Normal Love (1963)

Director:

Jack Smith

Stars:

Diana Baccus, Beverly Grant, Mario Montez

Cast

Credited cast:
Diana Baccus
Beverly Grant	...	Cobra Woman
Mario Montez
David Sachs
Tiny Tim
Andy Warhol

Storyline

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Plot Keywords:

independent film

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Details

Country:

USA

Also Known As:

Normal Fantasy

Filming Locations:

Old Lyme, Connecticut, USA

Company Credits

Technical Specs

Runtime:

105 min

Color:

Color

Did You Know?

Connections

Featured in Jack Smith and the Destruction of Atlantis (2006)

User Reviews

A masterpiece

Mostly filmed the year Smith's orgy-comedy Flaming Creatures became a famous obscenity case, Normal Love is a kind of lyrical sequel, replacing the earlier film's bleached-out black and white with lush color and its urban claustrophobia with rural locales outside New York City. The cast of "creatures," including Mario Montez and Tiny Tim, perform in a series of disjointed sequences that oscillate between trancelike impersonation and utterly reflexive self-parody: a mermaid in a tub, for example, is larger than life yet totally ridiculous, her tail phonier than the worst B-movie costume. Smith's gender visions, more radical than mainstream concepts of drag, conflate dress-up with striptease, ludicrous acting with a sure belief that one can become one's costume. His visual style is a dense and demented re-creation of von Sternberg, the smallest fashion accessory a radiant surface as camera and character--and character and costume--move in a coordinated ballet at once graceful and spastic. It is the movie to cherish for the generations to come.