Download the full program as PDF - Fashion Film Festival
Download the full program as PDF - Fashion Film Festival
Download the full program as PDF - Fashion Film Festival
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MUSEUM OF THE MOVING IMAGE<br />
4:30pm<br />
pink narcissus<br />
Dir. James Bidgood, 1971, 71 mins.<br />
With Bobby Kendall, Don Brooks<br />
Costume and set design by James Bidgood<br />
Pink Narcissus, dir James Bidgood, 1971. Courtesy of BFI.<br />
With a background in still photography<br />
and stage costume design, but no<br />
training in film whatsoever, Bidgood<br />
shot Pink Narcissus on <strong>the</strong> cheap in<br />
<strong>the</strong> confines of his bedroom, using<br />
Bolex camer<strong>as</strong> with 8mm Kodachrome<br />
and 16mm Ektachrome stock. It took<br />
over seven years to make and <strong>the</strong> result<br />
is an epic and bold work. A series<br />
of homoerotic fant<strong>as</strong>ies, <strong>the</strong> film’s<br />
singular aes<strong>the</strong>tic is at once highly<br />
camp and deliberately tr<strong>as</strong>hy, yet it<br />
is moving and stunningly beautiful.<br />
Its charming naiveté evokes early film<br />
pioneers such <strong>as</strong> Méliès or de Chomón;<br />
like <strong>the</strong>m, Bidgood w<strong>as</strong> heavily invested<br />
in fabricating his own elaborate<br />
sets and costumes, <strong>as</strong> well <strong>as</strong> his own<br />
universe of solutions and tricks. Sadly,<br />
<strong>the</strong> film w<strong>as</strong> not edited by <strong>the</strong> artist<br />
himself who had, by <strong>the</strong> early 1970s,<br />
lost creative control of his mesmerising<br />
footage.<br />
7:00pm<br />
Golden Butterfly (Der Goldene<br />
schmetterling)<br />
Dir. Michael Curtiz, 1926, Austria, 77 mins.<br />
With Lili Damita, Hermann Leffler<br />
35mm print from British <strong>Film</strong> Institute<br />
Live music by Stephen Horne.<br />
Golden Butterfly stars French actress<br />
Lili Damita, director Michael<br />
Curtiz’s <strong>the</strong>n-wife. Her film career w<strong>as</strong><br />
launched by a beauty contest, though<br />
she already had experience <strong>as</strong> a revue<br />
dancer on Parisian stages, performing<br />
under <strong>the</strong> pseudonym Lily Deslys. The<br />
story of Golden Butterfly epitomises <strong>the</strong><br />
familiar jazz-age conflict between female<br />
independence and morality where<br />
Damita’s dancer is portrayed <strong>as</strong> a moth<br />
driven to <strong>the</strong> glitter of <strong>the</strong> stage only<br />
to be burnt. Following <strong>the</strong> successful<br />
Red Heels, this w<strong>as</strong> ano<strong>the</strong>r of Curtiz’s<br />
ambitious European co-productions<br />
set in <strong>the</strong> spectacular music halls and<br />
designed to rival <strong>the</strong> dominance of<br />
Hollywood cinema in <strong>the</strong> mid-1920s<br />
(ironically, <strong>the</strong> director and his star left<br />
for Hollywood soon after). Shot in London,<br />
Cambridge and Berlin, it showc<strong>as</strong>es<br />
<strong>the</strong> high glamour of metropolitan<br />
night life <strong>as</strong> well <strong>as</strong> some accomplished<br />
dance routines under <strong>the</strong> art direction<br />
of <strong>the</strong> ‘m<strong>as</strong>ter of atmospheric mysteries’<br />
Paul Leni.<br />
The Golden Butterfly, dir Michael Curtiz, 1926. Courtesy<br />
of Phoebus-<strong>Film</strong>/S<strong>as</strong>cha/ The Kobal Collection.<br />
FriDAY, April 22<br />
7:00pm<br />
steven Arnold special<br />
The artist, photographer and filmmaker<br />
Steven Arnold w<strong>as</strong> a muse and<br />
model of Salvador Dalí who always<br />
referred to Arnold <strong>as</strong> his prince. Andy<br />
Warhol star Holly Woodlawn claimed<br />
that if Warhol’s Factory w<strong>as</strong> typical<br />
New York, <strong>the</strong>n <strong>the</strong> circle around<br />
Arnold in Los Angeles w<strong>as</strong> Versailles.<br />
Arnold’s work provides a f<strong>as</strong>cinating<br />
bridge between <strong>the</strong> early cross-gender<br />
experiments of Claude Cahun and<br />
Pierre Molinier and what <strong>the</strong> media<br />
<strong>the</strong>orist Gene Youngblood termed <strong>the</strong><br />
‘polymorphous subterranean world of<br />
unisexual transvestism’ that he saw<br />
<strong>as</strong> a hallmark of <strong>the</strong> emerging ‘synaes<strong>the</strong>tic<br />
cinema’ of <strong>the</strong> 1960s. The<br />
screening also pays homage to an innovative—yet<br />
often overlooked—poet of<br />
<strong>the</strong> Beat Generation, ruth weiss, who<br />
stars in all <strong>the</strong> films featured. weiss<br />
worked with Arnold in <strong>the</strong> late-1960s,<br />
and among many o<strong>the</strong>r jobs she did to<br />
support her writing career, w<strong>as</strong> also<br />
that of a chorus girl.<br />
The <strong>program</strong> will be introduced by<br />
Stuart Comer<br />
various incarnations of a tibetan<br />
seamstress<br />
1969, 10 mins.<br />
ruth weiss, Pat Eddy Lowe and Stephen<br />
Kelemen<br />
Costumes by Steven Arnold<br />
“Originally, it w<strong>as</strong> to be a serious look<br />
at Westerners influenced by E<strong>as</strong>tern<br />
trends. As it developed, however it<br />
became much more humorous with<br />
characters in yoga positions with high<br />
heels and smoking cigarettes at <strong>the</strong><br />
same time.” Stephanie Farago<br />
messages, messages<br />
1972, 23 mins.<br />
With ruth weiss, The Joseph, Pandora<br />
Costumes by Steven Arnold<br />
“A journey of <strong>the</strong> psyche into <strong>the</strong> world<br />
of <strong>the</strong> unconscious. Made when Wiese<br />
and Arnold were students at <strong>the</strong> San<br />
Francisco Art Institute, <strong>the</strong> (...) film<br />
is influenced by Dalí, Buñuel and <strong>the</strong><br />
German expressionists.” Michael Wiese<br />
<strong>the</strong> liberation of mannique<br />
mechanique<br />
1967, 15 mins.<br />
With Sonia Magill and ruth weiss<br />
Costumes by Steven Arnold<br />
Frame enlargement from Messages, Messages,<br />
dir Steven Arnold, 1972. © Steven Arnold Archives.<br />
Frame enlargement from The Liberation of <strong>the</strong><br />
Mannique Mechanique, dir Steven Arnold, 1967.<br />
© Steven Arnold Archives.<br />
Loosely b<strong>as</strong>ed on William A. Seiter’s<br />
1948 film One Touch of Venus, Arnold’s<br />
first film is a macabre, decadent and<br />
ambiguous work presenting mannequins<br />
and models who travel through<br />
strange universes.