Kenneth Anger's Garden of Earthly Delights
Dir: Kenneth Anger
USA, 1947-1971, English, 63mins, 35mm
A pioneer of avant-garde film, Kenneth Anger (1927-2023) led an unregretfully idiosyncratic life producing around 40 works full of powerful and confrontational imageries, merging surrealism, homoeroticism, occultism, and a love of pop culture. Fireworks (1947) is a forthright expression of sadomasochistic homosexuality, erotically transformed from the historical trauma and the social repression of sexuality. Scorpio Rising (1963) juxtaposes a montage of homoerotic shots, religious symbols and cultural icons with a jukebox-structured pop soundtrack of the 1950s and 60s, creating a new cinematic language that foreshadows the emergence of music videos. Kustom Kar Kommandos (1965) delves into the depths of desire through the theme of auto-fetishism. Filmed with a blue filter and filled with symbolic images, Rabbit Moon (1971) tells a whimsical tale about a clown’s longing to reach the moon indebted to the elements of Commedia dell'Arte, evoking Lynch’s claustrophobic interior in Blue Velvet. Anger said, ‘making a movie is casting a spell,’ he created his own mythology, he was, and remains cinema’s greatest cult priest.
Fireworks, Scorpio Rising and Kustom Kar Kommandos are preserved by UCLA Film & Television Archive with funding provided by The Film Foundation. Rabbit's Moon is preserved through the Avant-Garde Masters program funded by The Film Foundation and administered by the National Film Preservation Foundation
23/12 (Sat): Film talk with Jun Li
Screening:
In-theatre Screening
Cinema Heritage: From The Film Foundation
Buy Ticket 2023-12-10 (Sun)
21:30Buy Ticket 2023-12-23 (Sat)
14:30
Hong Kong Arts Centre Louis Koo Cinema (Venue)
M+ Cinema (Venue)
EMP Cinemas iSQUARE (Venue)
EMP Cinemas Times Square (Venue)
PREMIERE Elements (Venue)
K11 Art House
Broadway Hollywood
Hong Kong Film Archive
Festival Grand Cinema
The Grand Cinema
Cine Moko
MOViE MOViE
The Metroplex
the sky
HK Science Museum Lecture Hall
Hong Kong Arts Centre Shouson Theatre
MCL Telford Cinema
Tai Kwun
The HKFYG Jockey Club Media 21
CINE FAN ONLINE
Chinese Subtitles
Category III
Director and/or actor(s) will meet the audience
Meet the audience
Post-screening discussion with the director
Post-screening talk
Assigned seating
Full House