The visual delights of Eaux d’artifice (1953) were inspired by a beautiful location, an Italian garden of fountains. Enchanted by the 17th century setting, Anger used infra-red B&W film and carefully lined up each shot so that the light would set off the water sprays from their backgrounds; he also changed camera speeds and shutter angles to make the droplets of water seem alive. A grand lady character strolls down the garden’s many steps. Anger’s brilliant stroke is to cast a heavily costumed midget in the role, to double the apparent size of the fountains! The entire film is toned blue and set off by a couple of startling hand-tinted shots. By the end, the show has gone way beyond the notion of ‘pretty pictures’; it’s as if we’ve spent thirteen minutes in a new reality. The musical background is the Winter section of Vivaldi’s Four Seasons. —DVDtalk.com
Kenneth Anger is an independent filmmaker and author. He claims to have appeared as the child prince in A Midsummer Night’s Dream (1935), but Warner Brothers production reports and casting sheets conclusively document that a little girl, child actress Sheila Brown, actually played the role. Anger did, however, begin making films at an early age. Most of his films are short experimental works, ranging from 3.5-30 minutes. His career has been recognized with life achievement awards from the Los Angeles Film Critics, the San Francisco International Film Festival, the Silverlake Film Festival, the Mar del Plata Film Festival, and the Maya Deren Award for Experimental Film/Life Achievement Award from the American Film Institute. Among other notable honors, he received the Poetic Film Prize at Festival du Film Maudit in Biarritz, France in 1949, which was presented by Jean Cocteau. Anger’s work has screened around the world, including at the Institut Francais de Vienne in Austria, the Galerie… read more
Hypnotic and surreal. One of Anger's better works despite being extremely simple in concept.
This is actually loosely inspired by the Old Ocean segnent of "The Songs of Maldoror" by Lautréamont!
The exhibition Kenneth Anger: Icons is on view in Los Angeles through February 27.
