23.03.2013 Views

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

SHOW MORE
SHOW LESS

Create successful ePaper yourself

Turn your PDF publications into a flip-book with our unique Google optimized e-Paper software.

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.

Hooray! Your file is uploaded and ready to be published.

Saved successfully!

Ooh no, something went wrong!