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MUSEUM OF THE MOVING IMAGE
FriDAY, April 15
7:00pm
underground opulence
Bursting with color, this program
reconnects the avant-garde queer
sensibility of underground film not
with its literal inspirations (Hollywood
icons such as Alla Nazimova, Marlene
Dietrich, or Maria Montez) but rather
with some genres in early film which—
with their ornamental costumes
and décor—anticipate some of the
richness of the underground’s camp
aestheticism.
Total running time: 130 mins.
Introduced by David Schwartz and
Marketa Uhlirova
Live music by Makia Matsumura
tit for tat
(la peine du talion)
Dir. Gaston Velle, Pathé Frères,
1906, France
Gloriously winged insects seek revenge
for the injustices brought about by the
popular practice of lepidoptery: the
catching of butterflies and moths for
the purpose of scientific observation.
Velle’s richly colored film is one of the
finest examples of its kind.
metempsychosis (métempsycose)
Dir. Segundo de Chomón, Pathé Frères,
1907, France
The special effects pioneer Segundo de
Chomón reinterprets for the camera
a famous stage illusion that featured
a metamorphosis from one object (or
person) into another. A statue turns into
a butterfly fairy who performs a number
of ravishing costume transformations.
Frame enlargement from Tit for Tat, dir Gaston Velle, 1906. Courtesy of Lobster Films.
puce moment
Dir. Kenneth Anger, with Yvonne
Marquis, 1949
Costumes from Kenneth Anger’s
collection
Puce Moment is a fragment filmed
in 1949 and later edited by Anger
himself into a stand-alone piece. It was
conceived as the feature-length film
Puce Women, and was to be Anger’s
tribute to the mythological Hollywood
of the Jazz Age and the perversely
luxurious tastes and lifestyles of
female sirens such as Mae Murray,
Barbara La Marr, Marion Davies, and
Gloria Swanson (some of whom are
described in his exposé Hollywood
Babylon). Referring to the purplegreen
iridescent color of 1920s flapper
gowns, Anger’s mood sketch evokes
the archetypal moment of a film star’s
dressing up. It is a dizzying parade of
vintage gowns: their beading, sequins
and embroidery shimmer aggressively
in front of the camera, taking up entire
film frames.
the pearl Fisher
(le pêcheur de perles)
Dir. Ferdinand Zecca, Pathé Frères,
1907, France
A deep-sea diver encounters strange
and marvelous creatures in an
underwater kingdom. The final
apotheosis boasts remarkable sets
Frame enlargement from The Pearl Fisher, dir
Ferdinand Zecca, 1907. Courtesy of Lobster Films.
festooned with strings of pearls that
recall Méliès’s Orientalist décors for
The Palace of Arabian Nights (1905).
normal love
Dir. Jack Smith, 1963
With Diana Baccus, Mario Montez,
Beverly Grant
Costumes by Jack Smith and actors
Print courtesy of Gladstone Gallery,
New York
Jack Smith, Untitled, c.1958-1962 (photograph from the set of Normal
Love, dir Jack Smith, 1963). © Estate of Jack Smith. Courtesy of
Gladstone Gallery, New York.
After completing Flaming Creatures,
Smith shot the more ambitious Normal
Love in dazzling color, with elaborate
sets (including a Busby Berkeleyesque
multi-tiered cake made by Claes
Oldenburg), and costumes inspired by
horror films and Maria Montez epics.
Smith cast poets, artists, and actors
from the New York underground scene,
including Mario Montez as the Mermaid,
Beverly Grant as the Cobra Woman, plus
Andy Warhol and a very pregnant Beat
poet Diane di Prima as chorus dancers
on Oldenburg’s cake. Smith never
finished editing a definitive version of
the film, but what remains wonderfully
illustrates his visionary appropriation of
Hollywood sensuality and excess.