Rabbit's Moon by Kenneth Anger
Length: 6:38
Description: A fable of the Unattainable (the Moon) combining elements of Commedia dell'Arte with Japanese myth. A lunar dream utilising the classic pantomime figure of Pierrot in an encounter with a prankish, enchanted magic lantern - Kenneth Anger
Camera assistant: Tourjansky
Filmed in Paris
Music: "It Came In The Night" by A Raincoat (Written by Andy Arthurs, produced by Steve Stevenson & Andrew Colin Arthurs, EMI 2393, 1976)
Cast:
Andre Soubeyran (Pierrot)
Claude Revenant (Harlequin)
Nadine Valence (Columbine)
Sleeve notes. Magic Lantern Cycle Vol.1 1986, Mystic Fire Video Inc.
Corrections to the soundtrack details credited with thanks to Michael I. Cohen of Flickhead.
A short film originally made in 1950, released running at 15 mins in 1973 with a 'pop' soundtrack and then this 7 min shortened version in 1979.
In 1989, Rebekah Wood interviewed Kenneth Anger for the BFI...
RW: Rabbit's Moon is a very directly emotional film.
KA: It's what I call a nocturne, a dream about me. It's about unrequited love and the moon is a symbol, as it has been in romantic literature, of the unattainable. The moon has always been something that's longed for. I use the figures of Commedia: Pierrot, the lost clown; Columbine, the flirt; and Harlequin, who's the devil, the trickster.
RW: Your harlequin is very spiteful.
KA: So he is. The world, to Harlequin, is a comedy. To him, it's uproarious to trick - to trip people up. Harlequin is Lucifer. To look at it from Harlequin's standpoint - which may be the devil's point of view - he's having a good time. In other words, Harlequin has no complexes; his approach to the world is very direct. You can call him cruel, but he is also a survivor and Pierrot the sad sack is not.
Into the Pleasure Dome, the films of Kenneth Anger. BFI Distribution 1989.
Author: Equinoxstudios
Source: YouTube