Thursday, December 26, 2013

416. Scorpio Rising

Scorpio Rising
1964
Directed by Kenneth Anger










Ugh, can we not, please?  These experimental films are sapping my life force.  Terrible, just terrible.

RATING: -----

Interesting Facts:

Kenneth Anger provided all the nazi paraphernalia himself.  Um...

Direct influence of Martin Scorsese and David Lynch.

10 comments:

  1. Errrr ... right....

    OK. I have to say that, of all the experimental' in the book, I found this to be one of the ones I found least weird and least boring. No... hang on, stay with me for a moment...
    I may well be wrong here... but I felt this one wasn't trying to be deliberately obscure... The sexuality may not be one that is easy to relate to*.. but all it is trying to do is portray it, show an aspect that many may not be aware of. I don't think it is proselytizing, it is saying "this is what we like to do, we are not saying you will, we are not saying you should, but neither should be do what you do - live with it"

    * (By that I don't mean the gay aspect.. I mean the heavy leather, S&M, Nazi tinged aspect)

    In contrast to many experimental, It is a simple portrayal. There is no hidden message.. you watch, you see a different life style, you like or dislike, end of.
    So not one I want to keep or watch again, but it didn't leave me puzzled, bemused, confused or feel stupid because I didn't get it. Not 'liked', but not 'disliked' either...

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    1. Haha I'll admit I got a bit lazy with this one and you make some good points. But for me, experimental films are never a medium that I am going to be interested in. I start rolling my eyes before the title screen comes up. It is not really fair to the films but I can't really help it. I also kind of felt like they were going for shock value here (I mean why else would you have S&M and Nazis in the same film) but I definitely agree that it was better than most.

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  2. Well, at least we now know where the Nazi-gay stereotype comes from... I kept thinking of the Blue Oyster bar. You know where that is from, no?

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  3. TS .. Sorry, no, over my head that one..... please educate...
    OK, I've done what I should have first done .. Googled it (my excuse is I'm of the generation for whom simply 'asking someone' is first stop before getting lost in internet stuff). So now I know .. 'fraid I've not seen any of those films...

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    1. No problem. Growing up in the eighties means Police Academy for better or worse

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  4. The Police Academy films right?

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    1. Exactly. Rumour has it that a new Police Academy is on the way, made by the people behind "Get Out". That has to be awesome.

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    2. Omg I loved get out so much. Hadn’t heard about this!

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  5. Nothing to do with this film .. But the comments on any films have dried up recently ..

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  6. I thought this was OK, better than the other American art shorts of the period. More interesting, more accessible. Didn't feel like it was being deliberately confrontational with the viewer. I might have these opinions simply because of the fantastic soundtrack though.

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