We sat down for a quick chat with Todd Wiener, motion picture curator at the UCLA Film & Television Archive, about the recent restoration of “Pink Narcissus”
Q: “Pink Narcissus” circulated anonymously for years due to James Bidgood’s disputes with financiers. How did that absence of authorship shape the way the film was preserved, and does this restoration also act as a form of reclaiming artistic ownership?
A: The complicated ownership background of Pink Narcissus directly impacted the way the film was preserved, given that the original elements were not properly archived in perpetuity by its original owners. Bidgood’s dismissal of how his original vision was, in a sense, “hijacked,” was another reason the filmmaker had no interest in preserving whatever elements he had access to after the film was taken away from him. The individual responsible for keeping Pink Narcissus from slipping into obscurity and for instigating its recent restoration is Michael Lumpkin. During his time at Frameline, Michael recognised the film’s important cinematic legacy, particularly for the queer community, and eventually secured the rights to the film.
After being re-released via the queer film festival route in the 1990s – it received a new and well-deserved cult film status. The film then received a broader release thanks to Michael’s new distribution arrangement with Strand Releasing. It is around this time in the late 1990s (which coincided with the release of Bruce Benderson’s Taschen book on Bidgood), when James really reclaimed his artistic ownership and original vision despite the fact that the film was taken away from him. The film’s new digital restoration, and the Estate’s new book James Bidgood Dreamlands, further highlight Bidgood’s extraordinary talent and vision to a whole new generation of cinema fans, as well as the queer community. I’m sure Bidgood would be thrilled at this ongoing artistic appreciation.
Q: This new 4K restoration draws on multiple 35mm elements. What were the key challenges in reconstructing the film’s original look, particularly given its highly controlled colour palette and handmade production design?
A: Bidgood initially shot Pink Narcissus on 8mm, so despite incredible advances in digital restoration technologies, there was only so much image clarity that we could achieve with the surviving 35mm source elements that were blown up to 16mm and then to 35mm. The soft image is because the elements were from a small-gauge film source and were down multiple generations. That meant our biggest challenge with this project was getting these restored moving images to represent the colour and clarity of Bidgood’s incredible still photography taken on the film’s sets during production. The UCLA Film & Television Archive’s Head of Preservation Jillian Borders and the team at Roundabout Entertainment, including colourist Gregg Garvin, did an incredible job utilising digital restoration tools to get this 4k restoration to the appropriate
look and seamlessly match the 35mm internegative reels to the 35mm print reels. Bidgood shot some of the later sequences, notably the Times Square section, on 16mm, so we catch a glimpse of the difference a larger gauge can make on sharpness.
Q: Bidgood created much of the film in his own apartment over several years. How does that unconventional production context influence how archivists approach preservation and restoration today?
A: Jim was rumoured to have many cats in his Manhattan apartment, where the film was shot over seven years, so all of the printed in hair and dirt in the original elements seems to confirm this fact. Bidgood was also creating his own in-camera special effects and titles, and these sometimes required multiple camera passes, with each adding anomalies and dirt that made the image even more compromised. The step-printing involved in the blow-up from 8mm added duplicated frames, which enhanced the dream-like quality of the film but also added challenges to any digital clean-up. Jillian and Team didn’t want to lose the grind-house look and feel the film had when released in 1971, but we did want to improve the viewing experience by removing the most egregious hair, dirt, and scratches, as well as things like splice bumps, audio pops and clicks, etc.
Q: You’ve worked extensively with queer film collections and archives. Where does “Pink Narcissus” sit within the broader history of queer cinema, particularly in relation to other experimental or independently produced works of the same era?
A: Pink Narcissus sits right in a critical cinematic time period where queerness went from being discreetly coded (or, super underground), to explicitly open. Kenneth Anger’s avant-garde films focused on occult symbolism, and Andy Warhol’s unconventional arthouse films relied on an almost detached non-narrative queerness; whereas Bidgood’s singular handcrafted spectacle is a unique and hyper-stylised love letter to queer male beauty and desire. As Bidgood stated about the production, he wanted to show the sensual and glamorous side of male beauty in cinematic form. You can easily see his inspiration from MGM musical productions that he was so in love with as a young man, particularly the works of Vincente Minnelli, as well as the films starring Esther Williams.
Q: Restoration often focuses on technical recovery, but in this case, there’s also a strong curatorial and historical dimension. How do institutions like the UCLA Film & Television Archive balance preservation with recontextualising films for contemporary audiences?
A: Beyond the curatorial and technical aspects of preservation triage, the UCLA Film &
Television Archive’s restoration efforts are prompted by active communication with academic, research, and cinephile groups – particularly around underserved communities. Preservation and restoration of queer erotica can be a very difficult genre to secure funding for, so I would like to give recognition and huge thanks to Mark Grabowski and Snapdragon Capital Partners for providing the majority of the funding for this unique preservation opportunity. In regard to its importance for contemporary audiences, Pink Narcissus is the much-needed archival rediscovery of queer beauty and sensuality in a very dark political time for the LGBTQ+ community. Saving these beautiful and representative images in perpetuity is the ultimate salve against the current ultra-conservative movements that are trying to disenfranchise queer
love and joy. Preservation of this ground-breaking queer history can further embolden our current LGBTQ+ media-creators to share their stories freely as they stand up to systematic oppression.
Q: With the film screening at BFI Flare and receiving a wider UK release during Pride Month, how important are festivals and public exhibitions in ensuring that restored works like this remain part of an active, living cinematic culture rather than archival artefacts?
A: The screenings of archival works such as Pink Narcissus are incredibly important in that they amplify the conversation around the cultural and artistic importance of these often-overlooked films, while often shining a spotlight on the critical preservation work of archives and preservationists. By experiencing these rediscoveries in a shared communal environment, the collective energy not only magnifies the work but also increases the chances of the title reaching broader audiences. Particularly with all of the distractions from our devices and media platforms, public programs provide an incredible opportunity for collective focus and energy that these works so richly deserve.