still Scorpio Rising (Kenneth Anger, US 1963)

Kenneth Anger - The Inauguration of the Pleasure Dome + Scorpio Rising

Eye on Art: Kenneth Anger - The Inauguration of the Pleasure Dome + Scorpio Rising

Kenneth Anger’s radical, boundary breaking 16mm films meld occultism and sex in a bizarre covenant. Anger died on 11 May 2023 and this screening of The Inauguration of the Pleasure Dome and Scorpio Rising is an homage to this pioneer.

Kenneth Anger, one of the key figures in American avant-garde cinema, died on 11 May 2023. To him, the making and screening of films was a spiritual ceremony. Provocateur and visionary Anger wanted to circumvent rationality and target the subconscious.

Programme

Inauguration of the Pleasure Dome (1954, 38')
Mythological and religious figures such as Lord Shiva, Pan and Hecate perform a psychedelic ritual centring on Bacchus in this hallucinatory film. The hedonistic extravaganza is based on one of van Aleister Crowley’s rituals whereby people in a cult adopt the identity of a god or goddess. This fabulous queer musical is also an homage to the early cinema of George Méliès and Eisenstein’s editing.
Scorpio Rising (1964, 30')
Scorpio Rising centres on the archetypically American phenomenon of biker gangs, but then from Anger’s perspective: obscene and shocking. He links religious, mystical and nationalist iconographies to the bikers’ counterculture.

Scorpio Rising was a major influence on generations of filmmakers. Its scintillating rock-'n-roll-soundtrack means the film can be viewed as a precursor to music videos. Scorpio Rising was banned by the court – the jury didn’t like the jumbled-up images of gays, nazis and Jesus.