I completely missed the film Chemical Wedding when it came out earlier this year, which is a shame, because it’s about one of my all-time heroes (and I use that work in the loosest, most advisable manner), Aleister Crowley, it’s written by the mighty Bruce Dickinson, and it stars Simon Callow. I can’t imagine three people I’d more like to have to dinner. Anyone see it? Was it any good?
The Bookkake connection is that, in the initial planning stages, I approached the Ordo Templi Orientis with a request to republish some of Crowley’s early poetry, notably the volumes White Stains and Snowdrops from a Curates Garden, which I’ve read in the University of London library and are really rather excellent. Unfortunately, I didn’t get the blessing of the OTO, who retain (after a series of legal battles) full rights to Crowley’s work, and that particular adventure is currently on hold.
Anyway, here’s a great interview from Julian Doyle, director of Chemical Wedding, as well as the editor of Terry Gilliam’s Brazil and Time Bandits, with John Doyle, son of Gerald Yorke, a friend and disciple of Crowley who amassed quite a collection of Crowley relics after the magician’s death in 1947. It’ll have to do for now.
