The version shown tonight is a recent restoration by Jerry Tartaglia, following the soundtrack notes Smith supplied to Tony Conrad.
By the time of his death thirty years later, the film was still a series of sequences distinguished by their dominant colours &lrquo ” the yellow sequence, the green sequence, etc. The creatures themselves trebled in number with the aide of additional crazed collaborators, notably a prenubile Tiny Tim, the passionate Mario Montez, a stunning Dianne Baccus, an incognito Andy Warhol and the design talents of Claes Oldenberg, whose massive cake is the set-piece for the final reverie/massacre.Įven with the spirit of B-movie Queen Maria Montez watching over the proceedings, paradise fell, Atlantis sunk and Jack Smith was never able to edit the film together into a whole. This time his array of creatures frolic in rich Kodachrome colours, clashing and blending with the natural settings: a swamp, a picnic-perfect meadow and the glorious Moon Pool. However, retreat did not prevent his extravagant fantasies from fully flourishing on a much larger scale. In the wake of the notoriety of his first film, Flaming Creatures, which provoked riots in Belgium, seizure in New York and a screening by Strom Thurmond in the US Senate Office building, Jack Smith retreated into the countryside to film a more “accessible” follow-up. Tragic twisted faces – Labyrinths for a tormented Minotaur.” (Jack Smith, “Notes on Normal Love” )
And their eyes burning with the desire to give & the realization of our common helplessness.
It shows on film which is totally insane – the actors all incandescently amok, no control over themselves – their souls glowing thru their skin. I was a raving madman during last days of shooting. ‘ I want to be uncommercial film personified‘, said American underground artist Jack Smith.Īlso check out this documentary portrait in The Third Eye’s Cinema: Jack Smith and The Destruction of Atlanti s.“O Flic was actually completed to even my unbelief. Master Italian filmmaker FREDERICO FELLINI notably praised Normal Love and counted the film amongst his influences, strongly felt in Fellini’s Satyricon (1969). Filmmakers such as JONAS MEKAS and GEORGE KUCHAR recall screenings of Normal Love with Smith in the projection room, splicing the film as it ran, in what Lucas calls ‘ a jumbled mess…even though the pictures themselves were flowing beautifully‘. As early as 1963, he presented production stills from Normal Love, his spectacular color follow up to Flaming Creatures, in a slide show presentation. ‘ I want to be uncommercial film personified‘, as Smith said. It was something of a personal rebellion against the establishment and capitalist commodification of art.
After the banning of Flaming Creatures, JACK SMITH resolved to never make a movie again that could not be seen by his friends. Smith’s radical idea was to never again create a finished object, so as to ensure that it can never be seized or taken away from him. The only screening method possible for Normal Love was if Smith came along with the film himself. Part documentary, Normal Love records the free-spirited performance and imagination of a motley crue of characters including Smith himself (as some kind of magician), the seductive Cobra Woman, Mongolian Child, the Mummy and other ‘ exotic creatures‘, as Smith said. Casting his friends and entourage as protagonists in their own fantasy-reality, Normal Love unravels a colourful, extravagant Utopia or “ Atlantis” as Jack Smith would say. In the summer of 1963, Jack Smith set off for the summer to create what he described as a ‘ pasty‘ coloured film: Normal Love. Working across film, performance and photography, Jack Smith is best known for his film “Flaming Creatures”, a film famously banned for its depiction of sexual and homoerotic content deemed as having “no socially redeeming value”. What does it look like when a Mummy, a Cobra Woman, a Drag Queen and other Creatures get together in Atlantis? Welcome to American underground artist Jack Smith’s fantasy world.