Kenneth Anger was quite an artistic prodigy to have produced such a vivid film as "Fireworks" while being only 17. The gay iconography he wanted to let loose was very bold and extremely courageous for its time of release. Homosexuality and sado-masochism are surely topics not taken lightly by society in 1947, especially from someone so young. He was apparently brought up on charges due to this film being considered obscene, but thankfully the courts came to its senses and he was released.
The film, Eaux d'artifice was interesting to me because of the relationship between a very elaborately dressed woman fitted in 18th century wardrobe and the mirror images bestowed from the flowing water. Some fountains resembled her fan, and certain spouts could represent her huge, powdered wig. The continuous flowing of both the water, and running of the woman also were obviously in common to me.
Stan Brakhage's films that we watched had me a bit confused. He mentioned that he wasn't trying to be abstract in his message, yet Moth Light and Garden of Earthly Delights definitely seemed to have little to say. Although very beautiful visually.
Here is a part of the original painting titled "Garden of Earthly Delights" by Hieronymus Bosch mentioned in class:
Brakhage used that name for one of his films in which he taped pieces of plants he found and arranged them in patterns. Like I said, I don't know what kind of meaning he really has with that idea other than being abstract. Possibly he just wanted to show beauty without any kind of pretense or label.
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