Age of Pieces (The Christian age) and the rising of the Age of Aquarius (which I suppose he saw as the age of the Light Bearer.) There's a scene in Flickr where Anger undoes his shirt to show the name LUCIFER tattooed across his chest.
Also, The Man We Want to Hang, is included as a bonus on this DVD, the man being Crowley, and what Anger thinks we want to hang is Crowley's paintings, like, on the wall.
Nice piece on Angers films, with a bibliography, here: http://sensesofcinema.com/2003/great-directors/anger/
Are you loathsome tonight? Does your madness shine bright?