Eaux d'Artifice

Last updated
Eaux d'artifice
Directed by Kenneth Anger
Produced byKenneth Anger
StarringCarmilla Salvatorelli
CinematographyKenneth Anger
Edited byKenneth Anger
Release date
  • 1953 (1953)
Running time
12 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish

Eaux d'artifice (1953) is a short experimental film by Kenneth Anger.

Contents

Summary

The film consists entirely of a woman dressed in eighteenth-century clothes who wanders amidst the garden fountains of the Villa d'Este [1] ("a Hide and Seek in a night-time labyrinth" [2] ) to the sounds of Vivaldi's "Four Seasons", until she steps into a fountain and momentarily disappears.

Production

The film was shot in the Villa d'Este in Tivoli, Italy. The actress, Carmilla Salvatorelli (not "Carmello"), was "a little midget" Anger had met through Federico Fellini. [3] Anger used a short actress to suggest a different sense of scale, whereby the monuments seemed bigger (a technique he said was inspired by etchings of the gardens in the Villa d'Este by Giovanni Battista Piranesi). [3]

Inspiration

The title, a play on words, is meant to suggest Feux d'artifice (Fireworks), in obvious reference to Anger's earlier 1947 work. Film critic Scott MacDonald has suggested that Fireworks was a film about the repression of (the film-maker's) homosexuality in the United States, whereas Eaux d'Artifice "suggests an explosion of pleasure and freedom." [3]

Legacy

In 1993, this short film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant". [4] [5]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Errol Morris</span> American filmmaker and writer

Errol Mark Morris is an American film director known for documentaries that interrogate the epistemology of its subjects. In 2003, his documentary film The Fog of War: Eleven Lessons from the Life of Robert S. McNamara won the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature. His film The Thin Blue Line placed fifth on a Sight & Sound poll of the greatest documentaries ever made. Morris is known for making films about unusual subjects; Fast, Cheap & Out of Control interweaves the stories of a wild animal trainer, a topiary gardener, a robot scientist and a naked mole rat specialist.

<i>Jam Session</i> (1942 film) 1942 short film

Jam Session is a 1942 short film, directed by Josef Berne, which shows Duke Ellington and his orchestra performing "C Jam Blues".

<i>A Movie</i> 1958 experimental collage film directed by Bruce Conner

A Movie is a 1958 experimental collage film by American artist Bruce Conner. It combines pieces of found footage taken from various sources such as newsreels, soft-core pornography, and B movies, all set to a score featuring Ottorino Respighi's Pines of Rome.

Serene Velocity is a 1970 American experimental short film directed by Ernie Gehr. Gehr filmed it in the basement hallway of a Binghamton University academic building, using a static camera position and changing only the focal length of the camera. It is recognized as a key work of structural filmmaking and has been inducted into the U.S. National Film Registry.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">George Kuchar</span>

George Kuchar was an American underground film director and video artist, known for his "low-fi" aesthetic.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kenneth Anger</span> American filmmaker and writer

Kenneth Anger is an American underground experimental filmmaker, actor, and author. Working exclusively in short films, he has produced almost 40 works since 1937, nine of which have been grouped together as the "Magick Lantern Cycle". His films variously merge surrealism with homoeroticism and the occult, and have been described as containing "elements of erotica, documentary, psychodrama, and spectacle". Anger has been called "one of America's first openly gay filmmakers, and certainly the first whose work addressed homosexuality in an undisguised, self-implicating manner", and his "role in rendering gay culture visible within American cinema, commercial or otherwise [...] impossible to overestimate", with several films released before the legalization of homosexual acts between consenting adults in the United States. He focused on occult themes in many of his films, being fascinated by the English gnostic mage and poet Aleister Crowley, and is an adherent of Thelema, the religion Crowley founded.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Villa d'Este</span> Renaissance villa in Tivoli, Italy

The Villa d'Este is a 16th-century villa in Tivoli, near Rome, famous for its terraced hillside Italian Renaissance garden and especially for its profusion of fountains. It is now an Italian state museum, and is listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Precious Images is a 1986 short film directed by Chuck Workman. It features approximately 470 half-second-long splices of movie moments through the history of American film. Some of the clips are organized by genre and set to appropriate music; musicals, for example, are accompanied by the title song from Singin' in the Rain. Films featured range chronologically from The Great Train Robbery (1903) to Rocky IV (1985), and range in subject from light comedies to dramas and horror films.

<i>Scorpio Rising</i> (film) 1963 short film by Kenneth Anger

Scorpio Rising is a 1963 American experimental short film shot, edited, co-written and directed by Kenneth Anger, and starring Bruce Byron as Scorpio. Central themes include the occult, biker subculture, homosexuality, Christianity and Nazism. Scorpio Rising also explores the worship of rebel icons of the era, such as James Dean and Marlon Brando. Like many of Anger's films, Scorpio Rising does not contain any dialogue, but features a prominent soundtrack consisting of 1960s pop music, including songs by Ricky Nelson, The Angels, The Crystals, Bobby Vinton, Elvis Presley and Ray Charles.

Années de pèlerinage is a set of three suites for solo piano by Franz Liszt. Much of it derives from his earlier work, Album d'un voyageur, his first major published piano cycle, which was composed between 1835 and 1838 and published in 1842. Années de pèlerinage is widely considered as the masterwork and summation of Liszt's musical style. The third volume is notable as an example of his later style. Composed well after the first two volumes, it displays less virtuosity and more harmonic experimentation.

<i>Grey Gardens</i> 1975 documentary film by David Maysles, Albert Maysles

Grey Gardens is a 1975 American documentary film by Albert and David Maysles. The film depicts the everyday lives of two reclusive, upper-class women, a mother and daughter both named Edith Beale, who lived in poverty at Grey Gardens, a derelict mansion at 3 West End Road in the wealthy Georgica Pond neighborhood of East Hampton, New York. The film was screened at the 1976 Cannes Film Festival but was not entered into the main competition.

Fireworks are a class of low explosive pyrotechnic devices used for aesthetic and entertainment purposes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dante Sonata</span> Piano sonata by Franz Liszt

Après une lecture du Dante: Fantasia quasi Sonata is a piano sonata in one movement, completed by Hungarian composer Franz Liszt in 1849. It was first published in 1856 as part of the second volume of his Années de pèlerinage. This work of program music was inspired by the reading of Victor Hugo's poem “Après un lecture du Dante” (1836).

Castro Street (1966) is a visual nonstory documentary film directed by Bruce Baillie.

<i>Fireworks</i> (1947 film) 1947 homoerotic experimental film directed by Kenneth Anger

Fireworks (1947) is a homoerotic experimental film by Kenneth Anger. Filmed in his parents' home in Beverly Hills, California, over a long weekend while they were away, the film stars Anger and explicitly explores themes of homosexuality and sadomasochism. It is the earliest of his works to survive. Fireworks is known for being the first gay narrative film in the United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Marie Menken</span> American filmmaker (1909-1970)

Marie Menken was an American experimental filmmaker, painter, and socialite. She was noted for her unique filming style that incorporated collage. She was one of the first New York filmmakers to use a hand-held camera and trained Andy Warhol on its use. Her film Glimpse of the Garden was selected for preservation in the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">National Film Registry</span> Selection of films for preservation in the US Library of Congress

The National Film Registry (NFR) is the United States National Film Preservation Board's (NFPB) collection of films selected for preservation, each selected for its historical, cultural and aesthetic contributions since the NFPB’s inception in 1988.

<i>WTF with Marc Maron</i> Comedy podcast

WTF with Marc Maron is a weekly podcast and radio show hosted by stand-up comedian Marc Maron. The show was launched in September 2009. The show is produced by Maron's former Air America co-worker Brendan McDonald.

Hours for Jerome (1980–82) is an American silent experimental film in two parts directed by Nathaniel Dorsky recording the daily events of Dorsky and his partner, artist Jerome Hiler, around Lake Owassa in New Jersey and in Manhattan. The two films revolve around the four seasons with Part 1 revolving around spring through summer while part 2 revolves around fall through winter. According to Dorsky, he states that the film "is an arrangement of images, energies, and illuminations from daily life" and a "silent tone poem".

My Name Is Oona is a 1969 American avant-garde short film directed by Gunvor Nelson. It uses footage of her daughter Oona that has been optically printed, with Oona's voice used for the soundtrack. The film was selected for preservation in the National Film Registry in 2019.

References

  1. "Interview with Kenneth Anger". Electric Sheep. Retrieved 23 August 2010.
  2. Haller, Robert A. (1990). "Kenneth Anger". The Equinox . 3 (10): 239–60. ISBN   9780877287193 . Retrieved 23 August 2010.
  3. 1 2 3 MacDonald, Scott (2006). A critical cinema: interviews with independent filmmakers. UCLA UP. pp. 27–30. ISBN   978-0-520-24595-2.
  4. "Librarian Announces National Film Registry Selections (March 7, 1994) - Library of Congress Information Bulletin". www.loc.gov. Retrieved 2020-09-30.
  5. "Complete National Film Registry Listing". Library of Congress. Retrieved 2020-09-30.