Pink Narcissus
James Bidgood
Experimental, Fiction : 68’ / Queer, Utopia, Camp, Avantgarde

An extremely handsome, brooding, self-absorbed young man escapes the realities of his real world through a progression of exotic fantasies. Obsessed with his own perfection, he lives in a dreamworld of intense colors, magnificent music, elaborate costumes, and strikingly handsome men. He imagines himself as a Roman slave chosen by the emperor, a triumphant matador vanquishing the bull, an innocent wood nymph gamboling in the woods, and a diaphanously dressed harem boy in the tent of the sheik. The room where he does his daydreaming is an exquisite jewel-encrusted retreat. But reality constantly intrudes through the visits of his johns and the harsh and ugly sounds of the streets and the depraved lives of those who inhabit them. An absolute queer experimental film classic, “Pink Narcissus” is presented here in its restored version.

 

QL - Retrospective
https://www.strandreleasing.com

/ Details

Year: 1971

Country: USA

Language: no dialogues

With: Bobby Kendall, Charles Ludlam, Don Brooks, Arthur Williams, Don Kvares, Eddie Barton, Larry Rey, Harvey Yerkes, Don Stephens

/ Direction

James Bidgood

USA


James Alan Bidgood (1933-2022) was an American filmmaker, photographer, costume designer, set designer, and visual and performance artist, known for his highly stylized and homoerotic works. Active in the 1950s, his photographs depict young men stripped naked in fantasy scenes between dream and mythology, often in a homoerotic atmosphere. His work has inspired photographers such as Pierre et Gilles, whose style is very similar, and also David LaChapelle. He wrote, directed, and produced "Pink Narcissus", a film shot on Super8 between 1963 and 1970 in a small apartment in New York's Hell's Kitchen district, which was initially released anonymously. He died in New York in extreme poverty.

 


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