Wednesday, May 24, 2023

Kenneth Anger, Experimental Filmmaker and ‘Hollywood Babylon’ Author, Dies at 96

By Ethan Shanfeld


Experimental filmmaker, artist and author Kenneth Anger has died. He was 96.

His gallery, operated by Monika Sprüth and Philomene Magers, confirmed the news on their website, writing, "Kenneth was a trailblazer. His cinematic genius and influence will live on and continue to transform all those who encounter his films, words and vision."

Born in 1927 in Santa Monica, Calif., Anger produced over 30 short films from 1937 to 2013, having made his first movie at 10 years old. Known as "one of America's first openly gay filmmakers," he gained a reputation for exploring themes of erotica and homosexuality decades before gay sex was legalized in America. Anger received recognition for his homoerotic 1947 film "Fireworks," which landed him in court on obscenity charges. Filmed in his childhood home in Beverly Hills while his parents were away for the weekend, "Fireworks" is known as the first gay narrative film produced in the U.S.

Afterward, Anger moved to France and immersed himself in the avant-garde film scene, which inspired Anger's own works "Eaux d'Artifice" and "Rabbit's Moon." After moving back to the states in 1953, he produced the 38-minute "Inauguration of the Pleasure Dome" and the 29-minute "Scorpio Rising," starring Bruce Byron.

In 1959, Anger published the gossip book "Hollywood Babylon," which detailed alleged scandals of Hollywood stars from Marilyn Monroe to Judy Garland to Charlie Chaplin. The book has been widely discredited and was banned in the U.S. shortly after its publication. He released a sequel to the book in 1984 after announcing his retirement from filmmaking, a result of his inability to produce a sequel to his 1972 film "Lucifer Rising." (He would return to the medium at the turn of the century, directing over a dozen short films from 2000 to 2013.)

Karina Longworth's 2019 season of her "You Must Remember This Podcast" was devoted to examining the stories told in "Hollywood Babylon" and researching other sources to get more accurate accounts.

Anger said in a 2010 interview with The Guardian that he had finished writing a third installment to "Hollywood Babylon," but was holding off on publishing it due to fear of repercussions. "The main reason I didn't bring it out was that I had a whole section on Tom Cruise and the Scientologists," he said. "I'm not a friend of the Scientologists."

An outspoken Satanist, Anger was a controversial figure who became close friends with other countercultural figures at the, including the Rolling Stones' Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, Led Zeppelin's Jimmy Page, and Marianne Faithfull, who starred in "Lucifer Rising."

Anger captured his life's work in a surrealist anthology film titled "Magick Lantern Cycle, which stitches together nine of his short films including "Fireworks" and "Invocation of My Demon Brother."

In the statement announcing his death, Sprüth and Magers wrote, "Anger considered cinematographic projection a psychosocial ritual capable of unleashing physical and emotional energies. The artist saw film as nothing less than a spiritual medium, a conveyer of spectacular alchemy that transforms the viewer."




15 comments:

  1. That's an interesting post,Matt.
    My wife brought me a copy of Hollywood Babylon from a trip she took years ago and being a dumb old country boy, I believed most of what it said. Katrina Longworth's podcast may get a few views from me as a facts check.

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  2. Kenneth Anger's dead...
    upstaged by Tina Turner.
    Light some candles, sacrifice a chicken.

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  3. brownrice said...
    Light some candles, sacrifice a chicken.


    Best laugh I've had so far today.



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  4. As I recall, Beausoleil was in Invocation of My Demon Brother.

    My gut feeling, based on nothing other than observing Beausoleil in photos and knowing what I know of Anger, is that Beausoleil likely used Anger, who probably had homoerotic feelings toward the young Beausoleil.

    But I don't know, nor do I feel it's important.

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  5. Remember seeing 'Scorpio Rising' back in College in the early 60s. Formative film, very interesting. Not to be confused with the later film 'Lucifer Rising', which Beausoleil was involved with.

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  6. jempud said...
    Remember seeing 'Scorpio Rising' back in College in the early 60s. Formative film, very interesting. Not to be confused with the later film 'Lucifer Rising', which Beausoleil was involved with.

    Yes he was actually a very fine film-maker. "Inauguration of the Pleasure Dome" is pretty amazing and the cinematography in Lucifer Rising is exceptional.

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  7. brownrice:

    Maybe around 1990 Anger did a sort of tour around art house theaters, where they'd show the main films, then he came out to a podium and did Q&A and just general comments. My wife and I attended one in Portland, OR.

    It's true: his films were not narratives so much as setting an atmosphere in which the dark corners of the psyche were explored--but primarily sexual.

    The stuff was seeped in decadence in the sense of a Beardsley black-and-white drawing. Klimpt gets close but is a bit more decorous, more static.

    I don't recall any dialogue in any of them, including the long one, Pleasure Dome? There were sound tracks, though.

    I'd have to guess that as far as influences, he must have seen Un Chien Andalou, and was deeply impressed.

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  8. I knew Ken well 1999-2003
    He was an awful, terrible human.
    He spent his last years being taken advantage of by someone who also conned Beausoleil. A guy named Butler.
    But I love Brian Butler. Because he didn't pay Ken's storage bill back in 2019 I now own a Marjorie Cameron original. I paid $4700 for it, but to me it is priceless

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  9. ColScott said...

    He was an awful, terrible human.


    No arguments there :-)

    Because he didn't pay Ken's storage bill back in 2019 I now own a Marjorie Cameron original. I paid $4700 for it, but to me it is priceless

    Excellent score! I'm envious. She was a fascinating & unique character... L.A. occult royalty... everything that Anger aspired to be but wasn't.

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  10. ...actually L.A. bohemian royalty would be more accurate.

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  11. yes she was unique and interesting. Most of her paintings are in a trust for her challenged daughter. LACMA had a showing a few years ago. Anger and Butler were there of course. There was some drama of course.

    I just caught up witH Tom O'Neill's Instagram, speaking about challenged.

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    1. ColScott

      Very cool about the artwork you were able to acquire!

      Also, on my last trek from my home in Vancouver to my Mum's in Cloverdale, we were watching Forensic Files after I did her lawn and simple landscaping (mom is a big FF fan).

      It was very random and very much a pleasant surprise to see you pop up.on the screen to give your expert opinion on the case details.

      I also realized that a fair number of my computer programming and animation friends here in Vancouver worked on the "Bully" video game via Rockstar and, head honcho Brian Thalken (another of my old punk rock friends who had (very successfully) transitioned from music to gaming design.

      Six degrees of ColScott!

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  12. ColScott said...
    Most of her paintings are in a trust for her challenged daughter.

    That's good. Rosaleen Norton (the Australian artist & bohemian character who Cameron's biographer compared her to) recently had a few of her drawings sold at auction for unexpectedly large sums. She's been dead for decades of course so it didn't do her much good, instead benefiting the estates of the proprietors of a cafe/bar that let her run up a tab and pay for it wth her art. Kinda typical that people like Cameron and Norton struggle to survive in life but once they've been dead for a while, their work acquires great value. Personally, I find their bravery, determination and will to continue following a "life as art" approach pretty admirable... though of course it's easily argued that their sundry personal "issues" made it impossible for them to live life any other way. David Litvinoff & Neal Cassady were also good examples of same.


    I just caught up witH Tom O'Neill's Instagram, speaking about challenged.


    Indeed! :-) Do tell. Surely a post from the Col is long overdue

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