The Adjuster (1992)

Insurance Adjuster Noah Render (Elias Koteas) works with people who have suffered the loss of their homes and other disasters in Canada. He gets a little too involved with his clients, taking advantage of their vulnerability to control their lives--while only having superficial interactions with his own wife Hera (Arsinée Khanjian), who secretly videotapes the porn films she watches for a government censor board. There are various other characters who come into contact with the pair and sexual fantasies are the main theme that drives the story forward. "Was this a purebred?" Noah asks a gay couple whose dog still smolders in the ashes of their apartment. When another couple, Bubba (Maury Chaykin) and Mimi (Gabrielle Rose), poses as part of a film crew who want to use Noah and Hera's house, Noah moves his family into the motel where he houses his displaced clients, bringing his separate worlds too close together. The ending quotes from "The Sound of Music" in a comic horror finale. One of the main characters--unable to "play house" anymore decides to burn down the Insurance Adjuster's house he has rented, and starts singing "My Favorite Things" as he proceeds to extinguish them all.

There is very little plot, but this sex comedy does have some very memorable characters and it has a good climax. Though initially mysterious and distanced, "The Adjuster" builds to a sense of loss and sorrow. As in his earlier films, director Atom Egoyan explores how people evade and contain the traumas in their lives. Wicked, darkly funny, sexy, it's perhaps the most successful critique of consumer society ever filmed. It's a strange, repetitious, surreal, confusing, disturbing, and hilarious film. Not all viewers like it, of course. Mychael Danna composed the original music, and Atom Egoyan wrote the screenplay and directed.

Pink Narcissus (1971)

"Pink Narcissus" is a drama visualizing the erotic fantasies of incredibly handsome male prostitute Pan (Bobby Kendall). Between visits from his keeper, or john, he is alone in his apartment and fantasizes about worlds where he is the central character. Obsessed with his own beauty and youth, he escapes the realities of street life through intricately choreographed fantasies. He portrays a Roman slave boy and the emperor who condemns him, a matador, a wood nymph, and the keeper of a male harem for whom another male performs a belly dance. Characterized by bright colors and highly stylized sets, props, and costumes, this film shows that the fantasies allow him to escape the harsh realities of his life in a creative slice of gay erotic cinema.

This cult classic is very highly regarded for its artistic production values, and less for its narrative. The movie was mostly shot on 8 mm film with bright lighting. Aside from its last climactic scene, which was shot in a downtown Manhattan loft, it was produced entirely (including outdoor scenes) in a small New York apartment over a seven year period (from 1963 to 1970) and released without the director's consent, who therefore had himself credited as Anonymous. It was not widely known who had created the movie, and there were rumors Andy Warhol was behind it. In the mid-1990s, writer Bruce Benderson, who was obsessed with the film, began a search for its maker based on several leads and finally verified that it was James Bidgood, who was still living in Manhattan and was working on a film script.

In 1999, a book researched and written by Benderson was published by Taschen about Bidgood's body of photographic and film work. The French DVD of "Pink Narcissus" includes the 2000 documentary "The Queer Reveries of James Bidgood". Bidgood's unique kitschy style has been imitated and refined by artists such as Pierre et Gilles. Written, produced, filmed, and directed by James Bidgood.