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Banned soon after its first midnight screenings, Jack Smith¿s incendiary
Flaming Creatures (1963) quickly became a cause célèbre of the New York underground. This study of Smith¿s magnum opus explores its status as a cult film that appropriates the visual texture, erotic nuance, and overt fabrication of old Hollywood exoticism.
List of contents
Acknowledgments
Introduction
1. Background and Production
2. Reception and Controversy
3. The Film Work: Flaming Creatures
4. Aftermath and Legacy
Notes
Bibliography
Index
About the author
Constantine Verevis is an Associate Professor at Monash University’s School of Media, Film and Journalism. His work spans both film theory and cultural studies, and his primary research area is media seriality, including film and TV remakes, sequels, and trilogies. His books include Second Takes: Critical Approaches to the Film Sequel (co-editor, SUNY Press, 2012), Film Trilogies: New Critical Approaches (co-editor, Palgrave Macmillan, 2012), B is for Bad Cinema: Aesthetics, Politics and Cultural Value (co-editor, SUNY Press, 2014) and others.
Summary
Banned soon after its first midnight screenings, Jack Smith’s incendiary Flaming Creatures (1963) quickly became a cause célèbre of the New York underground. This study of Smith’s magnum opus explores its status as a cult film that appropriates the visual texture, erotic nuance, and overt fabrication of old Hollywood exoticism.
Additional text
Flaming Creatures offers a comprehensive study of this classic and controversial avant-garde film, from its production and reception history to its complex, even fraught, place in the New York experimental scene, to scene-by-scene meanings, performance styles, and overall artistic accomplishments. Verevis even uses his well-known talents as a top scholar of film remakes to clarify the film’s status as a complicated yet loving ode to Hollywood kitsch.
