Flaming Creatures
| Flaming Creatures | |
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Theatrical release poster
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| Directed by | Jack Smith |
| Produced by | Jack Smith |
| Starring |
Piero Heliczer Frances Francine Sheila Bick Joel Markman Mario Montez (as Dolores Flores) Arnold Rockwood Judith Malina Marian Zazeela |
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Release date
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Running time
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43 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $300 |
Flaming Creatures is a 1963 American experimental film directed by Jack Smith. The film shows performers dressed in elaborate drag for several disconnected scenes, including a lipstick commercial, an orgy, and an earthquake. It premiered April 29, 1963 at the Bleecker Street Cinema in New York City.
Because of its graphic depiction of sexuality, some venues refused to show Flaming Creatures, and in March 1964, police interrupted a screening and seized a print of the film. Jonas Mekas, Ken Jacobs, and Florence Karpf were charged, and the film was ruled to be in violation of New York's obscenity laws. Mekas and Susan Sontag mounted a critical defense of Flaming Creatures, and it became a cause célèbre for the underground film movement.
Most of the film's characters are sexually ambiguous, including transvestites, hermaphrodites, and drag performers. Flaming Creatures is largely non-narrative, and its action is often interrupted by cutaways to close-ups of body parts.
The film opens with credit sequence set to the soundtrack of Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves and the announcement that "Ali Baba comes today." Two creatures laze in a garden and dance. In what Smith called the "smirching sequence", characters apply lipstick while a mock advertisement poses the question, "Is there lipstick that doesn't come off when you suck cocks?" Two creatures chase each other, and one throws the other to the ground. Several creatures gather around her in a rape scene, which grows into a large orgy. The earth begins to quake, and the creatures collapse. A vampire resembling Marilyn Monroe climbs out of a coffin and drains some of the lifeless creatures. This reignites the action, and the creatures rise again to dance with one another.
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Wikipedia