Date: 31 March 2007 | Season: London Lesbian & Gay Film Festival 2007 | Tags: Ken Jacobs, London Lesbian & Gay Film Festival
FLAMING CREATURES & BLONDE COBRA
Saturday 31 March 2007, at 6.10pm
London Lesbian & Gay Film Festival at BFI Southbank
Jack Smith, Flaming Creatures, USA, 1963, 16mm, black and white, sound, 42 min
Ken Jacobs, Blonde Cobra, USA, 1959-63, 16mm, black and white & colour, sound, 33 min
Two gloriously primitive flicks which define and transcend the idea of “underground” film. Flaming Creatures, Smith’s impoverished, epic fantasy of Babylonian proportions, is a decadent celebration of the joy and torment of existence. This bleached-out orgiastic rite, all limp penises and shaking breasts, is populated by a blonde vampire, exotic Spanish dancers and androgynous bohemian poseurs. Blonde Cobra, as close to an authentic portrait of Smith that we have, is propelled by a delirious monologue (witness the scurrilous tale of Madame Nescience and Mother Superior) and was shot amongst the rubble of his apartment. The two films were premiered together in April 1963, and remain fresh, provocative and startlingly original over 40 years later. (Mark Webber)
PROGRAMME NOTES
FLAMING CREATURES & BLONDE COBRA
Saturday 31 March 2007, at 6.10pm
London Lesbian & Gay Film Festival at BFI Southbank
Jack Smith’s Flaming Creatures and Ken Jacobs’ Blonde Cobra (in which Smith stars) are two gloriously primitive flicks which define and transcend the idea of “underground” film. We can only begin to imagine the extraordinary reactions they might have caused in audiences of the early 1960s.
FLAMING CREATURES
Jack Smith, USA, 1963, 16mm, b/w, sound, 42 min
Flaming Creatures, an impoverished, epic fantasy of Babylonian proportions, supposedly caused riots at early screenings. Viewers were incensed not so much by what they saw, but for the lack of graphic pornography, which they expected from such an international cause célèbre. Smith’s polymorphous vision, all limp penises and shaking breasts, is something decidedly other: A bleached-out orgiastic rite populated by androgynous creatures (exotic Spanish dancers, bohemian poseurs and a blonde vampire), and a decadent celebration of the joy and torment of existence.
BLONDE COBRA
Ken Jacobs, USA, 1959-63, 16mm, b/w & colour, sound, 33 min
Blonde Cobra, made by Ken Jacobs from footage abandoned by Bob Fleischner, is as close to an authentic portrait of Smith that we have. Shot mostly amongst the rubble of his apartment and propelled by a delirious monologue (witness the scurrilous tale of Madame Nescience and Mother Superior), its freewheeling anti-form mixes image with black leader, recorded sound with live radio. Both films were premiered together in April 1963, and remain fresh, provocative and startlingly original over 40 years later. “Life swarms with innocent monsters.” (Charles Baudelaire)
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