Eaux d'artifice

I saw this on a fairly large screen as part of a MOCA exhibit in Los Angeles. I probably watched it four or five times that day. It is one of the most stunning films I have ever seen. It's breathtaking.

Sadly, every time I've seen it since, it doesn't sync quite right with the video format. You have to see it as a film projection (or find a source that gets around the mis-sync). Well worth it if you can!!!

A stunning water garden is the empyrean setting for this short film, one of the director's strongest works. The ceaseless motion of liquid in an elaborate fountain-system is given close study in high-contrast black and white...jets, streams and droplets dance madly to classical music as the water becomes seemingly enlivened with a zoetic personality. The mood shifts with the music's dramatic rise-and-fall, being somber and wintry one moment, majestic and powerful the next. Intermittently, a shadowy figure in period costume moves hurriedly through the scenery, adding even further mystique to the proceedings.

Variably similar to Ralph Steiner's groundbreaking 1929 short H2O, and equally mesmerizing in its simple organic beauty, this film is a small masterwork. 9/10.

Somewhat atypical of Anger's films, this seems to be a pure visual treat with none of his trademark homoeroticism or occult references. To a soundtrack of "The Four Seasons", a woman wearing eighteenth century clothes wanders through a garden carrying a fan, until she comes across a fountain. She enters the waters, and fades to nothingness. Anger's camerawork is nothing less than sensational, catching the play of light on the water superbly. This short film was shot in b&w, and printed with a coloured tint, with the fan hand-tinted in a separate colour. Simple, and beautifully effective.

A woman dressed elegantly walks purposely through the water gardens at the Villa d'Este in Tivoli, as the music of Vivaldi's "Winter" movement of "The Four Seasons" plays. Heavy red filters give a blue cast to the light; water plays across stone, and fountains send it into the air. No words are spoken. Baroque statuary and the sensuous flow of water are back lit. Anger calls it "water games." Based on what I've read, many have considered this among Anger's best, or his masterpiece, and it is apparently very influential. For me, I just did not care for it. I get that he shot it very beautifully and the use of tinting and light make this something of a moving painting. But, you know, it does not have that imagery I expect from his work.

The short films of Kenneth Anger are certainly NOT for the casual film goer! The best way to describe them is avant-garde--and often make little sense, as they are not meant to be shown to the masses. Some are incredibly artistic--like filmed work of art. Some are really cheaply made and definitely look it. Regardless, they are a challenge to watch and I very strongly recommend you see them with his commentary activated. So why would I see these shorts? Well, in a recent interview I noticed that John Waters credits Anger for much of his inspiration. And, since I have seen all the films of Waters that are available (a couple very early ones aren't), it seems natural I'd give Anger's films a try. This and four other reviews are best on the DVD "Films of Kenneth Anger: Volume 1".

I notice that one reviewer gave this film a 1 and called it the worst of Anger's films. While I can really understand someone not liking his work (it is a very acquired taste), I can't see attacking this film in particular, as it is one of the loveliest and most technically amazing shorts of the age. While I do NOT generally like art films, this one is amazing.

Much of the reason I was so impressed with this film was as Anger described it in the commentary track, I realized just how difficult the film was to get it to look the way it did. To give the film a wonderful blue luminous quality, he actually filmed the short using black & white film shot through a red filter. Then, he had the result developed using color stock! To make the scenery at Tivoli's water garden look bigger, he used a midget as his actress! And, to get the water to cascade just right, he also used varying speeds with the camera. I was quite impressed that a film maker who was not at all "Hollywood" but an avant-garde film maker would know to do this. Additionally, the use of Vivaldi's "Winter" from "The Four Seasons" was perfectly timed to the film and made the whole thing a treat to see.

If you are looking for an art film, it doesn't get a lot better than this.