Lucifer Rising is a short film by director Kenneth Anger. Although virtually completed in 1972, the film was only widely distributed in 1980, after Bobby Beausoleil delivered the finished soundtrack master.
History
Early development: 1966–1967
In mid-1966, Anger began renting a flat on the ground floor of the Westerfeld House, referred to by locals as the Russian Embassy, a dilapidated building located at 1198 Fulton Street in the Alamo Square district of San Francisco. Then in his late thirties, Anger began to plan Lucifer Rising, initially intending for it to document the growing countercultural movement as it existed in California. As Anger stated, he wanted to film "today's new tribe of teenagers, turned-on children teeny-boppers and adolescent hippies". Anger was influenced by Aleister Crowley's descriptions of Lucifer as the light-bearing god, and was inspired by Crowley's poem "Hymn to Lucifer". According to his biographer Bill Landis, Anger adopted this deity as a "metaphor for the ultimate bad little boy who could corrupt you without coercion". In this context, Lucifer is not the devil but a rebellious mythic hero representing the spirit of the artist.
Anger began to search for a young man who could personify Lucifer for the film, and began to bestow the title of "Lucifer" on any young men who would stay with him at the house for more than a few nights. By late 1966, a young musician named Bobby Beausoleil had moved in with Anger, who had declared him to be his Lucifer. Beausoleil later said that he had first met Anger at the Invisible Circus, an event promoted by The Diggers and The Bay Area Sexual Freedom League at Glide Memorial Church, who had enlisted Beausoleil's band Orkustra to provide musical accompaniment for a troupe of topless belly dancers. Reportedly, Beausoleil was playing his guitar and licking sweat off a woman's breasts when Anger spotted him, later approaching him to offer a part in the film. Beausoleil has disavowed any claims of his having met Anger in Hollywood in 1965, as some have assumed. As Beausoleil later related:
According to Beausoleil, the agreement that he made with Anger was that, in exchange for his agreement to star in the film, the filmmaker would provide for the young musician's basic needs and would allow him to live at the Embassy, but that he would not be paid for appearing in the film. While staying in Anger's flat, Beausoleil read up on mythology and Thelema from Anger's private library, although he felt that there was tension between them as a result of their different sexualities. Anger was strictly homosexual, while Beausoleil was strictly heterosexual, with the latter opining that Anger "kind of resented the girlfriends I had over, but I wouldn't let that stop me I was young". Beausoleil served as Anger's chauffeur during this period, and together they attended counter-cultural events such as the Human Be-In at Golden Gate Park in January 1967. During their early conversations, Beausoleil suggested that he could also compose a soundtrack for the film, assembling a band to be known as the Magick Powerhouse of Oz in order to do so, largely out of jazz musicians. Anger agreed to the collaboration.
Anger began filming Lucifer Rising in his typical fragmentary style. Beausoleil expressed frustration, asserting that Anger spent more time talking about the project than actually shooting any film. This early footage starring Beausoleil was instead used in a different film, Invocation of My Demon Brother. One of these scenes featured Anton LaVey, leader of the Church of Satan and founder of the LaVeyan Satanist movement, whom Anger had met through the California occult scene. Beausoleil, however, thought LaVey to be "a fuckin' jerk". Anger was aided in the early phases of Lucifer Rising by the filmmaker Richard Patton, who was then residing on the top floor of the Russian Embassy. They developed a friendship, with Patton serving as lighting and camera assistant, later commenting that he learned much about filmmaking from Anger. Anger later noted that he had been frustrated with Beausoleil during the process, stating that "Bobby was fine, except he wanted to dominate. He wanted to direct the film. He was always making too many suggestions." While still in early production, Anger began to produce promotional items for Lucifer Rising, commissioning a poster from Rick Griffin which incorporated an etching by Gustav Doré, Purgatorio, depicting an eagle lifting up a human body wrapped in cloth. To earn money, he continued producing films for private collectors on the side, which were not released for public distribution.