This is a compilation of Anger's work over the years. As I understand it, not all of his works are here, but probably those that are considered the best. Anger’s films can be described as theatrical costume rituals to music (without dialogue). They have their pros and cons. Of the disadvantages, one can note some “provincial” of Enger’s surrealism, the lack of plasticity of the form that would give his works greater depth and persuasiveness. For all the visual mystery of many of his short films, they are some strangely obvious in the way of implementing the idea inherent in them, and “scenes”. Angers develop in too straightforward a way according to their name. It feels like a bit of an amateur approach. Let’s say Jodorowski’s phantasmagoria is much more convincing in its strangeness. I think this is due to Anger’s lack of material base: talent needs encouragement and finance, and this director always had very few of them, so there was no one to tell him where to improve and what to improve. Studio resources can play a huge role in the artist’s self-expression, and one can only guess what Enger would achieve with big money and a team of professional costumers, art directors, screenwriters, operators, etc.
As for the advantages, the main one is that Enger, in fact, anticipated video art and in general modern clip thinking. Ken Russell, Nicholas Rogue, Matthew Barney, Godfrey Reggio, Bill Viola, the same Jodorowski and even Greenaway owe him a lot, even if they themselves do not suspect it (though, most likely, they suspect it). Many of Anger's works are so unusual for their time that, looking at the year of their creation (for example, 1947), the viewer may think that this is some kind of mistake. His paintings, even the earliest ones, are almost modern video clips. Of course, the French surrealists have done something similar before, but still it is Enger can be called a harbinger of today’s video art. And, although his films are pretentiously strange, they look completely painless, unlike many surreal paintings by other directors.