LIVING IN ANGER

KENNETH ANGER

IN ANGER

KENNETH ANGER WAS BORN IN SANTA MONICA, CALIFORNIA,ON FEBRUARY 3, 1927.

HE IS AN UNDERGROUND , AVANT-GARDE FILMAKER AND SCREEN PLAYER.

HE  PUBLISHED A BOOK IN 1959, CALLED "HOLLYWOOD BABYLON", ABOUT SECRETS, SCANDALS AND PRIVATE LIFES OF ARTISTS, STARS AND MILLONAIRES IN HOLLYWOOD, DURING THE LATE 40'S AND 50'S. THIS BOOK HE DEDICATED TO THE SCARLET WOMAN AND QUOTING ALEISTER CROWLEY'S " EVERY MAN AND EVERY WOMAN IS A STAR".

 HE WAS INTRODUCED TO THE WORKS OF ALEISTER CROWLEY AT A VERY EARLY AGE. THESE REVELATIONS,  WERE OBVIOUSLY IMPORTANT . HE REFERS TO CROWLEY FREQUENTLY IN HIS FILMS, AND PUTS HIM IN A CENTRAL POSITION IN ALMOST ALL OF THEM. ALL HIS FILMS HAVE ESOTERIC,SOMETIMES SATANIC  AND OCCULT SYMBOLISM. HE HAS DECLARED HIMSELF TO BE A DISCIPLE . LATER HE ACCEPTED INICIATION IN THE O.T.O. ( ORDO TEMPLI ORIENTIS) WHOSE MEMBERS FOLLOW CROWLEYS BELIFS AND PHILOSOPHY.

DURING HIS TEENS HE FILMED A LOT OF SHORT FILMS THAT HAD BEEN LOST, AS :

FERDINAND THE BULL (1937)

WHO HAS BEEN ROCKING MY DREAMBOAT? ( 1941)

TINSEL TREE ( 1942)

THE NEST ( 1943 )

DEMIGODS ( 1944 )

DRASTIC DEMISE ( 1945 )

ESCAPE EPISODE (1946 )

HE STARTED FILMING "FIREWORKS" WHEN HE WAS ABOUT 18 YEARS OLD, AND WAS FINISHED IN 1947. IT IS WELL KNOWN FOR ITS SUDDEN VIOLENCE AND GRAPHIC IMAGES OF MUTILATION MIXED WITH AN UNDERCURRENT OF SEXUAL AND HOMOSEXUAL IMPLICATIONS.

HIS OWN WORDS ABOUT THIS FILM

"It's a personal statement about my own feelings about violence and certain kind of masculinity. Also a treatment of a kind of myth in America which relates to the American sailor. That's part of history now, but the sailor then was a kind of sex symbol on one another level there was a great deal of ambivalence and hostility, latency, and fear in the image.…"

IN 1949 HE CREATED 'THE LOVE THAT WHIRLS'. IT HAD SO MANY NUDE SCENES THAT IT WAS CONFISCATED BY THE FILM LAB.

AFTERWARDS, IN 1950, JEAN COCTEAU ,WHO WAS VERY INTERESTED IN HIS WORK AND LOVED THE FILM, ' FIREWORKS', INVITED HIM TO PARIS AND THIS FILM WAS EXHIBITED IN COCTEAU'S 'FESTIVAL OF THE DAMMED' IN BIARRITZ. DURING HIS TIME IN PARIS, HE CREATED "EAUX D'ARTIFICE", WHICH WAS FILMED IN ITALY.. IT IS SAID TO BE A SEQUEL FOR FIREWORKS. HE ALSO SHOOT "MOON RABBIT" WHICH HE NEVER COMPLETED.

AT THAT TIME HE SUFFERED DEEP DEPRESSION AND ATTEMPTED SUICIDE.

LATER, IN 1954, HE CAME BACK TO CALIFORNIA, WHERE HE DIRECTED ' INAUGURATION OFTHE PLEASURE DOME'

"INAUGURATION OF THE PLEASURE DOME "WAS FIRST FILMED IN 1954. (ANGER CREATED A NEW VERSION IN1966.) THIS FILM HAS ITS ORIGINS IN A MASQUE ORGANIZED BY RENATA DRUKS, A FRIEND OF ANAIS NIN. ANGER ATTENDED THE MASK AND DECIDED TO MAKE A FILM ABOUT A SIMILAR GATHERING MINGLED WITH MAGICIANS AND MYTHOLOGICAL FIGURES, AND WITH INNUMERABLE HINTS OF CROWLEY'S SYMBOLISM, OF COURSE.

HIS OTHER MOST FAMOUS WORKS ARE:

L'HISTOIRE D'O (1954- 1962 )WAS NEVER FINISHED

PUCE MOMENT (1949) NEVER FINISHED DUE TO ECONOMICAL PROBLEMS

SCORPIO RISING (1963 )

KUSTOM KAR KOMMANDOS (1965 )

INVOCATION OF MY DEMON BROTHER (1969 )

LUCIFER RISING (1970-80)

HE SAID ABOUT SCORPIO RISING:

"I have an ironic approach...That's the way I look at everything.That's my view of the world. I'm an artist. In that film ScorpioRising) I'm simply viewing a certain phenomenon that washappening at that particular rime. I don't see the (film) as ahomosexual statement. I see it as a human statement."

DURING THE SIXTIES, HE ASSOCIATED WITH THE ROLLING STONES, BOBBY BEAUSOLEIL, (BEFORE HE WAS KNOWN FOR BEING LINKED TO CHARLES MANSON) AND JIMMY PAGE, WHITH WHOM HE HAD A MISUNDERSTANDING ABOUT "LUCIFER RISING " 'S SCORE. AT LAST PAGE'S MUSIC WAS DUMPED AND REPLACED IN 1979 BY BOBBY BEAUSOLEIL'S SOUNDTRACK.

HIS WORDS ABOUT "LUCIFER RISING"

The film Lucifer Rising is my answer to Scorpio Rising -- which was
a death mirror held up to American Culture. And for my own sake
I had to make an answer to it even though I still see plenty of
thanatic elements at work in America. it's a film about the Love
generation, but seen in depth -- like in the fourth dimension. And I
call it a love vision, and it s about love --the violence as well as the
tenderness...l began shooting with the spring equinox. I'm type
casting in my film, and one thing I've found is that since my film is
about demons -- but love demons -- I have to work fairly fast
because they tend to come and go...A demon is just a convenient
way of labeling a force..." 
 
Like Scorpio Rising, Lucifer Rising is about several things. I'm an
artist working in Light, and that's my whole interest, really. Lucifer is
the Light God, not the devil, that's a Christian Slander. the devil is
always other people's gods. Lucifer has appeared in other of my
films; I haven't labeled him as such but there s usually a figure or a
moment in those films which is my "Lucifer" moment...l'm showing
actual ceremonies in the film; what is performed in front of the
camera won't be a re-enactment and the purpose will be to make
Lucifer rise. lt's the birthday party for the Aquarian Age...
Everything I've been saying so far has been leading up to this 
happening in the world today. His message is that the Key of Joy 

is Disobedience

LUCIFER RISING WAS FILMED BETWEEN 1970 AND 1980. IN THE BEGINNING, HE HAD A LOT OF DIFFICULTIES. FIRST, HIS LEADING ACTOR DIED. THEN, BOBBY BEAUSOLEIL STOLE PART OF THE FOOTAGE ANGER HAD SHOT IN SAN FRANCISCO IN 1966 .( THIS LED TO THE MAKING OF "INVOCATION TO MY DEMON BROTHER" IN 1969.) HE RESUMED THE FILMING IN THE 1970'S IN EGYPT, ENGLAND , GERMANY AND THE UNITED STATES. HE ALSO ENCOUNTERED ECONOMIC DIFFICULTIES AND AT LAST IT WAS COMPLETED IN 1972, BUT WASN'T RELEASED UNTIL 1980.

BRITISH SINGER MARIANNE FAITHFULL  APPEARED IN THE RE- SHOT VERSION OF THE FILM

ABOUT "INVOCATION OF MY DEMON BROTHER" (1969) WE CAN SAY THAT ANTON ZSANDOR LA VEY ,(FOUNDER OF THE CHURCH OF SATAN) FEATURES SATAN IN THE FILM AND THAT MICK JAGGER SCORED IT.

DUE TO HIS ESOTERIC AND OCCULT BELIEFS, HE WAS A LONGLIFE FRIEND OF ANTON LAVEY. HE LIVED WITH HIM AND HIS FAMILY DURING THE 1980'S.

OTHER WORKS.

MALDOROR-1951-52

LE JEUNNE HOMME ET LA MORT-1953

THELEMA ABBEY (CROWLYE'S HOME IN SICILY)-1955

LATEST SHORTS:

DON'T SMOKE THAT CIGARETTE! ( 2000 )

THE MAN WE WANT TO HANG (20029 ABOUT ALEISTER CROWLEY

ANGER SEES RED (2004 )

PATRIOTIC PENIS ( 2004 )

MOUSE HEAVEN ( 2005 )

ELLIOT'S SUICIDE (2007 )

I'LL BE WATCHING YOU (2007)

MY SURFING LUCIFER ( 2007 )

DEATH ( 2008 )

FOREPLAY 8 2008 )

ICH WILL ! (2008 )

UNIFORM ATTACTION ( 2008 )

NEW PROJECT

TECHNICOLOR SKULL. (2008 )

ANGER'S MAGICK RITUAL OF LIGHT AND SOUND IN THE CONTEXT OF LIVE PERFORMANCE. ALONG WITH BRIAN BUTLER ON GUITAR AND ELECTRONIC INSTRUMENTS, ANGER PERFORMAS ON THE THERAMIN, WHILE PSYCHEDELIC TECHNICOLOR SKULL IMAGES ARE PROJECTED.

EARLY THIS YEAR (2009 ), HIS WORK WAS FEATURED IN RESTROSPECTIVE, IN AN EXHIBITION AT THE P.S.1 GALLERY IN NEW YORK.

THIS IS ANGER !

HIS REAL NAME IS KENNETH ANGLEMYER, BUT HE DOESN'T WANT TO TALK ABOUT IT. ' IT SAYS ANGER IN MY PASSPORT. THAT'S ALL YOU NEED TO KNOW'.

HE STUDIED DANCING WITH JUDY GARLAND AND SHIRLEY TEMPLE,  AT THE MAURICE KOSSLOFF DANCING SCHOOL.

HE WAS THE FIRST TO USE POP SONGS INSTEAD OF TRADITIONAL MUSIC SCORES FOR HIS FILMS.

SIR JOHN PAUL GETTI II,  PRODUCED MOST OF HIS LASTS SHORT FILMS UNTIL HIS DEATH IN 2003.

ANGER'S FANS BEGAN PIRATING HIS FILMS IN THE 1950'S, AND THESE WHERE SHOWN IN MANY NIGHT CLUBS AS AVANT GARDE EXPLICIT SEX AND HOMOSEXUAL ICONS.

HE WAS A CLOSE FRIEND TO ALFRED KINSEY, THE FAMOUS SEXOLOGIST.   ANGER PARTICIPATED IN MANY OF KINSEY'S RESEARCHS, INCLUDING BEING FILMED MASTURBATING.

HE IS LEFT HANDED.

HIS HOBBIES ARE : TAROT, TAP DANCING, COLLAGE ART WORK, ASTRAL PROJECTION AND TRAVELLING.