hyped garbage

At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

Worth seeing just to witness how winsome it is.

Many years ago, I took a college film/literature/art class co-taught by a marvelous English professor/filmmaker and an art professor who was also a gifted modern artist. The entire experience proved enlightening and just plain delightful, despite a handful of redneck ignoramuses. One of the most captivating, intriguing films we viewed during that class was Eaux d'artifice. I adore water gardens, such as the ones I had already toured at Longwood and Chatsworth. Long a student of history, I felt fascinated watching this rather small woman in 18th century garb waft about the sumptuous foliage and water arrangements amid the splendor of Tivoli and the d'Este estate. Vivaldi's Winter provided the perfect soundtrack. Thirty years on, I recollect this incredible film with the greatest pleasure. The photography remains breathtaking, even filtered through my memory banks. We also viewed Anger's Magick Lantern Cycle, which simply confirmed my estimation of Anger's genius. His use of imagination in exploring history and eroticism through the framework of the arts also stimulated my own imagination. This film, as well as Anger's other work, certainly bear exploration. Sit back and let the beauty of Tivoli and the mystery of its diminutive guest waft over you.

Pointless (and deadly dull) short film by Kenneth Anger. It involves a small woman (called the Water Witch I believe) wandering around this place with tons of gushing water. Then at the end she becomes a fountain. Swear to God--that's it! Anger's early films are an acquired taste. I did like "Fireworks", "Puce Moment" and "Rabbits Moon" but the popularity of this has always escaped me. I've seen it multiple times and (more often than not) found myself struggling to stay awake! Anger's beautiful imagery seems to be missing here. Just a bunch of gushing water and a midget running around in a bizarre outfit is not enough to keep me interested. How this got on the list of film to be preserved is beyond me. "Fireworks" is MUCH better than this--but I guess "Fireworks" is too homo erotic. I personally can't stand this one but many others seem to think it's a masterpiece. Use your own judgment.

So far as I've seen, Kenneth Anger has kept mainly to stage-like productions of silent films with a lot of art concepts that appeal to me. This one is so far the one I like the most. Anger shoots in blue-tinted black and white again, this time in a water-sculpture park in Italy.Eaux D'Artifice, Anger explains, is a pun on "Feux D'Artifice" which means "firework." Most of the shots in this film deal predominantly with light as it refracts through the water, in many cases making images that are very resemblant to fireworks. Eaux D'Artifice could also in a way mean "Water Sculpture", which is often what Anger builds this film around.Anger's choice of a protagonist was a very good one. Her size does indeed make the park look bigger and more fantastic, and I think this is Anger's most effective creation of imaginary and dreamlike realms. This movie is very reminiscent of fantasy book covers and paintings that seem to somehow attract many people by a sense of serene mysticism and magical perplexity. Somehow this film reaches to an internal need for magic and alternate worlds, which I feel is very related to our obsession with dreams.--PolarisDiB

A stunning water garden is the empyrean setting for this short film, one of the director's strongest works. The ceaseless motion of liquid in an elaborate fountain-system is given close study in high-contrast black and white...jets, streams and droplets dance madly to classical music as the water becomes seemingly enlivened with a zoetic personality. The mood shifts with the music's dramatic rise-and-fall, being somber and wintry one moment, majestic and powerful the next. Intermittently, a shadowy figure in period costume moves hurriedly through the scenery, adding even further mystique to the proceedings. Mesmerizing in its organic beauty...a small masterwork. 9/10