The Inauguration of the Pleasure Dome (1954)

disgusting, overrated, pointless

Too much about the plot just didn't add up, the writing was bad, some of the scenes were cringey and awkward,

This is a tender, generous movie that likes its characters and presents them as real people, full of flaws and strengths.

The movie really just wants to entertain people.

Anger's vision is a ritual in and of itself, committed to film to be enacted on each viewing. The colors were hypnotic at times. The homo-eroticism is simmering under the surface, mingled with so much symbolism that it is impossible to over-analyze it. Usually movies don't leave me feeling this awash in literally psychedelic thoughts, disconnected from the moment and yet fully a part of it's reckoning. Like the effect of Pulp Fiction on my subconscious vocabulary, Inauguration of the Pleasure Dome left me thinking differently. There is some profound effect from watching it, I believe, pulling the viewer in as a participant.

What can one say about these films that hasn't already been said? Anger threw down a gauntlet and it really hasn't been touched. I don't expect it to be picked up anytime soon, just as I don't expect another director with the voice and vision of a Ford, Dreyer, Bresson, or Fassbinder to turn up. I'd say perhaps that Dreyer or Bresson are the only other filmmakers whose complete body of work is as compelling as Anger's. There are riches in Anger's films for endless ages of human beings to unearth and rediscover.Frankly, I hope I die before I get as "old" as one of the other commenters here (see above).

this film is a devastating visual, sensory experience. i have been haunted by its breathtaking imagery & multi-layered arcane symbolism since the first time i saw it. i've watched it over & over again in the years since first viewing it & it never loses its overload of impact on me. i am not an acid casualty, in case you are wondering. it assaults the senses from all angles in a cubist, multidimensional sense. each viewing will bring new insight & renewed, shimmering ecstasy. i promise this to anyone who is open & teachable & cinematic ally inclined to new experience. kenneth anger is a national & world treasure. can you tell i like this film? the flaws in it, if any, have eluded me for years. -bobby

Quite possibly,the most incomprehensible film every made, Kenneth Anger's INAUGURATION OF THE PLEASURE DOME deserves a place in cultural, if not film history. Arcane satanic references merged with bizarre hallucinogenic Egyptian rituals, and all done with a straight face, are endlessly fascinating to any student of the subculture of Hollywood and San Francisco in the post-war years. This was a time when to be gay or of a mixed gender was considered not just socially unacceptable, it was considered a sign of sickness. I don't think that a film like this could have been made without the cultural stigma associated with being part of the sexual underworld.As an 'experimental film,' though, it's not really that original. Anger borrows heavily from Cocteau, Luis Bunuel, Maya Deren and others, whose work was far more original and far less self-conscious. It nevertheless, amazingly I should say, holds your interest (since it's only 35 minutes, partially) and I would reccomend it to anyone interested in the fringes of the art world.