Underground Gay Biker Night [abridged]

First film on the roster for the evening of August 27, 2008 was "Scorpio Rising" (1964, 28 min, Kenneth Anger).  Let us begin with a teaser that may not be a part of the film, but does certainly introduce the thematic elements:

from "Kustom Kar Kommandos" (1965, 3 min, Kenneth Anger)

Yes folks, Kenneth Anger-  fetishizing the bodies of men and machines in this one with some doc footage of the Coney Island scene, crazy nazi stuff before a couple bikes jumping.

I cannot say that I find Mr. Anger's work very accessible, but I can say that in a sort of free-form jazz way of montaging and flash-cutting, he works with his themes of man, machine, hero-fetish, preening queens, Jesus, and Nazis and shows us ... something.  Something that clearly plays in his mind because there is a feeling to the cutting and structure that I don't always agree with, but was moved by.

Like a big gay Frankenstein's monster dancing to "Blue Velvet", swinging a spiked mace, wearing a tutu, but real serious about it which gives it an integrity.

The strange brew of elements include some James Dean and Brando, a lot of male torsos and waists, curvy chrome and metal, a lot of black leather and metal studs, and finally a bit of moving vehicles.

The thing that I found somewhat bland in the movie was the music.  Essentially, "Scorpio Rising" is a 4-part meditation on bodies and motion and masculinity set to late 50's-early 60's doo-wop and pop music that plays like a series of music videos.  For me, this becomes boring, although, as the parts progress, the flash-cutting gets weirder and weirder till Nazis and Jesus and Brando are popping up all over the place making one think, "What the hell?"

Having now damned Anger with faint praise, I offer my thoughts on the structure.  "Scorpio Rising" begins with the preparation of the machine.  Men assemble their bikes.  After this passage, men assemble their attire to go ride these bikes.  Thirdly, we begin to see the biker scene as Anger would like us to [this is where the Hollywood guys, Jesus, and the Third Reich come together] and finally we see some bikes moving towards the logical conclusion of the process ... death.

The following clip is the last 4 of the 28 minutes minus the hold on black that occurs at the end on the copy we watched ... 

In short, the Anger was worth watching, but strange and somewhat dissatisfying, although everyone in attendance seemed to have been moved by the work.

And, because I think it's always interesting to see the folks whose films we've watched ...

This 15 min interview with Anger on French TV makes me want to see anything else this dude has made:

Due to unforeseen circumstances, Movie Viewing Club had to be shortened last week and we opted to see only the short as a group.  The next day, M.C. Adam watched "Bike Boy" (1967, 96 min, Andy Warhol) on his own and is expected to report to us his response.

We did as a group have a short encore before retiring to the local pub to go over our notes - namely, "Heavy Metal Parking Lot" (1986, 17 min, John Heyn and Jeff Krulik) in which Hayne and Krulik direct a couple camera/sound teams through the parking lot before a Judas Priest show somewhere in Maryland.

There is some question among the interviewees as to whether Priest, Dokken [who will open the show], or The Scorpions [who have nothing to do with the show] are the kings of heavy metal, but these differences in opinion just add to the hammered-in-the-afternoon feel of the parking lot.  The footage collected reads like sound-bites from an evening news broadcast if the broadcasters didn't cut when 20 year olds were making out with 13 year olds.  In short, a wonderfully accessible sociological piece on the by-gone days of getting trashed before a Priest show, making out in a car, and driving home.  Oh, and seeing the Priest.

Wonderful little encore.

and the opening sequence:


The other order of business for the week was figuring out a system by which to rotate the members of the selection committee.  For more on that, I turn it over to Web Impresario Jeff Lanza ...