Scorpio Rising (Kenneth Anger, 1963)

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Michael · #1 Post by **Michael** » Thu Oct 05, 2006 10:26 am

I finally finally watched Scorpio Rising after too many years of regretful postponing. Since Scorpio Rising is nearly impossible to find in the DVD format, I decided to buy a 5-buck bootleg. I've watched SR six times in one week already. The film almost feels like it's the end of all cinema. How could this 30-minute experimental film (filmed mostly in a garage) make just about every film you've seen all your life seems nothing? I could be exaggerating but after my partner watched it, he double-checked the year it was made - 1964. He couldn't believe it. So do I.

It's really impossible to describe this film. The easiest thing I can say about it is that it's a stew of piercing images - gorgeous bikers, Siamese cats, comic strips, Jesus, Halloween orgy, Nazi and so on. But that's nothing. It's something you HAVE to experience. Like zedz said elsewhere, it's a "bitch-slapping" film. At its best in my opinion. If you're on the hunt for an absolute revelation in film watching, then stop right now and look for Scorpio Rising.

toiletduck! · #2 Post by **toiletduck!** » Thu Oct 05, 2006 11:11 am

Michael, he said lovingly, if there is one film worthy of your hyperboles, this is the one.

And it's fun! I saw it for the first time back in February (on film, no less!) and my first reaction was that SR was a reversal of some of Godard's more furious work -- SR is playful with an undercurrent of nihilism as opposed to vice-versa with Godard.

I can only hope that Fantoma gets the music rights sorted out ASAP -- Volume 1 is more than appreciated, but you know everyone's holding their breath for this darling.

-Toilet Dcuk

orlik · #3 Post by **orlik** » Thu Oct 05, 2006 12:34 pm

I felt exacty the same way about SR when I first saw it - at one stage I was watching it compulsively. Anger was way ahead of his time - just look at Inauguration of the Pleasure Dome, where he virtually invents psychedelia at least 15 years before the hippies. SR is often claimed to have invented the music video - although I think that does a bit of a disservice to the complexity and artistry of SR itself. There's still some mind-blowing and, for some, offensive stuff in SR - such as that great 'Jesus blow job' edit.

What's fun is to pick up little details on repeated viewings, eg. look at the speech-bubble captions in the comics one of the bikers is reading - many of them have (unwitting) homo-erotic subtexts. It's a measure of how carefully Anger constructs his films. He's a great artist, imho one of the greatest visionaries the medium has produced. I'm still waiting for the day when the AFI declares him the greatest American filmmaker of all time.

denti alligator · #4 Post by **denti alligator** » Thu Oct 05, 2006 8:10 pm

I'll be seeing this for the first time Saturday, along with a couple other shorts, with Kenneth in attendance. Should be a blast.

Lino · #5 Post by **Lino** » Fri Oct 06, 2006 10:34 am

Ah, the pleasure of living in NY...

pianocrash · #6 Post by **pianocrash** » Fri Oct 06, 2006 12:53 pm

Us poor folk watch the three-part, clipped version on youtube, which will probably be taken down by the time I finish this comment.

It's still better than nothing.

denti alligator · #7 Post by **denti alligator** » Sat Oct 07, 2006 11:27 pm

These new restorations look fantastic!!

Kenneth said he original paid $8000 for the music rights, but that now the films will be appearing in a new medium (DVD), technically, these need to be renewed. He seemed to suggest that he's not doing it, and just hoping that nothing happens. So I guess Fantoma is going ahead with this set. He said he's had trouble getting these out on DVD, making it seem like no one was interested. I guess two different companies had already taken steps toward getting these out and one company went under (don't know what happened to the other). Fantoma is the third. Keep you fingers crossed.

Gordon · #8 Post by **Gordon** » Sun Oct 08, 2006 2:20 am

That's great, denti! So, I guess that the films were restored on 16mm and 35mm, not just for video? Can't wait!

Michael · #9 Post by **Michael** » Sun Oct 08, 2006 10:30 am

I'd like to learn a bit of history. How did Anger promote or screen his films especially Scorpio Rising back in the 1960s?

The Filmmaker's Cinematheque in NYC, as you may know, was headed by the legendary Jonas Mekas and during the 1960s premiered many of the avante garde classics. In fact, Warhol's Chelsea Girls premiered at this cinema in 1966. I wonder if that cinema also premiered Anger's films since Anger lived in NYC during that time. When Scorpio Rising was completed in 1964, what did Anger do with it?

denti alligator · #10 Post by **denti alligator** » Sun Oct 08, 2006 11:05 am

Gordon McMurphy wrote:That's great, denti! So, I guess that the films were restored on 16mm and 35mm, not just for video? Can't wait!

They were all blown up from 16mm to 35mm (actually Rabbit's Moon was from the original 35mm version, if I remember correctly). Anger said he never wanted to work with 16mm anyway.

They looked really, really good. But then again, this was the first time I had seen any of them.

Kenneth was loquacious, but because of that he only "answered" two questions. He talked about his friendship with Elliott Smith (whom he seemed to assume no one knew, as if he were some obscure underground songwriter) and how he's working on a 15 minute film called "Elliott's Suicide," which is about, well, Elliott's suicide. Then he went into detail about how Elliott killed himself and how we all have this desire. Then he told us about a nightmare he keeps having in which he's dragging a dead body up stairs.

Of course he was wearing his Rangers jersey (sans R and S).

toiletduck! · #11 Post by **toiletduck!** » Sun Oct 15, 2006 11:47 pm

Anyone in the Chicago area should keep Nov. 12th open -- the Reeling Gay & Lesbian Film Festival is going to be closing with some retro screenings at Chicago Filmmakers.

Scorpio Rising is on a bill with Fireworks, Michael Wallin's The Place Between Our Bodies, James Broughton's Song of the Godbody and Hermes Bird, and Curt McDowell's Confessions.

Also on a program earlier in the day: Jack Smith's Flaming Creatures and Warhol's Couch.

Everything's on 16mm.

-Toilet Dcuk

David Ehrenstein · #12 Post by **David Ehrenstein** » Tue Oct 17, 2006 10:38 am

Before its official home base was founded the Filmmakers' Cinematheque had screenings all over New York. New films were featured but many others were shown in a kind of ad hoc repetory because they draw a public. Scorpio Rising (which premiered in 1963, not 1964) was always one of the biggest crowd-pleasers.

Antoine Doinel · #13 Post by **Antoine Doinel** » Thu Oct 19, 2006 5:32 pm

Kenneth Anger gave a talk today in Montreal to film studies classes at Concordia University and here are some of the raves from students on a local messageboard:

it was fucking amazing. he went on & on with the moderator hardly able to get a question in. among other things we got basically a spoken word version sneak preview of the suppressed Hollywood Babylon 3 plus much much more. He was enjoying himself so much I'm sure he would've continued on for another couple of hours but there was another class coming in. Someone told me he's supposed to be at the screening of the doc on him tonight. Go, & hopefully he'll blab some more. Truly inspiring (& funny)...

that was so awesome. i loved the rambling and he dropped so many names. highlights: tom cruise had gonorrhea and didn't have a baby. mick jagger gave me an 11 minute moog score for my movie and he never gives anyone anything. i told jimmy page led zeppelin was too loud. francis ford coppola shouldn't take lithium for his bipolar disorder because look what it's turned you into: a fucking winemaker! francis ford coppola "doesn't know fuck about harlem." he can't direct blacks. italians are like puppets. when asked about vincent gallo, he called him a "lost talent" who doesn't need money because he's in real estate. "i would love to own a tower in manhattan." rita hayworth "looked like a wolf lady" before her widow's peak and hairline were altered. you could hear her screams all through columbia studios as this procedure was done. it seemed like every other sentence would be a great quote. he was on the verge of tears at least twice (when talking about his friend the late sir paul getty, with whom he would enjoy piles of cocaine, and the loss of the first reel of the lost horizon, as he recalled sitting by frank capra's bedside in palm springs).

There was is also a screening of the Anger documentary Anger Me tonight (or this afternoon). Unfortunately, I was unable to make either the talk or the screening.

Fletch F. Fletch · #14 Post by **Fletch F. Fletch** » Tue Oct 24, 2006 1:05 pm

A lengthy interview/profile on Anger, here from Time Out.

Michael · #15 Post by **Michael** » Sat Dec 30, 2006 6:57 pm

Scorpio Rising is now officially my #1 favorite choice to show to friends. Visiting home for the holidays, the disc came with me. I ended up showing this to everyone.

NO ONE couldn't believe his eyes...in other words, it's an ultimate eye-opener. My mom still talks about it.

Michael · #16 Post by **Michael** » Sat Dec 30, 2006 7:54 pm

Thanks, david...Flaming Creatures is luxurious...impossible to blink my eyes once.

Have you seen Pink Narcissus? This film resonates very strongly with me for some reason. Not only because everything about it, including Bobby Kendall, is dreamily, hauntingly gorgeous no matter how tacky the pink crystals and white gogo boots are. I've been working at a huge gay dance club for ten years now and I can see Bobby in almost every gay man that walks in the club. Possessed by the crippling fear of growing old...no wonder why so many men I've seen (especially in their 30s and 40s) are hooked to drugs (meth is tragically common in our community ).. that is to keep up with the younger crowd and also to stay thin.

Anyway david, thanks for another exciting discovery!

Michael · #17 Post by **Michael** » Sat Dec 30, 2006 8:20 pm

Pink Narcissus is definitely a Criterion-worthy film. It'd be so heavenly if Criterion could pick it up but the one's available now is still okay. If you love the movie, then it's absolutely worth getting. Once in a while, I find myself longing to revisit many images. There's one that I still can't figure out why it clicks so much to my mind: Bobby twirling the pink/silver globe.

david, who's Joey?

Michael · #18 Post by **Michael** » Sat Dec 30, 2006 8:33 pm

That's what I suspected.

Make sure to read Wonder Bread & Ecstasy by Charles Isherwood. I still keep running into Chi Chi La Rue at where I work.

David Ehrenstein · #19 Post by **David Ehrenstein** » Sun Dec 31, 2006 1:32 pm

Scorpio Rising is 1963, not 1964. It was one of the most popular films the Filmmaker's Cinematheque ever screened. While Brakhage played to near-empty houses, Anger films were SRO.

Michael · #20 Post by **Michael** » Fri May 11, 2007 4:38 pm

Folks walked out on Scorpio Rising. Anger in Miami Beach.

And an interview with Anger.