‘Underground’ films

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32568, 30 March 1971, Page 21

‘Underground ’ films

Underground cinema, al movement which began in the late 1950 s in Greenwich Village, the bohemian sector of New York, and is now widely accepted as a creative force in film-making, will emerge in Christchurch this week when the University of Canterbury Film Society screens a trio of films in colour by Kenneth Anger, including “Scorpio Rising.”

Anger’s reputation as a film-poet in the movement rivals that of Andy Warhol.

The films were obtained by the New Zealand Federation of Film Societies after long and complex negotiations. The Censor has passed them for showing to approved film societies only. “Anger made ‘Scorpio Rising’ to mark the beginning of the Aquarian Age, which occultists interpret as being the end of a period of Christian domination and the beginning of a period of Pagan domination,” says Sheldon Renan in “The Underground Film.” “He sees pop songs, drug use, motor-cycle cultists, the teen-age fad of Nazi symbols and so on as strong manifestations of demonic forces. “The ‘hero,’ Scorpio, is intercut with shots of Hitler, James Dean, Marlon Brando (shown on a TV set in ‘The Wild One”) and Jesus Christ (shown in scenes from De Mille’s, ‘King of Kings’).” “Eau d’Artifice,” on the other hand, is a lyric poem of the fountains and statuary of the Ville d’Este in Rome. The film was shot in black and white, printed on colour stock through a blue filter, and finally hand tinted.

“Invocation of My Demon Brother” is a powerful study of black magic, with a sound track by Mick Jagger. The first half of the Kenneth Anger programme includes “Richard Hamilton,” a striking contemporary experimental film in colour about the ideas and work of a leading British pop artist. The film was chosen for the 1970 New York Film Festival. Also on the programme will be Roman Polanski’s fantasy-parable, ■ “Two Men and A Wardrobe,” made while Polanski was still a

student at the Polish Film School at Lodz. Screenings will be tomorrow at Room G 1 at the town site of the university and on Thursday at Room SI at Ham, each night at 7.30. Although enrolments this year have been a record there are still a limited number of vacancies for new members, both students and non-students.