Meshes of the Afternoon (1943/Deren) Very interesting short. Deren moves gracefully around a villa, seeing a haunting man with a mirror for a face, keys and knives dissappearing and switching, and eventually, clones of herself. In the end, she is awoken from what seemed like a dream by a gentle male figure, but upon the sudden arrival of the knife from the dream, she stabs him in the forehead, shattering his cranium to reveal a beach and an ocean inside. In the end, we find that the film was perhaps a pictoriliazation of the dying woman's thoughts, as the male figure from earlier enters her appartment to find her dead from an apparent suicide.
A Study in Choreography for the Camera (1945/Deren) A silent short in which we watch a slow-moving dancer moving in and out of several different settings as he dances. Less entertaining than the former film, could've used some music.
Scorpio Rising (1963/Anger) Perhaps the best short film I've ever seen. Anger mixes varying motifs, from religion to masculine idealism, to nazism, to homosexuality, all wrapped up in colorful, fast-paced but visually detailed film with no dialogue but a fantastic late 50's soundtrack. While it was somewhat dissappointing to see the vague homosexual undertones that were established in the first half descend into an orgy around the midpoint of the film, the scenes and montages that proceeded to wrap the piece up redeemed it. What begins as a nostalgic look at the age of Marlon Brando films, leather jackets, and cigarettes, eventually morphs into what appeared to be a comment on societal views of gay organizations and ideals. Another key element of the film seems to be the "live fast, die young" idea, with the sporadic appearances of a grim reaper, a noose, and newspaper articles about motorcycle accident deaths forming a morbid picture of the youth's future. And the somber ending bathes a fallen biker in the red flashes of an ambulance siren. Overall, a complex, sometimes disturbing, consistently fascinating film.
Kustom Kar Kommandos (1964/Anger) Supposedly originally conceived as a companion piece to Scorpion Rising, Anger ran out of of money so it was instead released a simple 2 minute video of a greaser buffing his custom car and then driving it away to a slow song from the 60's. The only real point of interest here is odd KKK reference in the title.
Rabbit's Moon (1972/Anger) We watch as a man dressed as a white rabbit jumps around the forest which is bathed in blue light. He is obsessed with the moon, and is visited by a demonic clown and a beautiful woman as he is engulfed in the moon's gaze. Anger utilizes good music again, but the meaning or quality of this short is otherwise lost on me.
