Kenneth Anger on DVD

[Quot]

Fantoma's trailer for the Anger Vol. 1 dvd release.

In a word, WOW! Fantastic restoration job. January 23rd can't come soon enough.

[Anonymous]

Absolutely astonishing restoration! I'm speechless. It was really worth the long wait. Even though I've seen these films countless of times, I never had the pleasure of seeing them in such crystal clarity and sharpness.

[Lino]

Fantoma's trailer for the Anger Vol. 1 dvd release.

In a word, WOW!

I'll second that! Dare one say, DVD of the Year, already?!

[rwaits]

That restoration work looks incredible? Do we have to wait another 5 years for vol. II?

[Ashirg]

First review at Mondo Digital

[Lino]

It still seems unreal that this is coming out at all.

[zombeaner]

This is very exciting. I've never seen any of his films in any kind of reasonable condition. I can't wait!

[Cobalt60]

While I am very excited about this I can't help but worry that it will be ages before we see vol 2. I just have this terrible feeling there will be a long protracted wait until we see the next one. Which really sucks because evertime I read the (albiet impressive) contents of this set its seems to always say; "nope, no Scorpio Rising this time".

[criterionsnob]

DVD Talk Review: The Films of Kenneth Anger, Volume One

[toiletduck!]

I balked for a second at the 'Recommended' and braced myself for some previously unseen detraction, but it looks like this might just be everything we had hoped for!

Rock.

-Toilet Dcuk

[criterionsnob]

My Kenneth Anger set just arrived. I can't believe I finally have it in my hands. It looks gorgeous. Can't wait to take a look at these films. I was lucky enough to see prints of Rabbit's Moon and Inauguration of the Pleasure Dome a couple of years ago and have been dying to see them again ever since.

The colour on the print of Pleasure Dome was stunning. I hope this DVD does it justice.

[kinjitsu]

Dave Kehr review

[Matt]

Just got back from "An Evening With Kenneth Anger" at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis. I had warned Josh, half-jokingly, that Anger would be a rambling old man who told lots of apocryphal and sordid anecdotes about celebrities. Boy, did I nail it. It was the most hilarious Q&A I've ever seen. Someone would ask a question ("When did you realize you were making great art?") and Anger would get about 5 words into answering it before veering off on a tangent about, oh, syphilis, Gale Sondergaard, Ba'al, Jennifer Jones, his mother playing bridge with Ronald Reagan, and so forth.

The prints looked amazing (on a very big screen) and we got to see Mouse Heaven and a brief excerpt from a "work in progress" called Ich Will! (which frankly looked like 3 random minutes from a Nazi-era feature film about the Hitler Youth spliced into 3 random minutes of an anti-Nazi propaganda film). Apparently, he brought a 45-minute version of the film but was unable to show it due to time constraints.

Dr. Anger (seriously, that's what the program notes called him) is going in for prostate surgery on February 23 (there was much discussion about his prostate and prostates in general) and will be operated on by the Shah of Iran's urologist (there was also a lot of talk about the new war in ancient Babylon). So, you know, pray to Lucifer or Walt Disney or whatever. The third week of February is not a good week for elderly avant-garde filmmakers having routine surgery.

He's also very pissed that he hasn't yet been paid the $5,000 that was promised to him by Fantoma. Let's hope the contracts have already been signed and the commentaries recorded, otherwise it's going to be a looong wait for the Volume II DVD.

[ab-514]

More to the point, he nailed home that any purchases of this DVD do not benefit him personally at all.

Anyway, yeah, that was the most memorable Q&A we've had in this city since Elliot Gould started cursing audience members after a screening of The Long Goodbye. But it was fitting that Anger's ramblings had the same kind of logic as his films, I suppose.

Nice summary of the 'evening'.

[Lino]

DVDTalk

[vogler]

to look beyond the mainstream for links to George and Michael Kuchar, Stan Brackage, and even Andy Warhol

#-o

I agree with the gist of the review though. This is a magnificent dvd of a collection of magnificent films and is now one of my most treasured dvds. Like many I'm eagerly awaiting volume 2 (particularly Scorpio Rising) but this dvd contains most of my favourite Anger films, namely Fireworks, Eaux d'artifice and Inauguration of the Pleasure Dome.

[rwaits]

I'm just thrilled to finally own a crisp looking version of Rabbit's Moon without "that song."

[tartarlamb]

I'm really going to miss that song.

[Anonymous]

Looking at those beautiful, magnificent films, I feel like driving down there to LA and hand Kenneth as much money as I can find, just so that he can continue to work. This is an artist as important as Pollock or Picasso and no one knows him. Goddamn it, in a perfect world this DVD set would be sales no. 1 at amazon.com!

[orlik]

It's one of the greatest bodies of work in cinema, and far from being 'difficult' or a challenge to watch, the films are actually obsessively, compulsively watchable.

Just out of interest, is there any evidence behind the oft-posited connection between Anger and David Lynch, i.e. has Lynch ever mentioned Anger as an influence? Surely the use of the song 'Blue Velvet' and some shared aspects of visual sensibility aren't enough to suggest a direct influence?

[Anonymous]

It's one of the greatest bodies of work in cinema, and far from being 'difficult' or a challenge to watch, the films are actually obsessively, compulsively watchable.

Just out of interest, is there any evidence behind the oft-posited connection between Anger and David Lynch, i.e. has Lynch ever mentioned Anger as an influence? Surely the use of the song 'Blue Velvet' and some shared aspects of visual sensibility aren't enough to suggest a direct influence?

Lynch never said anything about Anger, which either means that he plagiarized Anger's use of music but doesn't want to admit it, or he has actually never heard of him and just by coincidence used the same song. Lynch doesn't have much cinema knowledge, so I wouldn't be surprised if he doesn't even know about Anger.

Anyway, Scorsese admitted Anger's influence, as did John Waters. Both filmmakers' use of music is heavily influenced by Anger, particularly SCORPIO RISING.

It's so great to see his films in such beautiful shape. I remember seeing FIREWORKS for the first time, which was my first encounter with the American Avant-Garde and I was blown away. It seemed as if I was being soaked into another realm or world, into some kind of surrealistic dreamscape beyond rationality. And that first experience was of a really horrible looking print. Now in this beautifully remastered version, one simply can't believe ones eyes. Great job, Fantoma. I'm looking forward to volume two, not only for SCORPIO but for the endlessly fascinating and totally mysterious INVOCATION OF MY DEMON BROTHER, which feels like an Occult mass on LSD in some Mexican cellar bar, 4am on a hellishly hot Summer day.

[tryavna]

which feels like an Occult mass on LSD in some Mexican cellar bar, 4am on a hellishly hot Summer day.

I think we've all been there.

[Scharphedin2]

All I know about Anger is Scorpio Rising. Is that the only thing that Anger's famous for? Any other Anger films worth discussing?

I would enjoy to read some actual discussion on these films. I have been looking forward to be able to see these films for many years, so I am aware of Anger's reputation, and can appreciate the films for their historical impact. However, (and I hasten to add that I have only watched the first three films in the set so far) aside from a few moments that are unquestionably striking, these films did not really make a deep impression on me personally.

Scorpio Rising is of course the film that I have heard the most about and that I really look forward to see, and possibly the next films in the set will impress me more than those I have seen so far. Nonetheless, from reading this thread, it is almost as if Anger appreciation amounts to knowing winks and glances -- not much actual discussion going on. So, if nothing else, could someone educate me on the winks and glances, or, even talk about what it is that moves them so much about these films.

The set is of course a thing of beauty, and I share in the excitement that the films have finally been made available.

[Matt]

Lynch never said anything about Anger, which either means that he plagiarized Anger's use of music but doesn't want to admit it, or he has actually never heard of him and just by coincidence used the same song.

Whoa, now. Those are the only two options? Can it be possible that Lynch is familiar with Anger's work but didn't "plagiarize" it just because they made films that used the same song in very different ways? Is Wong Kar-Wai's use of "What a Difference a Day Made" in Chungking Express plagiarized from Scorsese's use of it in Casino?

[Anonymous]

Lynch never said anything about Anger, which either means that he plagiarized Anger's use of music but doesn't want to admit it, or he has actually never heard of him and just by coincidence used the same song.

Whoa, now. Those are the only two options? Can it be possible that Lynch is familiar with Anger's work but didn't "plagiarize" it just because they made films that used the same song in very different ways? Is Wong Kar-Wai's use of "What a Difference a Day Made" in Chungking Express plagiarized from Scorsese's use of it in Casino?

Did Lynch and Anger really use it for different purposes? Anger often stated that the pop music in SCORPIO RISING is ironic commentary on the images and Lynch does exactly the same in the opening of BLUE VELVET, which is filled with irony to the top. Scorsese, for one, uses the "Theme of Camille" from Godard's CONTEMPT in CASINO for very different purposes and succeeds. Still, BLUE VELVET is a very good film and I have great respect for Lynch, but I really think that he doesn't even know who Anger is. Read a few interviews with Lynch, the only people he ever mentions are Fellini, Kubrick, Bergman and Tati.