From: Mark Toscano (email suppressed)
Date: Wed Aug 09 2006 - 12:05:27 PDT
Hi Freya -
I don't think it was a question of omission, but a
limitation of funding. I think Ross's idea was to
hopefully continue the work on Kenneth's four other
films next time round.
As for what's important or not, priorities in
preservation are often quite different than what a
scholar, fan, or critic might say. And I'd have to
say here that I think Scorpio Rising is probably
Anger's most well-known and -seen film, so it's not a
surprising choice (and in general, I think there would
be a lot of disagreement on this list over what
Anger's "important" films are. For instance,
personally, I don't as care much for Inauguration as I
do Scorpio Rising.)
As for Fireworks, with the original missing, it
becomes more of a priority to track down the best
possible sources as soon as possible to get the film
restored before those sources might be unavailable or
unuseable, etc.
Not to change the topic, but like with the Brakhage
project, the very first film I worked on was actually
a film that Stan didn't even like much, and removed
from distribution decades ago - Unglassed Windows Cast
a Terrible Reflection (1953). I chose it partly
because it's a rarer and scarcer film in terms of
prints out there, and the original was lost. I only
had a 50-year-old so-so dupe negative to work from.
So it became more of a priority than, say, Blue Moses
or The Dead or some other more known and acclaimed
Brakhage classic, because those films were in
excellent, stable condition.
Mark T
--- Freya <email suppressed> wrote:
> I know that if someone gives you a horse for free
> then
> you shouldn't start looking into its dental
> situation
> but I'm very suprised that what would be the more
> important works by Kenneth Anger, at least for me
> personally, and also I think in terms of the
> influence
> on lyrical film, are notably all missing!
>
> Obviously the choice of Rabbits Moon is a must, as
> the
> original film is 35mm anyway so it's a
> straightforward
> decision, but for me the most important Anger fims
> would be "Inauguration of the pleasure dome",
> "Lucifer
> Rising" and "Invocation of my demon brother".
> Strangely, it seems like these films have almost
> been
> deliberately omitted, as I can't think of any other
> widespread works that *have* been omited.
>
> I'd love to see these films blown up to 35mm with
> remastered soundtracks, perhaps even in stereo. For
> some reason, the idea of Lucifer Rising in this
> context seems especially exciting!
>
> For me these 3 films are the core and most important
> works by Kenneth Anger and I'm sad and suprised that
> they have not been chosen for this restoration.
>
> Or perhaps they have been but are considered so
> important that extra time is being taken over them?
>
> Anyway, I'm not meaning to moan, I just wondered why
> all the most special Anger films aren't in this
> list.
>
> It's obviously wonderful that these prints have been
> made available, especially the 35mm print of rabbits
> Moon which I have a feeling will look amazing, so
> thankyou very much to all involved!
>
> love
>
> Freya
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For info on FrameWorks, contact Pip Chodorov at <email suppressed>.