ANGER BIOGRAPHY
Kenneth Anger was born in Southern California in 1930. He
played the role of a child prince in the lavish 1935 film version
of "A Midsummer Night's Dream." He also had Shirley Temple as a
dancing partner at cotillions of the Maurice Kossloff Dancing
School. He grew up in a fairly well off family that had some
ties to Hollywood and its film industry.
He began making films when he was just 11 years old,
beginning with "Who Has Been Rocking My Dreamboat" in 1941. He
would make about five more films, about one per year, before he
would finally make one in 1947 titled "Fireworks" that would be
released and remain in distribution. He was then only 17 years
old. Unfortunately, of his early films there are no descriptions
in print.
As he moved into his teens, his work began to take on
defiantly original and many times, openly gay themes. The first
of these statements was 1947's "Fireworks." Anger appears and
plays roles in many of his films.
From his late teens onward, he became fascinated by the
supernatural and the occult. He became a disciple of world
famous satanist and occultist Aleistar Crowley. This interest of
his had a great influence on his films and on his life in
general.
Ironically he gained the most fame, or notoriety, in 1958
when he wrote the book "Hollywood Babylon," a tell-all book
revealing scandals in Hollywood among the rich and famous.
In 1966, in Anger's booklet of notes on his Magick Lantern
Cycle, his collection of films from 1947, he provided a schematic
autobiography.
"Sun sign - Aquarian
Rising sign - Scorpio
Ruling planet- Uranus
Energy component- Mars in Taurus
Type - Fixed air
Lifework- MAGICK
Magical weapon - Cinematograph
Religion - Thelemite
Deity - Horus the Avenger; The Crowned and Conquering Child
Magical motto - "Force and Fire"
Holy Guardian Angel - MI-CA-EL
Affinity - Geburah
Familiar - Mongoose
Antipathy - Saturn and all His Works
Characteristic - Left handed fanatic craftsman
POLITICS - REUNION [OF THE UNITEDF STATES] WITH ENGLAND
Hobbies - Hexing enemies; tap dancing; Astral projection;
travel; talisman manufacture; Astrology; Tarot cards; collage
Heroes - Flash Gordon; Lautreamont; William Beckford;
Melies; Alfred C. Kinsey; Aleistar Crowley
Library - Big little books; L. Frank Baum; M.P. Shiel;
Aleistar Crowley
Sightings - several saucers, the most recent a lode-craft
over Hayes and Harlington, England, Feb. 1966.
Ambitions - Many, many, many more films; space travel
Magical numbers- 11, 31, 93(13) ..."
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` INVOCATION OF MY DEMON BROTHER
by Chris Morrison, Copyright (c) 1995
"Invocation of My Demon Brother" was Kenneth Anger's return
to filmmaking after a brief two year retirement from the
business. He always dealt with controversial, provocative, and
even taboo subjects, and this film follows suit. The first image
is of three white dots arranged in a pyramid on a black
background. A white haired man is then shown raising his head and
opening his eyes, like he is waking up. The shots then go back
and forth between his gaze around the room he is in and the
things or people he sees in the room, such as a cross-legged
figure with a dagger, two boys lounging on a couch, and a tattoo
that looks to be on his forearm. After he sees this he raises a
clear stick of glass to his forehead. A shot of soldiers being
deployed from a helicopter is shown, followed by superimposition
of the man's face, the tattoo, and an Egyptian eye (an image
which is repeated many times during the film). A shot of a band
is flashed on the screen, and then the cross-legged figures is
shown again with his hand on his knees.
The scene and focus seems to change here. Now we see two
men and a woman sharing a marijuana joint and smoking it out of a
skull. The band is flashed again, as is a cat and a dog.
Someone is then shown peering through the leaves of a plant,
probably watching the smokers.
A man known as the Magus is introduced dressed in a long,
decorated robe. This shot has fire falling from the sky
superimposed on it. The Magus is played by Kenneth Anger
himself, and is shown in accelerated motion performing some kind
of ritual on stage. Some of the ritual scenes are overlapped
with others, so you see two events happening at the same time.
Images with the top half of the screen reflected upside down on
the bottom half are introduced, one of which shows a man's torso
and arms but ends up looking like there are eight arms moving.
A door is opened and a horned devil in a cape walks in with
a skull which he places on the floor. Scenes of Hell's Angels
bikers are superimposed over more scenes of the devil, as well as
of the ritual. Another devil with brown curly hair is shown.
The shots jump between the Magus and this new devil, juxtaposing
the two.
The next phase of the film shows many repeated images from
earlier in the film. It seems to contrast all the images at
once, as well as introducing new ones like scenes of fans at a
rock concert. The Egyptian eye is seen in many shots, most of
which are superimpositions or altered in some way. The smokers
from earlier are shown again walking down a flight of stairs
followed by the members of the band. Shots of men and woman
raising their arms and reaching out are overlapped over on
another. Shots of the Rolling Stones performing are briefly
edited in at the same time a man's face with a moire pattern
projected on it. The final message of the film comes with a shot
of the staircase again. This time a smoking mummy [Osiris] comes
down the stairs with a sign that reads,"Zap. You're Pregnant.
That's Witchcraft." This is followed by that all seeing Egyptian
eye. The film ends with the moire pattern being projected this
time on the man's whole torso. He slowly raises his arms up over
his head until his hands meet, then reaches them up high in a
triumphant looking pose. The final image is of the three white
dots again, this time arranged in an inverted pyramid.
The film seems very much like a montage of images with some
central theme interrelating them. The shots change on average
about every four to six seconds. Invocation is eleven minutes
long and was filmed on 16mm color film. The soundtrack was done
by Mick Jagger and features an electronic sound loop done on a
Moog Synthesizer. Anger uses many techniques in this film such
as accelerated motion in the ritual scenes and the mummy coming
down the staircase, projected and superimposed images, and other
forms of cineplastics. It could be argued that Anger displays
narcissism by appearing in the film himself as the Magus.
"Invocation" is definitely a non-narrative film. It can be
classified as categorical because it takes a particular subject
(the occult, magic) and explores it. Specifically what the
subject is, is difficult to decipher. The film can also be
described as abstract. There are many unrealistic images in the
film, such as the superimposed and projected images and the
devils. All these things are representations of other things,
such as the idea of magic or evil or of the devil himself.
Abstract films are a selection from one's world of experience.
These images are not from my world of experience or anyone else's
that I know, but they were apparently part of Kenneth Anger's.
There is a theme which becomes evident early on in the film.
The theme seems to be evil and the occult. The images seem to
get more abstract and symbolic as the film goes on. The
symbolism used throughout of devils, spiders, and tattoos are all
associated by that theme. Repetition of images adds to the
abstractness of the film. The white haired man in the beginning
is shown again later as well as his tattoo. The helicopter with
the Marines is shown twice during the film. The Magus is shown
repeatedly throughout the film. Toward the end of the film the
band members, who were flashed on the screen briefly twice
before, are shown again walking down the staircase. The Egyptian
eye in probably the most repeated image throughout the film.
The film's inner meaning is evidenced by the shot of the
mummy coming down the stairs with the sign around its neck. The
sign reads, "Zap. You're Pregnant. That's Witchcraft."
I interpreted this to mean that Anger wants to instill his
ideas and his theme into the viewer. The film is supposed to do
that, which he interprets as a form of magic or witchcraft. You
become pregnant with the images and ideas that Anger presents to
you. They become part of your experience.
The very first image in Invocation is of the three dots
arranged in a pyramid form. The very last image is the same
three dots in an inverted pyramid form. This can be interpreted
as a sign of evil (2 horns on top of a head). You begin the film
innocent, not knowing what you will see. Then, after seeing the
images of the film, they get put into your experience and/or
consciousness and you are transformed. The dots are symbolic of
the viewer before they watch the film and then after -- further
evidence that Anger's goal was to transform his audience and work
his form of magic through film on us.
The description Anger himself gives for Invocation of My
Demon Brother" is as follows:
"The shadowing forth of Our Lord Lucifer, as the Powers of
Darkness gather at a midnight mass. The dance of the Magus
widdershins around the Swirling Spiral Force, the solar swastika,
until the Bringer of Light - Lucifer - breaks through."
From this it may mean that the ritual being performed is a
sort of seance to "invoke" the devil.
In that interpretation, Anger is saying that the devil is
his other side, his alter-ego, his "demon brother."
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KENNETH ANGER: THE MAGUS OF CINEMA
Having begun at age four with a bit part as a changeling
prince in Max Reinhardt's "A Midsummer Night's Dream" (1934) and
having made his own first film at 11, Kenneth Anger remains the
most compelling and significant American independent filmmaker of
the 20th century. His films cast an enchanting spell over viewers
through their homo-erotic themes, Eisensteinian sound-image
montage and incisive oneiric vision.
The spark that fired his iconoclastic reputation as a
filmmaker was a harshly graphic but strikingly beautiful
experimental film called "Fireworks"(1947) made when he was just
17. JEAN COCTEAU stated that the film "comes from that beautiful
night from which emerge all true works. It touches the quick of
the soul and this is very rare." International recognition was
virtually instantaneous and eight challenging films followed.
Notoriety has enlivened Anger's entire career. In 1953 Anger
filmed "Eaux D'Artifice" with a circus dwarf dressed in a Marie
Antoinette evening gown flitting amongst the magnificent Tivoli
Fountains. Occult rituals enacted by costumed players splayed
across three screens in the 1958 version of the hallucinogenic
"Inauguration Of The Pleasure Dome." The '60s brought front-page
headlines with the police censorship of his "Scorpio Rising"
(1963) a truly sardonic take on the rituals and myths of American
Motorbike-boys ironically commented upon by a rock 'n' roll
soundtrack. More headlines, rumors and misfortunes surrounded
his epic project "Lucifer Rising" (1966, 1980), a visionary
realization of an ideal Lucifer as the Angel of Light.
Little recognized is Anger's contribution to the blossoming
American avant-garde filmmaking scenes in California, New York
City and Europe.
His early involvements with Maya Deren, Curtis Harrington
and Oskar Fischinger on the West Coast matched equally rewarding
relationships with Willard Maas and Marie Menken on the East
Coast.
Many creative talents during the past 50 years have mixed
company with Anger circulating between two continents and include
luminaries Anas Nin, Dr. Alfred C. Kinsey, Michael Powell, SAMSON
DE BRIER, Henri Langlois, Marianne Faithfull, MICK JAGGER and
Anita Pallenberg, JIMMY PAGE and J. Paul Getty [Jr?].
Anger is also well known for his love-hate relationship with
the lurid universe of Hollywood, the result of which can be read
in his on-going literary saga "Hollywood Babylon." Through
detailed research and expository gossip-mongering, Anger's
volatile series of anecdotes vainly revels in Tinsel Town's glory
and grime.
<snip>
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KENNETH ANGER INTERVIEW
by Carl Abrahamsson
Copyright (c) 1999
["A conversation with Kenneth Anger" was first published in
the second issue of The Fenris Wolf (1991)]
The following interview took place in Kenneth Anger's
legendary Hollywood home, in early 1990. The house was a
splendidly beautiful gem, packed with rare objects from his
collections of Hollywood memorabilia. An atmosphere of the golden
days of glamour was present and strong, but evil sadly lurked
outside...
Anger had been harassed by the local hispanic gang for quite
some time, which had forced him to hire a bodyguard. And a short
time after my visit, they shot his dog on the pavement outside.
This forced Anger to move, and I can see before me how the once
so beautiful house is now a crack-den for that local low-life.
Hollywood as such no longer exists, it's just a pile of
memories swirling around in an atmosphere of Beirut-like clashes
between the law enforcers and the criminal blacks and hispanics.
A sad tale indeed!
Amidst these troubles, Mr. Anger was kind enough to spare me
some of his time, and what follows here, is a more or less
straight account of what was said at the time...
The Fenris Wolf: You've met quite a lot of interesting
people. Who of these have influenced you the most?
Kenneth Anger: I was fortunate enough to meet Jean Cocteau.
He's had a great influence, because to me he was always a pure
artist who yet could work in the modern world. He's not as much
of a clown as someone like Salvador Dali who became like a
charicature. Cocteau remained closer to his inner vision, and yet
occasionally he could do things like design an ad for a perfume
or something. It wouldn't matter, you know. He became a member
of the Academie Francaise, and had his sword and all that. But he
always kept a slightly ironic attitude towards it. He said "If
you break a statue, you risk turning into one." He kept his
distance, always. So Cocteau was an influence, and earlier I'd
met D.W. Griffith here in Hollywood. Later I met Von Stroheim,
another man I admire very much. Then the great director of the
French Cinematheque - Henri Langois. I worked for him as his
assistant for twelve years. That was a great thrill.
And of course I never met Crowley, because he died in 1947,
and I never got to Europe before 1950. But I feel I know him very
intimately as a man and as a creator, because I've studied his
works all my life. And I've lived in his home in Cefalu. I have
enough imagination that I could see what attracted him to it, to
that place. He became too notorious, and attracted the attention
of Mussolini. Even if it hadn't had anything to do with his
Magickal Society, Mussolini was very anti-British. So just the
fact that an eccentric Englishman lived in a part of Italy at
that time... He got expelled. If he'd been a little more savvy,
Crowley might have chosen Tunisia instead of Sicily. He went
there afterwards, just took the boat across from Palermo. His
life was a very adventurous life, always full of conflict. It was
never like "This is the safest solution, or the one that will
cause the least trouble..." It was quite on the contrary! To go
to a city like Palermo, very catholic in the most primitive way,
not enlightened at all, and with the peasants being very
superstitious and afraid of strangers. They thought they were
Devil-worshippers or something, running around in their robes and
things like that. I talked to some peasants in Cefalu who'd
actually seen Crowley perform rituals outside his house in the
garden. Liber Resh to the Sun and everything. They didn't know
what it was, but as little children of five or six, they watched
this strange man. And they described it in movements... They
remembered! Particularly the coloured robes. It was so
fascinating to hear this, the way a child would remember Napoleon
or Jesus doing something. After he was kicked out, some of the
women remained. They were so poor, that they had to sell the
furniture to the peasants, just in exchange for some eggs or meat
or bread or something. I found Crowley's writing desk about a
mile away, and they remembered it. "That came from the
Englishman..." It's still probably there... They don't use it as
a table to eat on or anything. They turned it into their home
altar, covered with catholic saints. I looked at it, and it had
some ink stains, which were obviously from Crowley's ink well.
And a few scratched doodles, like pentagrams and things like
that. They couldn't really write, and I asked if they had
anything else. "Yes, La Biblia..." - The Bible. They had a book
wrapped in cloth behind their Virgin Mary. They thought it was
the Bible, but it wasn't the Bible at all... It was one of
Crowley's books, not by Crowley though, bound in gold... It was
by a Dean of Cambridge, called "Through the Halls of History" or
something like that. A history of Trinity College in Cambridge,
where Crowley went to school for a while...
<cont'd>
