Eaux d'artifice
Kenneth Anger's baroque art film
Eaux d'artifice (1952)
was shot at the Villa d'Este water gardens in
Tivoli, Italy
The film is a flamboyantly elegant paean to the location that simply allows a woman (one Carmillo Salvatorelli, a dwarf in 17th-century dress) to walk amongst the stone façades and cascading waters as the director intercuts their sensuous shapes and surfaces
Set to music by Vivaldi,
Eaux d'artifice is as expertly shot and edited as anything in the Anger canon -the entire film is seamlessly edited, and is the very picture of balance, control and Baroque order
Eaux d'Artifice is the purest item in the Kenneth Anger film canon - it has won a slew of awards and in 1993 was chosen for inclusion on the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress.
