Bible!

Wakefield Poole is known primarily as an icon of the 1970s gay film underground, in parallel with the porn chic phenomenon. His queer films Boys in the Sand and Bijou, which are considered milestones of hardcore queer cinema, show his creative ambition. However, that ambition was fully manifested in his heartfelt project Bible!. The film was a hit with viewers in its time because, thanks to the director’s fame and the casting of the stellar Georgina Spelvin, they expected a hardcore spectacle, but instead got an uncompromisingly distinctive avant-garde project that, furthermore, was completely devoid of explicit scenes. Poole rather appropriately refers to the film as his parallel to Disney’s Fantasia, as it also presents an ambitious creative retelling of oft-told stories and, instead of dialogue, employs suggestive and imaginative scenes underscored with classical music. In three (or four, if we count the epilogue) segments, Poole presents his interpretations of stories from the Bible with bold female characters. Whereas they acted passively in the original version, or rather the version imposed by patriarchal dogma, Poole depicts them as active characters. The creative ambitions are manifested mainly in his distinctive stylisation, which draws from film history while admiring contemporary experimental cinema (especially Kenneth Anger). The delicately aesthetic story of Adam and Eve is thus followed by the narrative of Bathsheba, who seduces David here, rendered as an early slapstick grotesque (in which Georgina Spelvin again displays her magnificent acting talent). The most aesthetically captivating third segment deals with Delilah and Samson, and features a scene combining the aesthetics of both the European avant-garde and modern experimental theatre. The film then culminates with a short ending, in which the Virgin Mary, fleeing from an angel, brings a flowing conclusion not only to Poole's visually impressive, albeit formalistically self-regarding work, but also to his idea of the Bible and its boisterous women. Pool’s Bible! is first and foremost a work of its time, which favoured distinctive creative geniuses, who could thus create their experiments without regard for mainstream norms and, paradoxically, their own audiences. (15.11.2021)