Kenneth Anger Puce Moment (1949)

Puce Moment is a short 6 minute film by Kenneth Anger, author of the Hollywood Babylon books, filmed in 1949. Puce Moment resulted from the unfinished short film Puce Women. The film opens with a camera watching 1920 s style flapper gowns being taken off a dress rack. The dresses are removed and danced off the rack to folk rock style music. A longlashed woman, Yvonne Marquis, dresses in the purple puce gown and walks to her vanity to apply perfume. She lies on a chaise lounge which then begins to move around the room and eventually out to a patio. Borzois appear and she prepares to take them for a walk. The gowns used were owned by Anger s grandmother who had been a costume designer in the silent film era. Anger attempts to recreate silent era style by using alternating camera speeds. The film was made in the house of Sampson De Brier, a silent film actor, who later appeared in Anger s Inauguration of the Pleasure Dome.