Wednesday, August 06, 2008

Uncontrollable Anger

Roughly a year ago (John, a year! Can you believe it?) I read with interest over at John's blog Feuilleton about the release of the films of Kenneth Anger on DVD. John was actually writing about the release of volume 2, but I hadn't realised that there had even been a release of a volume 1.



I only knew of Anger's works, and had never seen any of his films all the way through. Actually, I think I might have seen a few little excerpts once but that was about it. I did know of them by reputation though, full of 'ics'; idiosyncratic, erotic, and with heavy doses of the mystic and the magic.



So I was excited to find that the Art Gallery of NSW store had the Volume 2 DVD for sale, and I popped in tonight and bought it. I've only watched a bit of the first film on the DVD so far, "Scorpio Rising" the 28min long 1964 paean to the homoeroticism of the American Biker legend.

(I would have watched it all, but HELLO "So You Think You Can Dance is on! Hot gay bikers or hot gay dancers, it's a tough choice. Although I don't think SYTYCD includes a biker orgy, but I might be wrong.)

The DVD is beautifully packaged, with a comprehensive booklet to go with the disc. I'm looking forward to watching the rest of the DVD, thanks for the original hot tip John!

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Good to know you found a copy. I've been watching these films in various forms--tv and cinema screening--for over twenty years and the DVDs are stunningly well-produced. The real delight for me was Anger's commentaries which were surprisingly forthcoming. I've read his unofficial biography so already knew a fair amount about the making of the films but the commentaries cleared up a lot of mysteries, especially concerning the identities of many of the eccentrics who appear before the camera.

freakgirl said...

Andrew, you should check out this book if you haven't already:

http://snipurl.com/3cgio

The Other Andrew said...

Wow, thanks for the heads up FG! I certainly will check it out.