Elio Gelmini's Anger Me paints an enduring biographical portrait of Kenneth Anger, one of the most fascinating, controversial and brilliant cinematic artists of the past sixty years, and a veritable godfather of independent film. Raised in Tinseltown, Anger was a mere seven years old when he acted in his first motion picture (as the Changeling Prince in William Dieterle's 1936 version of A Midsummer Night's Dream). He turned to filmmaking as a young man, crafting a series of surrealistic, abstract short films, heavily laden with cryptic, multilayered imagery, including Rabbit's Moon (1950), The Inauguration of the Pleasure Dome (1954), Scorpio Rising (1964), Invocation of My Demon Brother (1969) and Lucifer Rising (1980). Though considered 'underground,' the works nonetheless impacted such contemporary mainstream directors as Martin Scorsese and David Lynch and have since become pillars of the American avant garde. Meanwhile, Anger acquired an enduring fascination with film history and Hollywood gossip, which led to two infamous books and turned him into a bestselling author: Hollywood Babylon (1976) and Hollywood Babylon 2 (1984). He also cultivated a network of acquaintances that included Warhol, Mekas, Ginsberg, Alfred Kinsey, Mick Jagger and everyone in-between. Gelmini pays homage to Anger via an extended monologue that finds the director discussing his life experiences, as well as the content and significance of his work
by Nathan Southern
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