Lucifer Rising

Another dose of Kenneth Anger's film-making, supremely silly of course but entertaining if one is in the mood for seeing minor celebrities prancing about pretending to be supernatural beings.

This is one of the more polished of his efforts, but (perhaps as a result) it falls far below less professional works such as Inauguration of the Pleasure Dome or Invocation of My Demon Brother. Far from being at the cutting edge of the avant garde, this is a much more derivative piece, reminding the viewer of films such as Pink Floyd Live at Pompeii, or even, in some of the sequences featuring Marianne Faithful, the old Fry's Turkish Delight advertisements.

Similarly, the music, recorded by convicted murderer Bobby Beausoleil in prison, might have been expected to add an edge or frisson, but it's pleasant, spacey and bland, like an outtake from the Alan Parsons Project.

Impossible to take seriously, it's enjoyable at its level, and is worth immortality for the priceless credit of Lucifer played by Leslie Huggins.

Far removed from the 'satanic panic' of 1969's Invocation of My Demon Brother, and closer to the imagery, motifs and ideas of his earlier short Inauguration of the Pleasure Dome, Lucifer Rising finds the infant terrible of the hippie counterculture once again dabbling in the occult, the mystical and the mythological, only this time, with a clear, focused and assured approach. Gone are the frantic superimpositions and chaotic editing. Lucifer Rising is for the most part cleanly edited, more refined in the selection of images and more carefully constructed than its predecessors. It sees Anger harnessing his delirious side in the service of a certain film-making finesse, without losing any of his symbolic potency. What other proof is there that this is Anger at his most professional when he even uses tracking shots in some instances! What next, professional actors? A Crowley-esquire view of ancient Egypt then, with Lucifer as the bringer of Light, touching themes of death and rebirth, Lucifer Rising may lack the visceral, hypnotic madness of its predecessor but makes up for it with an air of spellbinding psychedelia.

Egyptian gods summons the angel Lucifer - in order to usher in a new occult age.

This film has been on my to-see list for almost twenty years. In the 1990s, I was big into the counter-culture scene and was reading quite a bit on Charles Manson. The name "Kenneth Anger" came up again and again, and his work was something I just had to see. But the opportunity never presented itself.

Now (2015) I have seen it, and it did not disappoint. Some have called it an extended music video, which is not far off. Others say it is something "occult", but even there I think that is slightly off. I doubt very much the people involved were taking themselves seriously, blending images and symbols from the Druids, Egyptians and Crowley... what an experience.

Among the 1960's counterculture philosophy of moral liberation, free-love, and flower-power utopianism were dark stirrings which came to a malignant fruition with the Rolling Stones' disastrous Altamont festival and the Tate/LaBianca slayings courtesy of Charles Manson's "family", thus bringing the fledgling Aquarian age to an abrupt end. And what, you may ask, has any of this to do with 'Lucifer Rising'? And well, the answer, is everything(!) as the 1960s were essentially an unconscious mass evocation of English Occultist Aleister Crowley's oft misunderstood maxim "Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the law"...and no other figure has done more to promote the name and work of Crowley in the arena of popular culture than Kenneth Anger.

Fascinated by fame (especially its darker aspects) from an early age, Anger had long been a fringe figure in Hollywood making and independently distributing obscure, homo-erotic, and occult inspired works that eventually attracted Their Satanic Majesties themselves the Rolling Stones. Anger was attracted to the power and pop-culture shamanic potency wielded by rock stars, and none more so than Mick Jagger who, hard as it is to believe these days, was back then viewed by parents and moral guardians as an androgynous, drug-addled threat to society. Perfect casting then, Anger reasoned, to play the part of Lucifer in his Magnum Opus 'Lucifer Rising'.

In the end Jagger chickened out, eventually leaving the role to be played by unknown Leslie Huggins. However, despite the lead role being played by an unknown, the film still boasts Donald Cammell (writer/director of 'Performance') as Osiris and Marianne Faithful as Lilith who play out a bizarre archetypal psychodrama against stunning backdrops of giant statues in Egypt, including, most evocatively, the Sphinx. Originally, the soundtrack was to be composed by Led Zeppelin guitarist, and fellow Crowley devotee, Jimmy Page (who puts in a blink-and-you'll-miss-him cameo) but owing to contractual obligations with Led Zeppelin he was only able to complete 22 minutes worth of material and was subsequently fired from the project following a bitter fallout with Anger. Eventually the soundtrack was composed by Manson "family" member Bobby Beausoleil (Anger's original choice for the role of Lucifer but who had a disagreement with Anger and buried the original print of the movie in the Death Valley desert forcing Anger to reshoot the film) whilst serving a prison sentence for his part in the murders performed under the orders of the counterculture anti-messiah Charles Manson. The soundtrack itself is part chilling, haunting soundscape and part dynamic quasi-classical rock opus which has a magnetic and spellbinding quality which complements the film in a way impossible to imagine from any other composition.

So, all told, 'Lucifer Rising' is more than a short film, and more than a work of art…even though the film is an exemplary example of both. However, more than these, it is the tortured result of a labour of love more than a decade long (filming began in 1966 yet was only finally released in 1980) which serves as a curious post-script to an era of fervent creativity in music, film, and art as well as being a curious admonition to those that seek unadulterated spiritual and moral exploration in the name of "Do what thou wilt" that with such potent virtues come all-encompassing costs.

A nice little trip for the connoisseur on the hunt for something bizarre, grotesque and visual interesting and/or the adept of magick a la Crowley and his kin. Luckily, the "movie" just runs 28 minutes and so we do not get the time to get bored by this experimental piece.