Film Maudit 2.0: A Celebration of the Outrageous, the Overlooked, and the Accidentally Uplifting
The literal translation of the term film maudit is “cursed film.” Well, back in 1949, the writer/director/god Jean Cocteau headed a jury that pulled together a showcase of cinematic offerings that’d been overlooked at the time or were deemed “shocking, outré, and bold.” The result: the apparently legendary Festival du Film Maudit in Biarritz. Included were Kenneth Anger’s zipper-exploding “Fireworks” (1947) and Jean Vigo’s L’Atalante (1934).
Sixty years later, the Harvard Film Archive saluted the Festival with a program that presented among others John Waters’ Pink Flamingos (1972), Robert Aldrich’s The Killing of Sister George (1968), and Pasolini’s Salò, or the 120 Days of Sodom (1975).
A highlight of my early reviewing life occurred when the latter Pasolini adaptation of the Marquis de Sade novel was screened at the New York Film Festival just before its American release. Sitting in the mezzanine, leaning over the railing, I was able to watch over two-thirds of the sold-out screening running out in heels during the infamous poop-dinner scene.
Pink Flamingos also included a poop-ingestion moment that immediately bestowed stardom on the actor Divine. Audiences at its midnight screenings, however, never ran out. They were too…
