Fireworks (1947)

Director:

Kenneth Anger

Writers:

Genre:

Drama | Short

Plot:

Depicts a dream sequence about the brutal rape and torture of Anger himself (as a teenager) by a group of sailors on the street (after trying to pick one of them up).

Plot Keywords:

Sailor | Photograph | Rape | Sex | One Word Title

Cast

Kenneth Anger	...	Dreamer
Gordon Gray	...	First Sailor
Bill Seltzer	...	Second Sailor

Runtime:

20 min | Argentina:20 min (Buenos Aires Festival Internacional de Cine Independiente) | Portugal:13 min (Cinemateca Portuguesa)

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Argentina:Unrated

Trivia:

Kenneth Anger shot this film over the course of one weekend, while his parents were out of town.

Movie Connections:

Featured in Anger Me (2006)

Violent and disturbing dream-movie

'Fireworks' is a violent and disturbing manifesto, a short experimental dream-movie that throws in a couple of images that are real eye-openers, and enough homoerotic weirdness to keep those eyes open. What it 'means' of course is anyone's guess. Anger 'awakes' from troubled sleep, and wanders out to get a light for his cigarette, finding instead only torture at the hands of a bunch of muscle-bound sailors. The title refers, at least superficially, to a particularly jaw-dropping episode of sexual imagery, though as with much of what goes on in the film, there are probably any number of magical and sexual allusions that are tied in with it. Beyond a handful of frames that are burned into my memory, quite possibly until the end of time, I'm not sure what there is to take away from the film when you leave- possibly it has something to say about the all-consuming power of violence, but really that's just a shot in the dark. But of course one could argue that a handful of jaw-dropping frames is enough to justify any film. The fingers- in- nostrils scene is a real wow...