The Restored Films of Jack Smith
- Flaming Creatures
- Normal Love
- Scotch Tape
- Overstimulated
- Normal Love Addendum Reel
- No President
- Respectable Creatures
- I was A Male Yvonne Decarlo
- Hot Air Specialists
- Reefers of
- Ghosts
- Wino
All of these films by Jack Smith
are available for viewing at the Donnell Media Center
of the NY Public Library.
Flaming Creatures
1961 B & W 48 minutes
In this, his best known film, characters cavort in a setting reminiscent of the court of Ali Baba, with a mood suggestive of the paintings of Heironymous Bosch. The film is a quasi-documentary of Androgynes and Transvestites in which flaccid penises and bouncing breasts are so ambiguously equated as to disarm any distinction between male and female. In Flaming Creatures, Smith manages to combine the ornate imagination of his youth with the realities of adult fantasy. Stars Francis Francine, Joel Markman, and others; sound by Tony Conrad.
Normal Love
1963 color, 105 minutes
Smith's second feature length film appears to derive from his adoration of Maria Montez, the B- movie star best know for her performance in "Cobra Woman." It features a variety of 30's horror film monsters, a mermaid, a lecher, and various cuties performed by a cast which included Mario Montez, John Vaccaro, Diane DePrima, Beverly Grant, Tiny Tim, and others.
Scotch Tape
1962 3 minutes
A master sense of spiritual nothingness (JS)
Overstimulated
1960 5 min on audio cassette.
This short film, restored in 1995, stars Jerry Sims and the late filmmaker, Bob Fleischner. It is an early filmic exploration of the "aesthetic of delirium" which Smith developed in his later films. At one time, in the 1970's this film was treated by Smith as a fragment, and included it in various film/performances with No President. The audio cassette has 12 minutes of material and can be played at any point for the duration of the film.
Normal Love Addendum Reel
1968 20 minutes
An additional twenty minutes of Material from Normal Love featuring Tiny Tim, John Vaccaro and others. These scenes were not included in the restored version of the film, as Smith apparently did not include them on the original music cue sheet which served as a basis for the restoration.
No President
1968 Restoration in Progress approx 50 minutes
Smith's third feature film was originally titled "The Kidnapping of Wendell Willkie by the Love Bandit," in reaction to the 1968 Presidential Campaign. Willkie was a liberal Republican who ran against FDR in the 1940's. It mixes B&W footage of Smith's creatures with old campaign footage of Willkie. The climax of the work appears to be the "auctioning" of the presidential candidate at the convention.
Respectable Creatures
25 min
This film, titled by Jack Smith is an unusual blending of his first known
film, "Buzzards Over Baghdad" with stray
images from "Normal Love" concluding with material which he shot at Carnavale in
I was A Male Yvonne Decarlo
30 min BW
Jack Smith as Yvonne deCarlo, the antithesis of Maria Montez. Fans pay tribute to this false movie goddess in this rare document of Jack Smith in performance on film.
Hot Air Specialists
4 min (1970's) color
A short film in which a man courts a drag queen.
Reefers of Technicolor Island
- AKA
15min
30 minutes B/W Video of a live performance by Jack Smith. Circa 1975. Originally shot on Sony Reel to Reel tape.
Ghosts
"Ghosts" is one of a number of films or fragments that was rarely
screened, if ever, by Jack as a " completed
film." For this reason it often is not included on the official list of
Jack's films. Ghosts was shot in the late 1970's by Rafique Azzouny (aka Rafik) at the U-P Film Co-op that Rafique
founded and organized. Its running time is about 10 minutes, and consists of a
continuous run, pixilated color image of Jack Smith in performance of his
adaptation of H. Ibsen's Ghosts - The film fragment exists as a silent 16mm
strand, apparently one four hundred foot roll that was run through a motorized
Bolex. Since the image is pixilated - one frame or so per second -
the action is lightening fast and bears little resemblance to any narrative.
Wino
See also Who is Jack Smith?
