KENNETH ANGER - MAGICK LANTERN CYCLE DIGITALLY RESTORED

FOR THE FIRST TIME AVAILABLE IN THE UK - Kenneth Anger's fully digitally restored Magick Lantern Cycle Self-styled magician Kenneth Anger is one of the most distinctive artists in cinema. Renowned as the author of the scandalous best-selling book Hollywood Babylon, Anger is a legend. The mythology that has grown around him has many sources, from his involvement with the occult, astrology and the pop world of Mick Jagger, Marianne Faithfull and Jimmy Page, to the announcement of his own death in the pages of the Village Voice, and the destruction, loss and banning of his films. At the heart of all this mythology is a filmmaker of prodigious talent, whose skill and imagination create films of great visual force, influencing filmmakers such as Martin Scorsese, David Lynch and RW Fassbinder. This collection features: Fireworks (1947) which mythologises Anger's Coming Out at the age of 17; Puce Moment (1949); Rabbit's Moon (1950/1971, the rarely seen 16 mins version) a hymn to the goddess of the moon; Eaux d'Artifice (1953) conjuring spectacle from the fountains; Inauguration of the Pleasure Dome (1954) possibly anger's most successful magickal ritual on film; Scorpio Rising (1964) featuring the technique that influenced much of Scorsese's early work; Kustom Kar Kommandos (1965); Invocation of My Demon Brother (1969); Rabbit's Moon (1979); Lucifer Rising (1981). Plus commentaries from Anger himself, Anger's documentary on Aleister Crowley and a feature length portrait of Kenneth Anger. Anger takes the iconography and star-making system of Hollywood and creates from it a personal mythology, a canon of saints and demons who might have stepped from the screens of Hollywood's golden age. He raises up hells angels to become apostles of Dionysus, converts the living room of a minor Hollywood celebrity into a palace of unearthly delights, a church consecrated to the Thelemic beliefs of Aleister Crowley, Austin Osman Spare. Genesis P Orridge, William Burroughs, Coil, Derek Jarman all take inspiration from Anger's work. A contemporary of Warhol, MAya Deren, Stan Brakhage, Kenneth anger helped to define the American Avant Garde and Underground Film movement. Occultist, provocateur and waspish muckraker, Kenneth Anger is among the more interesting figures in film history. The underground nature of his work – defiantly underground, resolutely avant garde – has meant it’s more discussed than actually seen, so this comprehensive collection is a cause for jubilation. 

His work can be hermetic. The striking Inaugurations of the Pleasure Dome, would seem inspired by the Tarot, but it’s also ‘about’ colour, music and movement, all of which are orchestrated to perfection. Anyone who cherishes garish beauty should seek it out. It’s a tribute to Anger that the world still hasn’t caught up with what he was doing fifty or more years ago.