LA LUNE DES LAPINS
(“Rabbits’ Moon”)
Production: France/USA, 1950-79
Director: Kenneth Anger
Category: Lunar Fantasy
A lunar dream utilizing the classic pantomime figure of Pierrot in an encounter with a prankish, enchanted Magic Lantern. La Lune Des Lapins was the first film attempted by Kenneth Anger after he moved from America to Paris in 1950 (largely due to the encouragement of Jean Cocteau, who had written to Anger praising his Fireworks as coming “from that beautiful night from which emerge all the true works”). Anger soon ran out of resources, and for twenty years the abandoned film languished in the vaults of the Cinémathèque Française. In 1972 Anger retrieved it and edited and released a 16-minute version from the extant footage, with a pop soundtrack featuring The Flamingos’ “I Only Have Eyes For You”, The Dells’ “Oh, What A Night”, The Capris’ “There’s A Moon Out Tonight”, and Mary Wells’ “Bye Bye Baby”; a constant reviser of his work, he released a re-arranged 7-minute version in 1979. Rabbits’ Moon stands as Anger’s tribute to the celestial fantasy films produced by early innovators of French cinema Georges Méliès – with the likes of L’Éclipse Du Soleil En Pleine Lune (“Sun Eclipsed By Full Moon”, 1907) – and Segundo de Chomón, whose Les Lunatiques (1908) features a set of Pierrots born of the moon, who fall to earth and undergo mysterious transformations.
Posted by Captain Nightshade