“Your work comes from the dark night of the soul”, or at least that’s what Jean Cocteau told Kenneth Anger in a letter he wrote upon first viewing the film maker’s seminal work Fireworks in 1947. Cocteau’s statement may be a tad dramatic, but it’s also undeniably fitting. Kenneth Anger’s experimental films are guided by the unique combination of his interests: the occult, Satanism, glamour, and the Hollywood star system among them. They’re set with an elliptical narrative structure, and are more visual essays of dazzlingly hypnotic imagery than typical studio system films.

It wasn’t just legends like Jean Genet, Colette, and Henri Langlois who admired Anger as a visionary, but also his contemporaries like Mick Jagger and Marianne Faithful who contributed to his films by composing scores and acting. A score by Jimmy Page for the film Lucifer Rising was even dumped for one written and recorded by Manson family member Bobby Beausoleil from prison, making it the first of its kind – and a freakishly appropriate paring for the film.

Anger’s visual dreamscapes are as inspiring now as ever, which is why Humberto, Carol, and the Opening Ceremony LA team went to view them at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery in LA. The cemetery (which, yes, is the one from that episode of 90210), shows movies on the side of one of its buildings throughout the summer. We were lucky enough to catch the screening with Kenneth Anger himself in attendance.

Here’s a look at some of Humberto’s photos from the event.

Check out this interview where Anger himself reveals the behind the scenes report  on working with Mick Jagger and Marianne Faithful, among others:



Lucifer Rising by Kenneth Anger:



A retrospective of Kenneth Anger's work is currently on display in New York at MoMA's PS1 Contemporary Art Center until September 14, 2009.

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FILED UNDER: film , kenneth anger , ocla , behind the scenes