Travel Back in Time with This Lost Celluloid Classic
A long-lost, colorful cult queer classic, Pink Narcissus is headed to screens in the Northeast in April.
William E. Jones from ArtForum wrote, “Pink Narcissus encompasses the history of camp, from the sensibility that Wilde embodied but dared not name to the cultural phenomenon that Sontag described.”
Provincetown International Film Festival’s patron saint, John Waters, selects a film that he wants to highlight for its artistic merits—something that he feels uniquely speaks to the cultural authenticity and queerness of Provincetown. This year’s John Waters Presents selection is James Bidgood’s cult classic film Pink Narcissus.
Synopsis
An extremely handsome, brooding, self-absorbed young man escapes the realities of his real world through a progression of exotic fantasies. Obsessed with his own perfection, he lives in a dreamworld of intense colors, magnificent music, elaborate costumes and strikingly handsome men. In a series of Walter Mitty-like sequences he imagines himself as a Roman slave chosen by the emperor, a triumphant matador vanquishing the bull (who is really a black leather clad cyclist), an innocent wood nymph gamboling in the woods, and a diaphanously dressed harem boy in the tent of the sheik.
The room where he does his daydreaming is an exquisite jewel-encrusted retreat. But reality constantly intrudes through the visits of his “johns” and the harsh and ugly sounds of the streets and the depraved lives of those who inhabit them. His narcissistic enchantment with his own beauty and lifestyle is marred by one great fear –aging and the loss of his youth and good looks. Finally, a terrible glimpse of reality, the jaded “john” becomes himself.
About the Restoration
Restored by the UCLA Film & Television Archive from a 35mm internegative, 35mm print and 35mm track negative with funding provided by Snapdragon Capital Partners and laboratory services by Roundabout Entertainment, Inc., Audio Mechanics. Special thanks to Frameline, Mark Grabowski, Marcus Hu, Michael Lumpkin, Strand Releasing and James Woolley.
Pink Narcissus opens in New York on Friday, April 11th at Metrograph, 7 Ludlow St, New York, NY.
