Rabbit’s Moon / La Lune des lapins (1971) dir. Kenneth Anger

Rabbit’s Moon (La Lune des lapins, in French) was shot in Paris in 1950. The filmmaker had moved to Paris after receiving a letter from Jean Cocteau, who had admired his film Fireworks. Cocteau took Anger under his wing upon his arrival. The film centers around a Pierrot clown trying to catch the moon. Combining the classic characters from the Commedia dell’arte, Columbine and a mocking Harlequin, with the moon rabbit found in East Asian culture and Aztec mythologies, Rabbit’s Moon is a dreamlike, whimsical, film about the fantasy of the unattainable (the moon) and the artificiality of cinema (the apparitions that come to light through a magic lantern). The film reveals Anger’s fascination for silent cinema, recalling Georges Méliès.