>>REVIEW
PIONEERS OF THE UNDERGROUND
Anger Me
DIRECTED BY Elio Gelmini
Saturday, April 14
EMMedia Screening Room
He’s regarded by many as a visionary and the pioneer of underground film. He describes himself as a film poet and has a best-selling book of Hollywood scandal to his credit. His life has been filled with the comings and goings of a large and diverse group of people including Alfred Kinsey and Aleister Crowley. A film about Kenneth Anger should be compelling and riveting, but Anger Me is an underwhelming 72-minutes of viewing.
With unique images and visual style, Anger was a maverick working outside the established system who changed the way people accepted, watched and created their art. It seems far too crude to have all his on--camera time spent simply superimposed over images of his own films, relegated to being nothing more than a talking head.
Possibly director Elio Gelmini himself wanted to step outside the traditional life story format True Hollywood Story and A&E’s Biography by creating a film around a monologue of Anger’s life given by Anger himself. This approach unfortunately just doesn’t bring enough punch to the intriguing subject matter. Getting the information straight from the source definitely makes it a more intimate telling, but Anger’s recollections, highlighting both memorable and unfortunate moments, would have been greatly enhanced by hearing from those touched by him and his body of work, further impressing upon the audience his important influence on modern filmmakers. Also, and quite simply, the addition of some other voices to the film would break up the monotony of hearing one single voice for over an hour.
Anger Me is presented by the Calgary Underground Film Festival. It is part of a film series taking place at the EMMedia Screening Room on Saturday, April 14 from 1:00 to 5:30 p.m. |
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