Pink Narcissus - James Bidgood

Pink Narcissus is reminiscent of Genet’s Un Chant d’amour in its obsession with flowers, rough sexuality, and extraordinary male beauty, but it is more like a drag queen’s opium-soaked dream version or a Disney adaptation of Genet’s work than it is a direct descendant. (The film is aptly described by J. Hoberman as “a gay Fantasia…one part underground extravaganza, one part romantic porn.”) Although dialogue is non-existent and plot is very thin, the story concerns a young male hustler or kept boy who whiles away the hours waiting for his john captivated by his own beauty and imagining himself a Roman slave or a Turkish prince. The room in which the boy seems imprisoned and his fantasy worlds are lavishly imagined: every surface is bedecked with rhinestones and paste jewels, draped in pink chiffon and lace, and lit with purple and magenta gels. Whole landscapes are built out of potted plants, plastic flowers, papier-mâché and chicken wire constructions, and diaphanous backdrops made from old dresses. The idle fantasies of the protagonist triggered by a piece of music or a random thought take tangible shape and form an artificial paradise, a Garden of Eden where butterflies float by on thin wires and the stars are pinpricks in a black paper sky.

Edition Details
Studio: BFI
Aspect Ratio: Fullscreen - 1.33:1
Duration : 64 min
Exclusive, specially commissioned filmed 34-minute interview with James Bidgood by Brian Robinson, Programmer, London Lesbian & Gay Film Festival (33:32)
Fully illustrated 17-page colour booklet including essays by filmmaker Richard Kwietniowski
DVD Release Date: March 26th, 2007
Chapters: 8