First seeing Kenneth Anger's 1949 film Puce Moment was a lulling, bewildering experience. Even after countless viewings, and fairly intense internet research, it remains as mysterious as it initially seemed. The combination of its Golden era Hollywood setting, avant garde presentation, and lo-fi folk rock music make it feel like it exists entirely out of time. Anger, who is known to re-edit, and re-imagine his films endlessly, changed the music from a Verdi piece to these Johnathan Halper songs sometime in the late sixties or early seventies. The two songs are simply amazing, and immediately prompted me to seek out more from Halper. However they are the only known recordings (let alone proof of existence) from him. The film itself was originally intended to be part of a longer piece titled Puce women, which would never come to be. This is the case with Many of Anger's films, similar stories surround the making of Kustom Kar Kommandos, and Invocation of my Demon Brother. Whatever the origin, it shows an early Kenneth Anger indulging his fascination with the decadence of Hollywood that would ultimately culminate in Hollywood Babylon, and remains simply a strange and beautiful film.
I hope you enjoy the video, but for a proper version look for the DVD Films of Kenneth Anger Vol. 1 from Fantoma.
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