Kenneth Anger is a major figure of experimental cinema, fed by the mythic, the mystic and the "magick". A cornerstone of the American underground cinema who, as a teenager, had been very impressed by Aleister Crowley, a magus fascinated by pagan mythologies and Egyptian divinities. Under his influence, he decides to build each piece of his work as an esoteric exploration where, among several levels of interpretation, there is always a signification someway attached to magic. Kenneth Anger strikes hard with Fireworks (1947), SM fantasy blowing Cocteau away. A mutual coup de foudre: Anger moves to Paris and befriends Henri Langlois, director of the Cinémathèque. During this period, Anger directs Puce Moment (1949), dedicated to his grandmother, who used to be a costume designer on movie sets during the silent era - he borrows robes and make-up accessories from her on this occasion. From this experience Hollywood Babylon is born, an ironic reference book about the backstage of the dream factory, published in France in 1959, where forgotten and scandalous silent movie stars are exposed.
His masterpiece is still, certainly, Scorpio Rising (1964), this upside-down mass and transcended vision of the American biker myth, meteor of disarming beauty with striking colors, which - as its name indicates - explicitly refers to the advent of the Era of the Scorpion. Kenneth Anger is also the man of many legends. The one who directed Bobby Beausoleil – who later joined Charles Manson's "family" - in Lucifer Rising or Anton Szandor Lavey, founder of the Church of Satan, in Invocation Of My Demon Brother. The one who got in trouble with the censors and even had a fake death certificate published in a magazine at the end of the 60's. The one who inspired Sympathy For The Devil to The Rolling Stones... Paul Schrader has often said that Kenneth Anger's cinema has been plagiarized by current artists so much that even those who have never heard about him already know his work. So here's a note for the layman: you are familiar with Kenneth Anger, you just didn't know it.
