Kenneth Anger Latest Celebrity News & Gossip

Sprüeth Magers art gallery. He was 96.It is with deep sadness that we mourn the passing of visionary filmmaker, artist and author Kenneth Anger (1927–2023).Kenneth was a trailblazer.

Andrea Bocelli performed a rendition of the song ‘Time to Say Goodbye’ with his son Matteo Bocelli to accompany the Academy’s annual obituary section. Perhaps mindful of previous years, in which eagle-eyed viewers have jumped on omissions, this year’s “In Memoriam” seemed both comprehensive but at the same time not enough, with a bizarre postscript that lumped together artists as diverse as (in alphabetical order) Kenneth Anger, Terence Davies, Carl Davis, David McCallum, Sinead O’Connor, Paolo Taviani and Treat Williams in a well-meaning but unintentionally backhanded postscript.

The first comprehensive John Waters exhibit dedicated to the cinema contributions from the “King of Filthy” opens this weekend at the Academy Museum in Hollywood.

Gay filmmaker and author Kenneth Anger, known for his experimental and homoerotic movies and his wildly gossipy “Hollywood Babylon” books, has died at age 96.

Owen Gleiberman Chief Film Critic Most artists, if they’re lucky, invent one thing. But Kenneth Anger, who was a filmmaker, an author, a debauched aristocratic scenester and, to the day of his death at 96 (he reportedly died May 11, though it wasn’t made public until May 24), a figure of puckish mystery, invented several things, each of them epic. In “Fireworks,” his transcendent 14-minute avant-garde film of 1947, Anger invented the very consciousness and imagery of gay liberation — not the desire to be liberated (which was buried in the hearts of gay people everywhere), but the rapturous visual reverie of what that liberation might look like, what it would feel like, why it seemed so forbidden, and why it needed to be. In “Scorpio Rising,” his homoerotic demon-biker/Top-40-orgy blast from the underground, Anger invented MTV, invented what Martin Scorsese did in “Mean Streets” and David Lynch did in “Blue Velvet,” invented a way to express how music and reality talk to each other.

Kenneth Anger, the experimental filmmaker and author whose work was groundbreaking in its exploration of gay themes and erotica, has died. He was 96.

Ethan Shanfeld Experimental filmmaker, artist and author Kenneth Anger has died. He was 96. His gallery, operated by Monika Sprüth and Philomene Magers, confirmed the news on their website, writing, “Kenneth was a trailblazer. His cinematic genius and influence will live on and continue to transform all those who encounter his films, words and vision.” Anger produced over 30 short films from 1937 to 2013, having made his first movie at 10 years old. Known as “one of America’s first openly gay filmmakers,” he gained a reputation for exploring themes of erotica and homosexuality decades before gay sex was legalized in America. Anger received recognition for his homoerotic 1947 film “Fireworks,” which landed him in court on obscenity charges. Filmed in his childhood home in Beverly Hills, Calif., while his parents were away for the weekend, “Fireworks” is known as the first gay narrative film produced in the U.S.

For a certain type of cinephile versed in the avant-garde, the name Jonas Mekas brings to mind a particular type of autobiographical filmmaking — one that prioritized the immediacy of a given moment over context or sometimes even narrative coherence. He was an Immensely prolific filmmaker, critic, archivist, and poet who, in his own words, immigrated to the US in the late ’40s “hungry, thirsty for art,” taking in everything he could.  While not exactly forgotten, Mekas’ work as the “Film Culture” founder, Village Voice critic, historian, and champion of such directors as Kenneth Anger and Ken Jacobs, has often overshadowed his prolific film work.

Manuel Betancourt The opening moments of Amanda Kramer’s “Please Baby Please” play like an archly stylized “West Side Story” by way of Kenneth Anger. Only, instead of the Jets, we have the “Young Gents,” a group of leather-clad rascals who dance their way through the streets of a neon-tinged, foggy 1950s Manhattan before descending on an unsuspecting couple and, well, beating them to death.

Launching with an invite-only opening on Monday, Jeffrey Deitch and Nicodim galleries are co-curating a pop-up art exhibit inspired by the work of the experimental filmmaker Kenneth Anger, author of the 1965 book of scandalous film-industry tales,Hollywood Babylon. More than 25 artists will be included in the group show, which will take place in the original Spago restaurant space in West Hollywood (before chef Wolfgang Puck moved it to Beverly Hills).