PINK NARCISSUS: A Queer Underground Classic Resurfaces

Over several years of shooting, artist James Bidgood transformed his Manhattan apartment into the glittering, candy-colored paradise of homoeroticism that is the primary setting of his sole feature film, Pink Narcissus. Shot on 8mm and 16mm film stock, the film was blown up to 35mm for its original release in 1971 and credited to “Anonymous” after disputes with financiers led to Bidgood removing his name from the credits. Now newly restored in 4K by the UCLA Film & Television Archive, Pink Narcissus has returned to hypnotize viewers anew and remind us of the undeniable impact Bidgood’s meticulously crafted images of camp fantasy have had on queer art and culture.

Mirror, Mirror

Pink Narcissus stars teenage runaway, hustler, and model Bobby Kendall as a male prostitute who aimlessly lounges around his gorgeously decorated apartment and fantasizes about erotic encounters with a series of attractive men—though he also spends a great deal of time admiring his reflection, perhaps more entranced by his own considerable beauty than that of any of the men he encounters. (If he were to ask the mirror on the wall who the fairest of them all was, he would no doubt expect to hear himself—and with those beestung lips, who could blame him?)

In these highly stylized and seductive sequences, Kendall is everything from a matador trying to subdue a leather-clad “bull” to a nymph frolicking nude in an enchanted forest straight out of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. These scenes are rich with elaborate detail and orchestrated in intense, saturated color, from the warm pinks and golds of the apartment to the cool teals and blues of the forest. That Bidgood created the vast majority of these lush sets inside his tiny apartment constitutes a small miracle of homespun art direction of which even the legendary Cedric Gibbons—he who created similarly lavish fantasy worlds for MGM classics like An American in Paris—would be envious.

Once Upon a Dream

As the film progresses, these surreal scenes of sensual delight give way to the grit and grime of the world that exists outside Kendall’s apartment and imagination. This urban reality is dirty, dangerous, and depraved; it’s a reality that Kendall’s character would rather hide from inside the oasis of glamor he has created. There is no spoken dialogue in Pink Narcissus; the soundtrack is a mix of classical music and contemporary radio broadcasts, with the latter signifying the reality that is invading the world of our protagonist’s dreams.

The result is an unholy mix of Walt Disney’s Fantasia and Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s Querelle—and yes, the latter did come out a decade after Pink Narcissus, but that doesn’t mean they have anything less in common; if anything, I’m willing to bet Bidgood’s stylized queer eroticism influenced Fassbinder’s theatrical depiction of the Brest waterfront.

Conclusion

The new 4K restoration of Pink Narcissus was created from a 35mm internegative, 35mm print, and 35mm track negative, as the original 8mm elements are considered lost. However, the gritty, grainy texture one associates with 8mm film stock has not only been preserved but even emphasized by being blown up to 35mm. The film veritably glows with a feverish hue that only adds to the hallucinatory nature of the imagery. And whether or not you actually enjoy the experience of watching Pink Narcissus, there’s no denying the incredible influence Bidgood’s visual style—which he claimed was influenced by Florenz Ziegfeld, the Folies Bergère, and their extravagant, idealized images of women—has had on generations of artists to come after.

The new 4K restoration of Pink Narcissus begins screening at Metrograph in New York on April 11, 2025.