So, for starters, none of us know about everything. And it was only recently I started to learn a bit about avant-garde film director Kenneth Anger. I sort of recall that Jimmy Page had done some of the music for one of his films, Lucifer Rising, but that was about as much as I knew.
Several of his films (most under 30 minutes) are available on YouTube, including one called The Invocation of My Demon Brother, Here's a brief wikipedia entry:

Invocation of My Demon Brother (1969) is an 11-minute film photographed, directed and edited by Kenneth Anger. Its repetitive noise music soundtrack was composed by Mick Jagger playing a Moog synthesizer. It was filmed in San Francisco at the Straight Theater on Haight Street in Haight-Ashbury and at the William Westerfeld House.

According to Anger; the film, starring Mick Jagger, Manson family member Bobby Beausoleil and Church of Satan founder Anton LaVey, was assembled from scraps of the first version of Lucifer Rising. It includes clips of the cast smoking hashish out of a skull and a Satanic funeral ceremony for a cat.

I watched it last night (along with a few others - remind me to eat some gummies next time!) and sure enough, its minimal credits say (I think) "Sound by Mick Jagger'. But boy, the music throughout is like nothing we have ever heard from Mick - more like something you might hear from Nine Inch Nails maybe. Very strange. Marianne Faithful is also in Lucifer Rising. Mick and Keith appear only very briefly from what I could see, in very quick flashes of the '69 Hyde Park show. But they are there.

Anger's stuff is bizarre, to say the least. Just really trippy, almost dream like stuff that makes Fellini look conventional. Any 'fans' out there?



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2023-05-17 21:38 by DEmerson.

I'm a fan, no quote marks necessary. He's experimental, gay, a pioneer bending narrative and amping up sex, decadence, independence. There's nothing like Fireworks from 1947. To make the movie, teenage Anger invited sailors to his home while his parents were out of town. Or Scorpio Rising's celebration of biker culture and Motown, and death. Or Luficer Rising, shot at the pyramids of Giza with Marianne Faithfull: [www.theguardian.com] . Or his book Hollywood Babylon, which shone a light onto the least savory corners of the industry. Scorsese praised him. Jean Cocteau praised him. He's a fascinating '60s figure, quite full of himself but somehow managing to be at the center of so much. His boyfriend was Bobby Beausoleil, and Anger claims to have put a curse on Bobby which lead him to the Mansons. Mick. Marianne. Jimmy Page.

There's so much self-mythologizing, it's engrossing and larger-than-life. Sadly, he's disappeared from public life for the last few years. An assistant is said to have been taking care of him, but friends apparently don't know his whereabouts. He's somewhere in LA, an isolated Satanist and one of the last devotees of Hollywood's golden age. His debut was in a silent film adaptation of Midsummer Night's Dream in 1935, or so he claimed...

Cyclist: His stuff is pretty cool to look at - no doubt! Obviously really well done. I have not watched Fireworks yet.
Inauguration of the Pleasure Dome is a trip. I have Hollywood Babylon on order from my library. Always fun, discovering new (to you) interesting artists.

I like this creepy Stones area, even it seems a lot of crap. It introduced me to bizarre characters like Aleister Crowley and Anton Szandor LaVey,

But some people still worry about the Stones' devilish entertainement

[www.infochretienne.com]

I've seen a few of his films. I prefer to watch PERFORMANCE which captures the same but in a more conventional fashion than Anger chose. PERFORMANCE is very much SUNSET BLVD. for the 1960s generation.

HOLLYWOOD BABYLON is a fascinating read, but you need to be aware that some of it is just entertainment and not factual. With Crowley, LaVey, or Anger - too many people seem to miss the fact that they're showmen as well as occultists and were laughing at those who are shocked as much as they were at those who were enraptured. Part of the spirit of independence is self-reliance and holding those who seek to be led up for ridicule. In that sense, the Stones fit in their circle perfectly. Albeit, seemingly less so in recent decades.

Marianne Faithfull - "Marianne's Rising" - Marianne as the goddess Lilith in Lucifer Rising [not original soundtrack]

video: [youtu.be]



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2023-05-20 20:39 by Zotz.

Wow - interesting timing - just saw that K Anger has just passed away at age 96.