“Fireworks comes from the depths of night, whence all true works
emerge. It cuts to the quick of the soul and that is something truly
rare.”
Jean Cocteau
“When I think of the work of Kenneth Anger,
what comes to mind is its unfailing perfection… I
see and I feel with my whole being, in every cell
in my body the very distinctive nervous intensity
of his images …”
Jonas Mekas
“Every major contemporary filmmaker, from
Pasolini and Fassbinder to Scorcese and Coppola,
owes a debt to Kenneth Anger, but few have surpassed
the shattering impact of his cinematic masterpieces.”
Bruce Posner
“I chose film as a form of personal expression
for its power to disturb: it is the surest way
to bring about change… As an art form it
goes beyond “the aesthetic” and becomes
an experience. My films “live” when
the viewer forgets that he is watching a work of
art! (…) Through agonising efforts, we achieve
the phosphorescent layer of myth which is at the
foundation of our existence. I will not lie; the
landscape of Fireworks was achieved through tunnels
of appalling anguish, nights of hallucinations
and burning tears …”.
Kenneth Anger
“For Kenneth Anger, being a filmmaker is
to fashion cinema as riddled with light and cinematic
recollections and to display, as he does, prodigious
discrimination amongst the stereotypes he manipulates:
those of adolescence (Fireworks), of 20s Hollywood
cinema (the use of Barbara La Marr in Puce
Moment),
the trio of the Comedia delle Arte and magic (Rabbit’s
Moon), a masked ball where, in a detour via Harry
Lachman’s film “Dante Inferno” we
encounter Anaïs Nin and the copy of Caligari’s
sleepwalker (1935), (Inauguration of the
Pleasure Dome), gangs of motorcyclists (Scorpio
Rising),
the extraordinary music and rock concerts of the
60s (Invocation of my Demon Brother) and particularly
Mick Jagger, recalling the silent presence of Marianne
Faithfull (Lucifer Rising).
Claudine Eizykman
In 1996 KENNETH ANGER received the MAYA DEREN
AWARD from the American Film Institute for his
entire body of work.
See
the Kenneth Anger page
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