Complete Magick Lantern Cycle

I have to admit that I hadn't seen ANY of Kenneth Anger's films prior to acquiring this set, but like most, I was aware of him mostly due to his two "Hollywood Babylon" books, his admiration of noted occultists Aleister Crowley and Anton LaVey, mentions by/influence on some of my favorite directors, like Scorsese and Lynch, and Jimmy Page's score for "Lucifer Rising" (which went unused). So I popped for this set, on faith that I would see something interesting & influential, and I wasn't disappointed (I think this 2DVD set is a repackage/remaster of the two separate volumes I've seen for sale, all in one set now).

This is a two disc set that compiles ten (10) of Anger's better known films (though others are not here), along with a newer work. The films are:

Fireworks (1947)
Puce Moment (1949)
Rabbit's Moon (1950 - orig version)
Eaux d'artifice (1953)
Inauguration of the Pleasure Dome (1954)
Scorpio Rising (1964)
Kustom Kar Kommandos (1965)
Invocation of My Demon Brother (1969)
Rabbit's Moon (1979 - shorter version of 1950 film)
Lucifer Rising (1981) - does NOT have any of Jimmy Page's score (Anger mentions that Pagey did 20 min of music but it's never been used, at least not here)
And
"The Man We Want to Hang" - 2002, which is about the art of Aleister Crowley (including many pieces now owned by Jimmy Page)

The films range from around 3 minutes to 30 minutes, and explore images and themes of homoeroticism, the occult, cars, mythology, surrealism, and the like. One can see why these films were so influential - great use of music (the popular period tunes used one after another in Scorpio Rising, for example, were clearly influential on someone like Scorsese, particularly in use of ironic/interesting song choices), composition of shots, cutaways to stock/similar metaphor footage, odd angles (probably influencing Lynch a great deal c.f. Eraserhead), and I noticed that some of the shots in a film like Eaux d'artifice seemed to be very stylistically similar to images that appeared later in European art films I've seen (everything from "Pink Floyd at Pompeii"'s ancient art & bubbling mud pools, to "More", "La vallee", etc - I think some 60's and 70's European directors were probably very influenced by his techniques). Restorations on these are quite good, given his equipment limitations (Fireworks was not lit well but still looks pretty good, and something like Rabbit's Moon which was shot in a studio and properly lit, looks great) and generally, everything here looks good. Overall, I was pretty happy with the image quality, and I watched it on an 8 foot screen via a projection system and it blew up well. I'd suggest, since there is basically just music accompanying the images, that you view the films with the commentary `on' because it's very insightful to hear Anger himself tell you what some things sympbolize/what he was trying to convey plus insight into the filming of each - Anger is a pretty unique filmmaker, and came from a more expressive/arty time, and I'm not sure that a younger audience would immediately `get' the experimental nature/subtlety/avant-garde-ness of this type of work (given today's beat-an-audience-over-the-head bombast in mainstream films). The accompanying booklet has excellent essays by Scorsese, Gus Van Sant, and others, plus production information (and I need to track down the song he used in the short version of "Rabbit" - it's killer)

Overall, four stars for a `normal' audience, but five stars & pretty essential viewing for anyone who is interested in seeing the work of an influential/interesting filmmaker, whether you're an aspiring filmmaker or just a heavy-fan of film.

It was good to see the films on this DVD set. I had seen Scorpio Rising when I was in college 40 years ago, but had not been able to see the other films until I purchased this collection. Kenneth Anger appeared recently at the newly opened IU Cinema. Although he never made a feature-length film, he has influenced many directors over the years because of his willlingness to experiment with different subjects and techniques.

This collection would receive 5 stars from me for "Fireworks" (1947) and the shortened version of "Rabbit's Moon" (1979) alone. Throw in the other eight titles and you have a hit on your hands. It makes for excellent "background" visuals projected onto a wall or screen at a party, your favorite local tapas establishment, or similar gatherings (soundtrack optional). For close study I recommend one watch the films in their entirety with Anger's commentary "off" the first time though, then watch all of it a second time, Anger "on". (nb: the musical accompaniment to the 1979 version of "Rabbit's Moon" is a number titled "It Came In The Night", released in 1979 by an English (as I recall) band who called themselves A Raincoat.)

› Go to Amazon.com to see all 3 reviews  4.0 out of 5 stars