Kenneth Anger, Volume Two gathers together Kenneth Anger's work during his most influential period. "Scorpio Rising" is the standout, a homoerotic (daring by the standards of the day)semi-documentary (play the commentary) of gay bikers in Coney Island which through use of montage and then current pop songs, some sacreligious elements (a dated religious film is spliced in) and film footage of Hollywood movies (Marlon Brando in the "Wild One", James Dean)creates an avant masterwork, underground before the genre became tedious. Influential on John Waters Gus Van Sant but surprisingly an admitted influence on Martin Scorcese and many other mainstream film makers (the use of the song "Blue Velvet" in an out of context fashion may have been lifted by a certain film maker) and the use of pop songs in an ironic context was groundbreaking. The other films are less important ("Kustom Kar Kommandos" is a film fragment never completed, "Invocation of My Demon Brother" is dated (Mick Jagger unsuccesfully trying out the Moog, soundtrack, the appearence of Anton Levay), "Rabbit's Moon" is a shortened version of the far better version available on Volume I (which had a far more appropriate soundtrack) and "Lucifer Rising" has its moments and nice imagery but no more (the new film on Aleister Crowley "The Man We Want to Hang" is an interesting bonus but no surprise). So for overall content I'd give this 4 stars but "Scorpio Rising", plus the remastering of the films and soundtracks and the commentary take this up one full star and make this a neccessary purchase for all interested in film history.
