Experimental filmmaker Kenneth Anger, who also wrote the novel Hollywood Babylon (which was banned in the U.S. when it was first released in 1965) and was considered to be a pioneer of underground cinema, has passed away at the age of 96. According to The Hollywood Reporter, his death was announced by Sprüeth Magers art gallery, which has presented exhibitions of his work.
Anger made more than thirty dialogue-free short films over a career that spanned from 1941 to 2013, but The Hollywood Reporter estimates that the work he did in those 72 years would take a viewer just 8 hours to watch in its entirety. His shorts have been described as “a kaleidoscope of symbolism, homoeroticism and the occult”. Some of his most popular shorts include the 1963 collage Scorpio Rising, described as “a pastiche of pop songs plastered over homoerotic biker imagery, pulp cartoons, Nazism, and paraphernalia”; the 13-minute 1953 short Eaux d’Artifice, which...
Anger made more than thirty dialogue-free short films over a career that spanned from 1941 to 2013, but The Hollywood Reporter estimates that the work he did in those 72 years would take a viewer just 8 hours to watch in its entirety. His shorts have been described as “a kaleidoscope of symbolism, homoeroticism and the occult”. Some of his most popular shorts include the 1963 collage Scorpio Rising, described as “a pastiche of pop songs plastered over homoerotic biker imagery, pulp cartoons, Nazism, and paraphernalia”; the 13-minute 1953 short Eaux d’Artifice, which...
- 5/24/2023
- by Cody Hamman
- JoBlo.com
Kenneth Anger, the avant-garde filmmaker whose surrealistic queer compositions Fireworks and Scorpio Rising made him a pioneer of underground cinema and a target for censorship, has died. He was 96.
Anger’s death was announced Wednesday by the Sprüeth Magers art gallery. “Kenneth was a trailblazer,” it said in a statement. “His cinematic genius and influence will live on and continue to transform all those who encounter his films, words and vision.”
No details of his death were immediately available.
In 1959, Anger authored the smutty exploitative book Hollywood Babylon — banned after its U.S release in 1965 — and followed it up with a sequel in 1984.
Anger’s work spanned the years 1941 to 2013 yet totaled just eight hours, a kaleidoscope of symbolism, homoeroticism and the occult found in his 36 dialogue-free short films (some complete, others fragmented) by THR‘s count.
His collage Scorpio Rising (1963), a pastiche of pop songs plastered over homoerotic biker imagery,...
Anger’s death was announced Wednesday by the Sprüeth Magers art gallery. “Kenneth was a trailblazer,” it said in a statement. “His cinematic genius and influence will live on and continue to transform all those who encounter his films, words and vision.”
No details of his death were immediately available.
In 1959, Anger authored the smutty exploitative book Hollywood Babylon — banned after its U.S release in 1965 — and followed it up with a sequel in 1984.
Anger’s work spanned the years 1941 to 2013 yet totaled just eight hours, a kaleidoscope of symbolism, homoeroticism and the occult found in his 36 dialogue-free short films (some complete, others fragmented) by THR‘s count.
His collage Scorpio Rising (1963), a pastiche of pop songs plastered over homoerotic biker imagery,...
- 5/24/2023
- by Rhett Bartlett
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
“Time is all we have and every second that ticks away is one less second we’re alive,” Kenneth Anger told an interviewer from The Guardian 16 and a half years before his death this May at the age of 96. “The sands of time are going through the hourglass but it doesn’t frighten me.”
If Woody Allen’s Zelig was found rubbing elbows with the storied and famous of the ’20s and ’30s, starting in the 1950s Anger was for some decades more than a match for him. His legacy is poised between the pathbreaking cinematic auteur who made such avant-garde shorts as “Inauguration of the Pleasure Dome” (1954) and “Scorpio Rising” (1963) and the purveyor of at times fictionalized Hollywood scandal in the sensational and frequently updated “Hollywood Babylon” (1959).
He was not immune from his own brushes with dark history — the very bikers he incorporated in some of his middle-period work...
If Woody Allen’s Zelig was found rubbing elbows with the storied and famous of the ’20s and ’30s, starting in the 1950s Anger was for some decades more than a match for him. His legacy is poised between the pathbreaking cinematic auteur who made such avant-garde shorts as “Inauguration of the Pleasure Dome” (1954) and “Scorpio Rising” (1963) and the purveyor of at times fictionalized Hollywood scandal in the sensational and frequently updated “Hollywood Babylon” (1959).
He was not immune from his own brushes with dark history — the very bikers he incorporated in some of his middle-period work...
- 5/24/2023
- by Fred Schruers
- Indiewire
Jimmy Page didn’t need long to become a standout guitarist. He was an ace session player long before joining the Yardbirds or forming Led Zeppelin. He said his guitar playing improved even more thanks to Led Zeppelin. Yet when he began working on the Lucifer Rising soundtrack, Page gave up playing his guitar altogether, and it made sense.
Jimmy Page | Michael Putland/Getty Images Jimmy Page gave up playing guitar in favor of Eastern instruments on his long-lost album
Filmmaker Kenneth Anger started working on his film Lucifer Rising long before he met Page. Yet the guitarist agreed to compose music for the movie soon after their first encounter in 1972. Both artists had a shared interest in the occult and author Aleister Crowley.
However, Page expressly avoided using guitars in his soundtrack for the movie, Page told Light & Shade: Conversations With Jimmy Page author Brad Tolinski:
“I employed...
Jimmy Page | Michael Putland/Getty Images Jimmy Page gave up playing guitar in favor of Eastern instruments on his long-lost album
Filmmaker Kenneth Anger started working on his film Lucifer Rising long before he met Page. Yet the guitarist agreed to compose music for the movie soon after their first encounter in 1972. Both artists had a shared interest in the occult and author Aleister Crowley.
However, Page expressly avoided using guitars in his soundtrack for the movie, Page told Light & Shade: Conversations With Jimmy Page author Brad Tolinski:
“I employed...
- 5/5/2023
- by Jason Rossi
- Showbiz Cheat Sheet
Listen to an audio version of this story below:
On the dusty, heat-blister town of Vacaville, California, halfway between Sacramento and Oakland, sits the bleak squat prison that holds a trim, handsome, highly articulate inmate named Bobby Beausoleil, almost 72, who has spent the past 50 years behind bars for murdering a musician friend of his, Gary Hinman, either as part of a drug deal gone bad or as a straight-up robbery, all depending on which version of events you believe. All of it happened under the dark cloud of another of Beausoleil’s friends,...
On the dusty, heat-blister town of Vacaville, California, halfway between Sacramento and Oakland, sits the bleak squat prison that holds a trim, handsome, highly articulate inmate named Bobby Beausoleil, almost 72, who has spent the past 50 years behind bars for murdering a musician friend of his, Gary Hinman, either as part of a drug deal gone bad or as a straight-up robbery, all depending on which version of events you believe. All of it happened under the dark cloud of another of Beausoleil’s friends,...
- 9/23/2019
- by Erik Hedegaard
- Rollingstone.com
There’s nothing like the impact of hearing an outrageous story from someone who experienced it firsthand. That’s why Legs McNeil and Gillian McCain wanted to publish an oral history of the Manson Family murders and the late Sixties. “It’s people making bad decisions in real time,” McNeil says. For more than 20 years, the duo has been working on 69, the follow-up to Please Kill Me, their 1996 definitive history of the New York punk scene. They’re almost done, they swear.
Fifty years ago, followers of hippie cult leader Charles Manson shot,...
Fifty years ago, followers of hippie cult leader Charles Manson shot,...
- 8/9/2019
- by Andrea Marks
- Rollingstone.com
Tony Sokol Jul 25, 2019
Art heist film The Burnt Orange Heresy features Donald Sutherland catching rye and a Rolling Stone gathering moss.
Mick Jagger is making his movie comeback.
The lead singer of the Rolling Stones hasn't acted since 2001's The Man from Elysian Fields. He turned down the booty from a part in the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise but couldn't turn away from an erotic neo-noir art heist thriller. The Burnt Orange Heresy, which also stars Donald Sutherland as a reclusive artist in the Jd Salinger mold, will have its world premiere at the Venice International Film Festival on September 7, 2019, according to Variety. The film will close out the festival in with an out-of-competition screening in the Sala Grande after the awards ceremony.
Based on Charles Willeford's 1971 novel The Burnt Orange Heresy, the film was directed by Giuseppe Capotondi. When the movie was first announced, Christopher Walken was...
Art heist film The Burnt Orange Heresy features Donald Sutherland catching rye and a Rolling Stone gathering moss.
Mick Jagger is making his movie comeback.
The lead singer of the Rolling Stones hasn't acted since 2001's The Man from Elysian Fields. He turned down the booty from a part in the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise but couldn't turn away from an erotic neo-noir art heist thriller. The Burnt Orange Heresy, which also stars Donald Sutherland as a reclusive artist in the Jd Salinger mold, will have its world premiere at the Venice International Film Festival on September 7, 2019, according to Variety. The film will close out the festival in with an out-of-competition screening in the Sala Grande after the awards ceremony.
Based on Charles Willeford's 1971 novel The Burnt Orange Heresy, the film was directed by Giuseppe Capotondi. When the movie was first announced, Christopher Walken was...
- 7/25/2019
- Den of Geek
Bobby Beausoleil -- one of Charles Manson's followers who's been in prison for murder for almost 49 years -- is on the verge of getting out, and he might have a Lady Gaga documentary to thank for helping his case. If you don't know, Beausoleil's not considered part of the Manson "family," but he was an associate and was convicted of first-degree murder in 1970. Despite an initial life sentence, he was recommended for parole by...
- 1/26/2019
- by TMZ Staff
- TMZ
After being denied 18 times, a California parole board recommended that former Charles Manson follower Bobby Beausoleil be released from prison, The Associated Press reports.
He has been serving a life sentence — previously commuted from the death penalty — for the 1969 murder of Gary Hinman, a music teacher living in Topanga Canyon who became friendly with Manson and his Family.
Beausoleil, 71, who is currently being held at the California Medical Facility in Vacaville, tortured Hinman for three days in July 1969 before stabbing him in the chest twice, killing him. He was already...
He has been serving a life sentence — previously commuted from the death penalty — for the 1969 murder of Gary Hinman, a music teacher living in Topanga Canyon who became friendly with Manson and his Family.
Beausoleil, 71, who is currently being held at the California Medical Facility in Vacaville, tortured Hinman for three days in July 1969 before stabbing him in the chest twice, killing him. He was already...
- 1/4/2019
- by Elizabeth Yuko
- Rollingstone.com
Fox has released the first promo spot for their upcoming Charles Manson documentary special called Inside the Manson Cult: The Lost Tapes. This little preview shows us some old unseen interview clips featuring some of the former cult members which includes Catherine “Gypsy” Share and Dianne “Snake” Lake. It's actually a little unsettling.
Inside the Manson Cult: The Lost Tapes is a two-hour documentary about the "infamous killer Charles Manson and on how he transformed a normal group of people into a group of cold-blooded killers. The special will further explore on the strong relationship that Manson has built among his followers."
The doc will also include interviews with some of the people who were involved with the case including prosecutor Stephen Kay, FBI criminal profiler John Douglas and Bobby Beausoleil, who killed people with the Manson family and is currently serving a life sentence.
A lot of people are...
Inside the Manson Cult: The Lost Tapes is a two-hour documentary about the "infamous killer Charles Manson and on how he transformed a normal group of people into a group of cold-blooded killers. The special will further explore on the strong relationship that Manson has built among his followers."
The doc will also include interviews with some of the people who were involved with the case including prosecutor Stephen Kay, FBI criminal profiler John Douglas and Bobby Beausoleil, who killed people with the Manson family and is currently serving a life sentence.
A lot of people are...
- 8/28/2018
- by Joey Paur
- GeekTyrant
Fox’s upcoming docu special on Charles Manson, “Inside the Manson Cult: The Lost Tapes,” will depict how a peace-loving commune turned into a group of cold-blooded killers, and Variety has obtained an exclusive first look at the project.
The two-hour true crime special was created from more than 100 hours of footage and will go inside Spahn’s Ranch, where Charles Manson and his followers lived. It features new and archival interviews with former cult members, including Catherine “Gypsy” Share and Dianne “Snake” Lake, to showcase the “family” aspect of his cult.
“Every girl ought to have a daddy like Charles — someone that treasures them as a woman, someone that lets them do things for him,” one woman says.
But the special also explores how that trust that Manson instilled from his followers turned violent. It includes interviews with those involved in the case against Manson, including prosecutor Stephen Kay...
The two-hour true crime special was created from more than 100 hours of footage and will go inside Spahn’s Ranch, where Charles Manson and his followers lived. It features new and archival interviews with former cult members, including Catherine “Gypsy” Share and Dianne “Snake” Lake, to showcase the “family” aspect of his cult.
“Every girl ought to have a daddy like Charles — someone that treasures them as a woman, someone that lets them do things for him,” one woman says.
But the special also explores how that trust that Manson instilled from his followers turned violent. It includes interviews with those involved in the case against Manson, including prosecutor Stephen Kay...
- 8/27/2018
- by Danielle Turchiano
- Variety Film + TV
A two-hour documentary called Inside the Manson Cult: The Lost Tapes has been set for a Sept. 17 debut on Fox, the network announced, also releasing a teaser featuring audio of Manson.
The crime doc, produced by Naked Television and narrated by Liev Schreiber, will include new and archival interviews with former Manson cult members. Included will be an exclusive prison interview with Bobby Beausoleil, who is serving a life sentence for a murder he committed in association with the Manson family.
Fox said the special was culled from more than 100 hours of footage.
“The Manson murders are some of history’s most shocking and grisly crimes,” said Rob Wade, Fox’s President, Alternative Entertainment and Specials. “The Lost Tapes offers incredible insight into how such unsuspecting people fell under Manson’s demonic spell, and how so many of them committed such heinous acts.”
Executive producer Simon Andreae said the “extraordinary...
The crime doc, produced by Naked Television and narrated by Liev Schreiber, will include new and archival interviews with former Manson cult members. Included will be an exclusive prison interview with Bobby Beausoleil, who is serving a life sentence for a murder he committed in association with the Manson family.
Fox said the special was culled from more than 100 hours of footage.
“The Manson murders are some of history’s most shocking and grisly crimes,” said Rob Wade, Fox’s President, Alternative Entertainment and Specials. “The Lost Tapes offers incredible insight into how such unsuspecting people fell under Manson’s demonic spell, and how so many of them committed such heinous acts.”
Executive producer Simon Andreae said the “extraordinary...
- 8/9/2018
- by Greg Evans
- Deadline Film + TV
Rob Zombie narrates a gripping trailer for a new documentary about Charles Manson, which includes audio interviews with the cult leader who orchestrated the 1969 Tate-labianca killings recorded in the year before his death. Charles Manson: The Final Words premieres December 3rd on Reelz.
The trailer teases snippets from several interviews with Manson, starting with a clip of him raving about his legacy. Elsewhere, Manson espouses his bizarre philosophies, claims his innocence once more and suggests that during the 40 years he's spent in prison, he's thought of not forgiveness and redemption...
The trailer teases snippets from several interviews with Manson, starting with a clip of him raving about his legacy. Elsewhere, Manson espouses his bizarre philosophies, claims his innocence once more and suggests that during the 40 years he's spent in prison, he's thought of not forgiveness and redemption...
- 11/28/2017
- Rollingstone.com
History usually remembers Gary Hinman as the first official “Manson family” victim — killed in July 1969 by a few of Charles Manson’s cult followers at his behest. But Hinman’s life was far more important to his relatives than his death.
“It is too bad he is known as a victim of Charles Manson, but that is not how the family remembers him,” cousin Charlotte Hood tells People after the news that Manson died Sunday, at age 83.
“I saw something on the Internet that he was very, very ill, and it is about time,” Hood says.
Speaking of Hinman, who was 34 when he was killed,...
“It is too bad he is known as a victim of Charles Manson, but that is not how the family remembers him,” cousin Charlotte Hood tells People after the news that Manson died Sunday, at age 83.
“I saw something on the Internet that he was very, very ill, and it is about time,” Hood says.
Speaking of Hinman, who was 34 when he was killed,...
- 11/21/2017
- by Adam Carlson and Christine Pelisek
- PEOPLE.com
In the summer of 1969, a group of young people led by Charles Manson sent a wave of terror through the hills of the Los Angeles area, leaving a trail of bodies behind them.
Nearly 50 years later, here’s what you need to know about the cult’s violence, its victims and where the killers are now.
The ‘Family’ Forms
Manson began attracting followers after he was released from prison in March 1967. But before he and his murderous group embarked on a plan to kill famous people, they sought out celebrities as friends, roommates and professional connections.
As Dianne Lake, the...
Nearly 50 years later, here’s what you need to know about the cult’s violence, its victims and where the killers are now.
The ‘Family’ Forms
Manson began attracting followers after he was released from prison in March 1967. But before he and his murderous group embarked on a plan to kill famous people, they sought out celebrities as friends, roommates and professional connections.
As Dianne Lake, the...
- 10/20/2017
- by Elaine Aradillas
- PEOPLE.com
Charles Manson murderer Bobby Beausoleil is jumping on the Trump bandwagon, calling Bs on the media calling Manson's group a "family." Beausoleil wrote a letter expressing his disdain for reporters who characterize the "semi-fictional entity" as "The Manson Family." He says it's all just "Manson mythology." The 69-year-old, who's locked up for life, does not specifically say why he takes issue with calling it a family, but it appears he's throwing shade on Charles Manson,...
- 3/16/2017
- by TMZ Staff
- TMZ
Here’s your daily dose of an indie film, web series, TV pilot, what-have-you in progress, as presented by the creators themselves. At the end of the week, you’ll have the chance to vote for your favorite.
In the meantime: Is this a project you’d want to see? Tell us in the comments.
The Queen of Hollywood Blvd
Logline: The proud owner of a Los Angeles strip club finds herself in hot water over a twenty-five year old debt to the mob, leading her on a downward spiral of violence and revenge through the underbelly of Los Angeles.
Elevator Pitch:
On her 60th birthday, Queen Mary (Rosemary Hochschild) receives a visit from Duke (Roger Guenveur Smith), a gangster who shows up out of the past to take back her beloved, aging Hollywood nightclub, given to her 25 years ago. But Duke is not a guy to be messed with,...
In the meantime: Is this a project you’d want to see? Tell us in the comments.
The Queen of Hollywood Blvd
Logline: The proud owner of a Los Angeles strip club finds herself in hot water over a twenty-five year old debt to the mob, leading her on a downward spiral of violence and revenge through the underbelly of Los Angeles.
Elevator Pitch:
On her 60th birthday, Queen Mary (Rosemary Hochschild) receives a visit from Duke (Roger Guenveur Smith), a gangster who shows up out of the past to take back her beloved, aging Hollywood nightclub, given to her 25 years ago. But Duke is not a guy to be messed with,...
- 9/29/2016
- by Steve Greene
- Indiewire
Kenneth Anger's crazy, gorgeous, disturbing films almost landed him in jail. The avant-garde pioneer talks Simon Hattenstone through all his demons
The gallery is so tiny I think I've walked into somebody's front room. A 10-minute film plays on a loop. Weirded-out rock stars who look like Mick Jagger, or who are Mick Jagger, preen, strut and do their late-1960s satanic thing. White dots form a pyramid on a black background, naked boys lounge on a sofa, marines jump from a helicopter. There's a cat, a dog, an all-seeing Egyptian eye, people smoking dope out of a skull. A synthesiser makes an unbearable noise. There are no words, no story.
Around the screen, in London's Sprüth Magers gallery, a bunch of 21st-century trendies and stoners are watching this film, called Invocation of My Demon Brother, in awe, their ages ranging from late teens to late 80s. Next door,...
The gallery is so tiny I think I've walked into somebody's front room. A 10-minute film plays on a loop. Weirded-out rock stars who look like Mick Jagger, or who are Mick Jagger, preen, strut and do their late-1960s satanic thing. White dots form a pyramid on a black background, naked boys lounge on a sofa, marines jump from a helicopter. There's a cat, a dog, an all-seeing Egyptian eye, people smoking dope out of a skull. A synthesiser makes an unbearable noise. There are no words, no story.
Around the screen, in London's Sprüth Magers gallery, a bunch of 21st-century trendies and stoners are watching this film, called Invocation of My Demon Brother, in awe, their ages ranging from late teens to late 80s. Next door,...
- 3/10/2010
- by Simon Hattenstone
- The Guardian - Film News
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