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MUSEUM OF THE MOVING IMAGE
sAturDAY, April 23
2:00pm
cobra Woman
Dir. Robert Siodmak, 1944, 117 mins.
With Maria Montez, John Hall, Sabu
Costumes by Vera West, sets Russel A.
Gausman, Ira Webb
A star of Universal’s Technicolor
adventure films in the 1940s, the
Dominican-born siren Maria Montez
became the centrepiece of Jack Smith’s
Hollywood idolatry two decades later.
(Smith famously singled Montez out in
his essay “The Perfect Filmic Appositeness
of Maria Montez.”) The star who
founded her own fan club and who
reportedly once exclaimed “When I see
myself on the screen, I am so beautiful,
I jump for joy” was a blueprint for the
(admittedly more knowing and parodic)
campness and narcissism of Jack
Smith’s stars. With reference to Montez,
Smith stated that bad acting can in
fact expose a priceless slice of life, an
approach echoed in Andy Warhol’s cinema.
In Cobra Woman Montez is cast in
a dual role as Tollea of the South Seas
and her evil sister Naja, priestess of
the Cobra People on a forbidden island.
The film showcases her charms in Vera
West’s sensuously soft, pastel gowns
as well as more gaudy outfits. West
was a former fashion designer trained
by Lucile and became the doyenne of
costume design for horror and monster
movies in the 1930s and 1940s.
Frame enlargement from Cobra Woman, dir Robert Siodmak, 1944.
4:30pm
Flaming creatures
and sensuous pleasures
Total running time 55 mins.
Flaming creatures
Dir. Jack Smith, 1963, 43 mins.
With Francis Francine, Sheila Bick, Mario
Montez, Joel Markman
Costumes by Jack Smith and actors
Flaming Creatures, dir Jack Smith, 1963. Courtesy
of Fashion in Film Festival and The Film-Makers’ Cooperative.
Deemed obscene by New York State,
Smith’s revolutionary Flaming Creatures
is an elusive masterpiece which
continues to fascinate. Shot in blackand-white
on outdated film stock,
it reproduces some of the sensuous
pleasures and high glamor from Hollywood’s
golden days, especially referencing
such stars as Marlene Dietrich and
Smith’s beloved Maria Montez. He gives
his cross-dressed actors the freedom
to preen, dance, and playfully inhabit
the rapturous and exotic fantasies of
Hollywood cinema. Through a combination
of fantastic tableau-vivant compositions
and cinéma vérité camerawork,
Smith brilliantly transforms his basic
set and thrift store ‘couture’ into a dazzling,
Sternberg-like mise-en-scène.
the most Wonderful Fans
of the World
(De mooiste waaiers ter wereld)
Dir. unknown, 1927, Netherlands/
France, 12 mins.
With Pépa Bonafé; Komarova, Korgine,
Sergine; John Tiller Follies Stars
This is a luxuriously stencilled short
film shot in France and distributed
in the Netherlands in 1927. Like the
better-known full-feature La Revue des
revues, it was filmed on the stage of a
Parisian music hall, only this time it is
considerably snappier and presented
without an over-arching narrative
framework. The film includes Orientalist
numbers such as “In the Temple of
the Fakirs” and “The Chinese Fan” and
makes great use of close-ups.
7:00pm
Drag glamour
total running time 95 mins.
Frame enlargement from The Most Wonderful Fans
of the World, dir unknown, 1927. Courtesy EYE Film
Institute Netherlands
This program pairs Jose Rodriguez-
Soltero’s lavish Lupe with Ron Rice’s
landmark psychedelic masterpiece
Chumlum. It features two of the most
accomplished uses of superimposition
in underground film, transporting drag
glamor into a psychedelic, cubist-like
dimension.