>It’s such a sadness to me that I can’t list John Waters as an auteur on here.
Of course you can.
Really? The system must be buggy on my browser or something.
The first time I ever saw a John Waters film it was playing in a bar. I had a drink and watched the film. Things were never quite the same after that.
Pecker
>>Can we have a a John Waters thread?
>>Can we talk about Rachel Getting Married?
Did you grow up in a house where you always had to ask permission to do something? :)
To answer the question posed by thread’s title…No.
Oh, yeah, and Pecker is damn good.
I have John Waters listed as an autuer, multiple maniacs, come on………..Divine wrestling with Lobstora, doesn’t get any better than that although the rest of the film is kind of a bore. I know a Dirty Shame was supposed to be a look back on his early work in the late 60’s and 70’s but it just doesn’t hold up, times have changed and so has he. I did have the pleasure of meeting him earlier this year in a suburb outside of Balitmore where he did his filthy word performance(also a cool DVD)and he was super nice and really down to earth. He did say he’s having major problems getting financing for his next film, he’s only asking for 7 million, so come on people and pony up.
““Polyester” was a transformative experience for me, kind of like the first time you listen to a lo-fi recording, and you’re just starting to get an ear for things you’ve always been told should grate on the nerves.”
I confess to having never been interested in Waters films but I like this metaphor. I may look into Waters at some point.
Waters has a book coming soon. “Role Models”. I read the lengthy excerpt on his friendship with Manson groupie Leslie Van Houten, whose parole hearing is imminent, btw. He writes very honestly about himself, first as a young gay man with a desire to shock and offend, then as an older adult, still weird, but who has gained significant insight and perspective. He explores the different feelings across the years he’s had about this relationship. No matter what your feelings on her possible parole and participation in the Manson matter, he makes a strong case for clemency.
LOL@Corduroy.
Mother May I
Sleep With Danger
Some of my favorite commentaries are with John Waters taking the viewer thorough the films of Pink Flamingos, Female Trouble and Desparate Living.
There have been other Waters threads, as far as I remember, but it’s always fun to talk about him. He has some of the funniest dialogue ever written. And his book Crackpot is actually pretty good too. I love Edith Massey and all of his original group of actors.
>>Did you grow up in a house where you always had to ask permission to do something? :)<<
And weren’t taught it’s may we? … ;)
I grew up in Baltimore and actually went to the same private high school he did. He is definitely a point of pride for charm city. My mom worked on at least two of his movies in the location department, and everyone in the Baltimore film industry gets excited when he does a new movie. I almost got a chance to be in the last one, but I hear he’ll be making a new one soon so hopefully I can jump on that. Also, many Baltimorians like myself are disgruntled that the new Hairspray was not filmed in Baltimore, despite the fact that the first song is “Good Morning Baltimore”!
1. Polyester
2. Cry-Baby
3. Serial Mom
4. Hairspray
5. Desperate Living
6. Pink Flamingos
7. Pecker
8. A Dirty Shame
Haven’t seen the others
I think John Waters can do no wrong, but I prefer his movies up to Desperate Living the most. They were so surreal. I respect what he did afterwards, he made a career for himself and found a different approach to subversion. He’ll always be the best American satirist of his generation. and he has a big heart. especially for outsiders.
I thank John Waters for bringing me a lot of cinematic joy.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=16441456U
I heard these interviews with John Waters on NPR almost two years ago. Here’s a chance to start a John Waters list bashing thread to compete with the Quentin Tarantino list bashing thread. It’s a list of John Waters’ extremely strange dvd favorites. I sought out the ones I had not seen and the only one that really did shock me was In a Glass Cage. I do not recommend this without a strong caveat. We all have a limit of tolerance and In a Glass Cage went beyond mine.
Also, he is pretty much the best late show guest in the history of late show guests. Look up some of his appearances on Youtube.
(Question: how do you link/do various html-ish stuff on here?)
I think taking on Johnny Knoxville as his new muse is kind of a career misstep for Waters. He’s the kind of guy you look at and immediately think, “If there were a more mainstream, less offensive version of John Waters, this would be his go-to actor.” “A Dirty Shame” called back to his early work, but it felt like it was doing so in a really broad way. The best thing about Waters’s potty humor has always been that it attempted to go far enough to offend even the people who enjoy potty humor. It was crass, but it wasn’t broad by any means. I felt like “A Dirty Shame” was trying to “go too far” (a good thing), but it went too far in all the safest, most soundbite-worthy ways. Tracy Ullman waddling around with a bottle in her vagina is a bizzaro-world late show clip. Lulu’s hilarious faux-melodramatic speech from “Polyester” about how she wants an abortion because the baby inside her is like a “cancer”? Not so much.
Have you seen “Divine Trash?” A pretty definitive doc on Waters. It’d be nice to see a Criterion release of “Pink Flamingos” with “Divine Trash” as a bonus disc. Dare to dream peoples!
In a way, can I say I’m kind of glad that Waters has not been institutionalized by Criterion? As much as the two are worthy of each other, in many ways, I like the idea that Waters remains a little “dangerous,” a little taboo…
Lester Burnham: I have, indeed, seen “Divine Trash,” though I think I might have missed small portions of it, since I’d just flipped to it on one of the movie channels.
Justin Vicari: I’m not entirely sure why Waters would be put out on Criterion, since his movies are already pretty widely available. Maybe some of his early, early work (pre-Pink Flamingos, basically) could use a printing. I’m not sure.
I think you might have misunderstood what I was saying, Bolo.
Justin Vicari: No, I get what you’re saying. Personally, I don’t think I’d be worried that Waters becomes less “dangerous” if his work gets put out by Criterion. I actually don’t feel that Waters’s persona relies on him being an outsider rather than a “respected auteur,” nor do I feel that the latter is necessarily granted by becoming part of the Criterion catalogue.
The point I made before was more of a practical thing.
I agree that “Divine Trash” is a MUST for fans of his early work, as it concentrates on “Pink Flamingos.” There was also another Steve Yeager doc at the same time called “In Bad Taste.” Anyone know how to get a DVD copy? I only ever saw it on IFC.
Criterion released both Polyester and Pink Flamingos on laserdisc with director approved editions. Many of the supplemental materials on both have not been seen since and they both featured exclusive commentary tracks (although many of the stories were repeated on the later DVD editions).
Waters had three short films prior to Mondo Trasho (his first). These are randomly available at film exhibitions. Most recently at an art gallery in Manhattan (for 2 short weeks). Eat Your Makeup, Roman Candles and one other who’s title escapes me at the moment. These would be ideal to have on Criterion as they have never been released on DVD or even on VHS.
The short films of John Waters however wouldn’t be a very substantial CC release…so I was thinking, since Mondo Trasho is also unavailable on any DVD format (as is Multiple Maniacs…unless you count that crappy bootleg nonsense going around), if you added these two films on one disc, then a 2nd disc with his 3 early films…it literally screams RELEASE ME CRITERION!
Just sayin
I love mondo trasho but desperate living is great
I’ve seen all of Waters’s works, except for the early shorts, and used to own the Criterion laserdiscs of Polyester and Pink Flamingos. I have all of his other films on dvd.
It may sound strange, but I used to be a big fan, but enjoy his films less than I used to, much the same way that I have less interest in the work of the Coen brothers. They’re kind of “one note” filmmakers, doing the same film over and over again. There’s also kind of smugness and mean-spirited tone to their films that just rubs me the wrong way as I’ve gotten older.
Particularly with Waters, as time goes on, his later films seem caught outside of time. It’s as if he’s trying to make a movie with his 70s or 80s style and attitude with a bigger budget and more professional actors. I found his work uninteresting after “Polyester”.
I guess the best analogy I could make would be Hitchcock. Yes, he made films that had similar themes and plots over a long career, but he explored ideas with depth and changed with the times.
“Waters has a book coming soon. “Role Models”. I read the lengthy excerpt on his friendship with Manson groupie Leslie Van Houten, whose parole hearing is imminent, btw. He writes very honestly about himself, first as a young gay man with a desire to shock and offend, then as an older adult, still weird, but who has gained significant insight and perspective.”
Exactly why he is a great speaker and should still be making films.
I do think there was a lot more than shock and offending going on in those early films. First, they were cheerful, other shock films were often deadly serious or even clinical. Second, the films were very humane catalogs of fringe groups that the groups could be proud of.
His later sort of shock film (A Dirty Shame) I was less happy with I think because it lacked the human element and was more about the fetishes themselves. It was still very likable tho.
bolo tie
Ranking the Waters movies I’ve seen:
1. Polyester (1981)
2. Female Trouble (1974)
3. Hairspray (1988)
4. Serial Mom (1994)
5. Desperate Living (1977)
7. Pink Flamingos (1972)
…
5994. A Dirty Shame (2004)
I’ve seen “Cecil B. DeMented,” “Cry-Baby,” and “Pecker” before, but I don’t remember them vividly enough to slot them in with the ones more familiar to me. I’ll have to revisit them soon.
“Polyester” was a transformative experience for me, kind of like the first time you listen to a lo-fi recording, and you’re just starting to get an ear for things you’ve always been told should grate on the nerves. I’m a sucker for its stylized bizzaro 1980s/1950s vibe. Punk legend Stiv Bators’s turn as Bo-Bo Belsinger is not to be missed. Also, “The Baltimore Foot Stomper,” Tab Hunter as local lothario Todd Tomorrow, and of course the inimitable Divine as Francine Fishpaw, the bedraggled wife of a porn theater proprietor, whose keen sense of smell keeps her knee-deep in trouble. Classic. Just classic.
It’s such a sadness to me that I can’t list John Waters as an auteur on here.