Described by Parker Tyler as a major cult film made with the "heart and will of someone devoted to prick-worship and the hermetic myth of an all-male fantasy world," Pink Narcissus proved to be the hit of the 1984 New York Gay Film Festival, playing to sold-out crowds in its first American screening in over a decade. A long-time favorite in Europe, this legendary erotic art film, shot in super-8 and 16mm then enlarged to 35mm, "stands as a landmark at the juncture of the gay underground tradition and the gay porno industry" (Peter Lowy, NY Gay Film Festival). Seven years in the making, this dreamy, surrealist film has been praised for its "untarnished poetry," and entrancing performance by teenage male beauty Bobby Kendall.

Opulent, gaudy, off-color, Pink Narcissus’ cult status is guaranteed by its "lapses of taste and taste alike," not to mention the dazzling scene in a public urinal. Controversy surrounding the original production caused the film's director James Bidgood to go uncredited until last year's revival.