New film explores Aleister Crowley’s gay love poems
Rahel Kapsaski’s directing debut “The Red Lips of the Octopus” explores Aleister Crowley’s love affair with Herbert Charles Pollitt based on romantic poems written by the great beast.
The film went into production last August and is nearing post production. Aleister Crowley is to be played by Jeff Kristian with Brandon Edwards as the young Crowley and Danny Beaton as Herbert Charles Pollitt.
The film also stars Henry Taylor as the entity Lam and Selene Kapsaski (director of Spidarlings) as the personification of lust.
Aleister Crowley was an English occultist, philosopher, poet, painter, and novelist. He founded the religion of Thelema and is kown as the ‘the wickedest man in the world’ in his time.
A notebook of love poems written by Crowley in 1898 was recently exhibited at a book fair in London.
The subject of these poems was his lover Herbert Charles Pollitt (July 20, 1871–1942), also known as Jerome Pollitt, who was a patron of the arts and a drag performer who performed under the name Diane de Rougy (an homage to Liane de Pougy).
The Red Lips of the Octopus is Produced by Après Vague Productions and is expected to be released later this year.
