Film Forum

U.S., 1922
Directed by Charles Bryant, Alla Nazimova
Adapted from the the 1891 Oscar Wilde play
With Alla Nazimova, Mitchell Lewis, Rose Dione, Earl Schenck, Arthur Jasmine, Nigel De Brulier, Frederick Peters, Louis Dumar
Cinematography by Charles van Enger
Approx. 74 min. DCP.

Alla Nazimova and Charles Bryant’s landmark adaptation of Oscar Wilde's play saw openly bisexual co-director and star Nazimova (considered the “founding mother of Sapphic Hollywood,” who coined the phrase “sewing circle” to describe the posse of queer women fraternizing in the industry), lead a rumored-to-be entirely queer cast. With costuming by Natacha Rambova, based on illustrations by Aubrey Beardsley, SALOMÉ is an artfully decadent film that exudes queer sensibility.
 

Reviews

“The choices made in staging and design seem just too—well, choose the words: hothouse, precious, outré, camp, rarefied—for what might wryly be called ‘conventional heterosexual filmmaking'. Some movies don’t appear to have a straight bone in their bodies.”
– Richard Barrios, Screened Out: Playing Gay in Hollywood from Edison to Stonewall

“Seen through 21st century eyes, SALOMÉ is a phantasmagoria of striking images, unbridled sensuality, and fearless storytelling. It also leaves the viewer with the lingering sense that if Alla Nazimova had the good fortune to come along a hundred years later than she did, she’d have found a world with its arms thrust wide open to embrace the groundbreaking artist that she was.”
 – Martin Turnbull, Library of Congress

“Though the direction is attributed to Charles Bryant, the auteur was clearly Nazimova, with Natacha Rambova patterning the set and costumes after the Aubrey Beardsley illustrations that accompanied one edition of the play.”
– Ted Shen, Chicago Reader

“This adaptation of Oscar Wilde's play boasts a healthy streak of vulgarity of which Wilde, one suspects, would have secretly approved.”
– Time Out