JAMES BIDGOOD
Between 1963 and 1970, the American film director James Bidgood directed Pink Narcissus. It's hard to believe that this gay soft-porn masterpiece was at first anonymously produced: because he was rushed by his investors to release the movie as fast as possible. Bidgood wasn't fully satisfied by his work so he denied his involvement in the project during nearly 10 years. That's why to this day many people still give credit to other filmmakers like Kenneth Anger or Andy Warhol for example.
Through beautiful super 8 scenes, Bidgood created with his lover Bobby Kendall an erotic personification of a modern Narcissus. The young man stuck in his bedroom, dreams about all the fantasies he could realize in his own unreal and enchanted world. Completely absorbed in his image, he ends up falling in love with his reflection. Thanks to the saturated colors and the exacerbated erotism, James Bigood became the pioneer of the "gay kitsch" aesthetic of the 70's underground movement in New-York. We can still feel his presence in the works of contemporary artists like Pierre et Gilles or David LaChapelle.
