A construction worker witnesses a car accident and pockets the female victim's purse, in which he discovers her invitation to a club named Bijou. There, he enters a strange erotic world where dark fantasies become reality.
Wakefield Poole's Bijou, 宝石俱乐部
USA
Germany
France
Switzerland
USA
USA
France
Germany
Switzerland
USA
Bijou isn't really a film. It's an experience.
Everything that director/writer/cinematographer Wakefield Poole presents onscreen in the course of 75 minutes is part of a complete thought, a fully realized idea. Certain works are especially revered by devotees of the Golden Age of Porn, and while some could arguably be better than others, Bijou remains one of the era's greatest achievements - at least in the gay adult canon - because Poole's creative sensibilities elevate this production to the realm of high art.
To the extent that the almost dialogue-free film (there is only one line), the first five minutes of which are accompanied by "Mars, the Bringer of War" from Gustav Holst's The Planets suite, could be described as…
Much like Halsted's L.A. Plays Itself from the same year, there's something interesting to me about seeing a filmmaker playing around with the nascent genre's form before its boundaries had become established and its rules codified -- there's but a single orgasm in here, and it only comes after nearly 70 minutes of solos, duos, trios, and quad-screen projected foreplay. Similarly, I think it's to Poole's great credit that he's able to create legitimate drama and suspense out of what amounts to a nearly 30-minute-long orgy sequence in the back half of this. It's never boring.
My favorite thing about watching an HD copy of this is seeing all of the seams -- the second cameraman's feet in the top…
From Wakefield Poole, the man who brought you BOYS IN THE SAND, this is a very arty hardcore gay porn film that feels more in the tradition of Kenneth Anger's INAUGURATION OF THE PLEASURE DOME than smut. Wordless and scored mostly to classical music, the film follows a construction worker who enters a mysterious space called the "Bijou" where time and space become subjective, fantasy and reality merge, and huge, swingin' dongs enter various orifices. In his DVD intro, Wakefield Poole says, "I wanted to make an abstract film, full of enigmas and things that key off things in your mind. You have to make your own movie out of the images that you saw, and whatever you brought to the film from your experiences would affect what you brought to the movie."
Incomparably superior in every way to DEEP THROAT (which came out the same year and received more press, to put it mildly), and genuinely worth seeing.
There is a point most evenings in which I become a little tender, that little bit more heartbroken in my solitude, gamma reachy for an apparition of stimulation that taunts from horizons insurmountable. Very few spells and charms take effect in this fugue, and yet of a sudden here is Bijou, odyssey of phallic id, to wrest me from my torpor. In the wake of Anger, Genet and Bene, modernist milieux of construction site as peplum quotidiously segues into an over-endowed work-a-day Maciste choking the gherkin in the shower to Zepp's Babe I'm Gonna Leave You, and I thought my 13 lives were finally up. It's patient, raw, sudsy, seedy and sincere. As a taut short of the wanton banalities…
dick sucking, classical music, and gorgeous lighting. what more do you need, honestly?
Stunning. While obviously very sexy, sensual and erotic, there's also a lot of tenderness and joy in Bijou- a surreal trip into sexual liberation and self discovery in a dreamy otherwordly space filled with beautiful men.
Brings to mind Pink Narcissus, both in its direction, soft dream-like quality and the fact that this was filmed inside the director's apartment. It's so cool how the space is transformed to feel ethereal and unrecognizable as an apartment.
Very cool to see porn that is so concerned with playing with the form and structure of its narrative while also being genuinely riveting to follow. I felt weirdly emotional watching this!
R.I.P. Wakefield Poole. First and only line spoken on screen happens over 20 minutes into this 75 minute movie... that’s cinema! Knew going in that this was a spectacular looking movie, which, it truly can’t be overstated, it is, but I was thrilled to discover that the soundtrack is just as carefully crafted as the visuals, just a terrifically potent piece of construction all around. Was really struck by the use of radio + rock music in the first act - reminded me of Texas Chain Saw Massacre, of all things? Important final note - this film is identically structured to Halloween is Grinch Night.
can somebody please restore this in 4K please i need to see the big golden age cocks in 4K!!!!!
Incredible, beautiful, and so ahead of its time (and still is?).
So glad I got the chance to catch a screening of Vinegar Syndrome's restoration with Wakefield in attendance.
A phantasmagoria of hardcore gay sex and swirling neon hues, Bijou is an unforgettable descent into a maelstrom of pleasure.
A simple, abstracted story of a construction worker who pockets a hit&run victim's purse and the journey that comes from this act of deception, director Wakefield Poole pulls the audience in with his deep, mythically framed cinematography and constant threat of mystique. I was so rapt that I didn't realise it was silent until after I finished and did some research.
Poole presents alienation and lust as fractured mirrors of each other, the eroticism managing to be both distinctly, well, pleasurable, and disconcerting at the same time. Echoes of Blind Beast and We Can't Go Home Again shake the last hour into something truly stunning.
Ecstasy is amoral.
Literally fucking art. Porn has become readily available everywhere and most people don’t seek it out to experience anything more than what its simplest task is. I doubt this had a big audience back in the day either but I seriously question if anyone would even dare to make this today. Not because sex has been removed from films or because the culture has become overly restrictive, although opening twitter sometimes makes it seem that’s the case, but because this is raw experimentation during days when there was no real standards. Making Bijou now would mean having to reinvent the game and seek out a new audience who aren’t used to this. I doubt there are such aspiring adult filmmakers,…
