Mario Montez

Acting

Mario Montez

Born July 20, 1935 · Ponce, Puerto Rico

Died September 26, 2013 · aged 78

René Rivera, (July 20, 1935 – September 26, 2013), known professionally as Mario Montez, was one of the Warhol superstars, appearing in thirteen of Andy Warhol's underground films from 1964 to 1966. He took his name as a male homage to the actress Maria Montez, an important gay icon in the fifties and sixties. Before appearing in Warhol's films, he appeared in Jack Smith's important underground fi…

Known For

Andy Warhol, FluorescentAndy Warhol, Fluorescent · 2016
Andy Warhol, Fluorescent
5.02016
MovieDramaDocumentary
A documentary on the legendary creator and victim of pop art. Warhol, revolutionary and controversial, was never afraid to break the mold and reshape the reals of art, advertising, and directing. But who was the real man being behind the colors in which he hid?
Batman DraculaBatman Dracula · 1964
Batman Dracula
4.61964
MovieThrillerDrama
Batman Dracula is a 1964 black and white American film produced and directed by Andy Warhol, without the permission of DC Comics. The film was screened only at Warhol's art exhibits. A fan of the Batman series, Warhol made the movie as a homage. Batman Dracula is considered to be the first film featuring a blatantly campy Batman. The film was thought to have been lost until scenes from it were shown at some length in the documentary Jack Smith and the Destruction of Atlantis.
ChumlumChumlum · 1963
Chumlum
6.11963
Movie
Ron Rice's Chumlum is one of those films in which the conditions of its construction are integral to the experience of watching it. It is a record of a cadre of creative people having fun on camera, playing dress-up, dancing, flirting, lazing around.
Chelsea GirlsChelsea Girls · 1966
Chelsea Girls
5.51966
MovieDrama
Follows various residents of the Chelsea Hotel in 1966 New York City.
HarlotHarlot · 1965
Harlot
9.01965
Movie
Jean Harlow-lookalike Harlot (Mario Montez), Gerard Malanga, Philip Fagan, and Carol Koshinskie (with a cat) sit in a room eating bananas as the off-screen voices of Billy Name, Ronald Tavel, and Harry Fainlight discuss various topics.
Normal LoveNormal Love · 1965
Normal Love
7.21965
Movie
A follow-up to now legendary film Flaming Creatures. This vivid, full-color homage to B-movies is a dizzying display of camp that clearly affirms Smith’s role as the driving force behind underground cinema and performance art of the post-war era. The director was known to constantly re-edit the film, often during screenings as it was still unspooling from the projector.
Flaming CreaturesFlaming Creatures · 1963
Flaming Creatures
4.81963
Movie
Filmmaker and artist Jack Smith described his own film as a “comedy set in a haunted movie studio.” Flaming Creatures begins humorously enough with several men and women, mostly of indeterminate gender, vamping it up in front of the camera and participating in a mock advertisement for an indelible, heart-shaped brand of lipstick. However, things take a dark, nightmarish turn when a transvestite chases, catches and begins molesting a woman. Soon, all of the titular “creatures” participate in a (mostly clothed) orgy that causes a massive earthquake. After the creatures are killed in the resulting chaos, a vampire dressed like an old Hollywood starlet rises from her coffin to resurrect the dead. All ends happily enough when the now undead creatures dance with each other, even though another orgy and earthquake loom over the end title card.
No PresidentNo President · 1969
No President
5.01969
MovieDocumentaryDrama
Smith's third feature film was originally titled "The Kidnapping of Wendell Willkie by the Love Bandit," in reaction to the 1968 Presidential Campaign. It mixes B&W footage of Smith's creatures with old campaign footage of Willkie, a liberal Republican who ran against FDR in the 1940's. The climax of the work appears to be the "auctioning" of the presidential candidate at a convention.

Filmography

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Flaming CreaturesFlaming Creatures · 1963
Flaming Creatures
4.81963
Movie
Filmmaker and artist Jack Smith described his own film as a “comedy set in a haunted movie studio.” Flaming Creatures begins humorously enough with several men and women, mostly of indeterminate gender, vamping it up in front of the camera and participating in a mock advertisement for an indelible, heart-shaped brand of lipstick. However, things take a dark, nightmarish turn when a transvestite chases, catches and begins molesting a woman. Soon, all of the titular “creatures” participate in a (mostly clothed) orgy that causes a massive earthquake. After the creatures are killed in the resulting chaos, a vampire dressed like an old Hollywood starlet rises from her coffin to resurrect the dead. All ends happily enough when the now undead creatures dance with each other, even though another orgy and earthquake loom over the end title card.

The Spanish Girl

Reel Six: Charles Ludlam’s Grand TarotReel Six: Charles Ludlam’s Grand Tarot · 1987
Reel Six: Charles Ludlam’s Grand Tarot
1987
MovieDocumentary
The New York underground linked the paths of the actor and playwright Charles Ludlam, the superstar of avant-garde cinema Mario Montez and the Argentine artist Leandro Katz. An underground community found refuge in a porn cinema that Ludlam rented at night to stage his theater of the ridiculous. In 1970 he premiered The Grand Tarot, an extravagant burlesque where the arcana became characters and a reading of cards before the performance began established the order of the scenes. Rollo Six materializes that furtive experience, recovering in its formal commitment the inventiveness of chance that guided Ludlam's work. Katz superimposes edited scenes in camera, fracturing the screen through the use of masks that cover the lens and allow him to separately expose each corner of the frame.