Thanks to Abbey for this one. Click here for more.

“When Scorpio Rising was — we’ve forgotten, in a sense, that it was a groundbreaker, legally. Because there are only a few flashes of nudity, genitalia, whatever in the film, I mean, they’re very, very short and, if you blink, you won’t even see them. At any rate, when it was shown, at the Cinema — it was called the Cinema on Western Avenue in Hollywood — the premiere run, someone denounced it to the Hollywood vice squad and they raided the theater and took the print. And the case had to go to the California Supreme Court to be freed and then it became, like, a landmark case of redeeming social merit. That was the phrase that was used to justify that it wasn’t pornography. And, indeed, there’s nothing pornographic about it. Somebody had to break the ice and have that kind of case at that time to establish the freedom, because, before then, the police could seize anything they wanted to…” – Kenneth Anger (Excerpt from Interview with Pam Grady)

Bruce Byron worked as a motorcycle messenger in Manhattan. His zodiac sign was Scorpio, and so he called himself that, as well as carrying at all times the scorpion amulet which he is seen kissing and holding in the film. The honorable discharge certificate from the United States Marine Corps, on the wall above his bed, was his own.

[All caps taken from Kenneth Anger's 1964 film Scorpio Rising.]

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“It’s a different world in which one must forget the world one inhabits. Villa Santo-Sospir belongs to Madame Alec Weissweiller. It dominates Cape Santo-Sospir, the last point on the map before arriving at Cape Ferrat. The villa is situated on the road to the lighthouse, and its rocks descend to the sea. It looks out on Antibes, Cannes, Nice, and to the right, Villefranche…When I stayed in Santo-Sospir in the summer of 1950 I hastily decorated a wall. Matisse told me that if you decorate one wall, you should do the others as well. He was right. Picasso opened and closed all the doors. All that was left to do was to paint the door.”

“But the doors lead into rooms. The rooms have walls. And if the doors are painted the walls have an empty look…”

“Since being a poet means publicly confiding one’s secrets, better to speak out loud in our sleep.”

“Work does not keep me from an occasional horse ride.”

“Work does not keep me from even riding a lion.”

“Picasso, Matisse, Chagall and myself, on this coast where Renoir used to live, we have tried to defeat the destructive spirit of our time. We have ornamented the surfaces which men dream to demolish. Perhaps the love of our work will protect it from bombs.”

[All quotes and caps from Cocteau's La Villa Santo-Sospir, 1952.]

Julie Christie in “Darling” (1965). Cheers to Anna for sending this over.

More here.

Cat Stevens ÷ Trouble