i’ve never seen a john waters film. what you just wrote is maybe as much as i’ve ever known about him!
Those early John Waters films are something else. Quite imaginative and campy in the best sense. Edith Massey is one of my favorite performers, especially in “Female Trouble.” His first film, “Eat Your Makeup,” features a reenactment of the Kennedy assassination with Divine, a 200+ plus pound transvestite, playing Jackie, climbing out over the hood of the car; that’s a good example of Waters’ outrageousness.
FEMALE TROUBLE was quite a high school favorite of mine.
“Dawn Davenport is eating a meatball hoagie right out in class.”
“ooh I hate this school so much I could burn it down.”
“But my nephew, I want you to be gay. The world of heterosexual is a sick and boring life.”
“Okay you lovebirds, bumpin pussies is against jailhouse rules.”
“I said cha-cha heels! I want cha-cha heels!”
“You think you’re something special just because you got them big udders? Get the hook!”
Some of my favorite memorable lines from Female Trouble.
@Justin –
Man, you’ve got the goods on “Female Trouble”, brought back good memories. I love John Waters esp. “Desperate Living” and the earlier stuff. One of my favorites – and I always get mixed up with the titles so maybe you can tell me – was the one with the touring freak circus, Cavalcade of Filth, where Divine got raped by giant Lobster in an alley, twice!
Oh gosh, Noel… that’s either Multiple Maniacs or the other early one he made without sound. I can’t think of the name off-hand. :)
Female Trouble is a masterpiece! All right Aunt Ida!
Mondo Trasho, it just came to me, that was I think Waters’ first.
I live in Baltimore and have seen Mr. Waters around town many times over the years. His most recent ’ A Dirty Shame’ was filmed in the neighborhood where my wife and I currently live. He’s gat bawldimore down pat, hon. We love him.
This thread reminded me of when a friend and I met Edith ‘the egg lady’ Massey back in the very early 80’s (we were in our teens at the time). She had a little boutique shop in Fells Point (a little dock area of Baltimore – where Homicide filmed the police station exteriors) and was telling us how she was going to Hollywood to cut a Rock and Roll album. We had no idea who she was at the time and smiled politely and thought this old woman with missing teeth talking about going to Hollywood was nuts. If I only knew then. Utterly charming in that John Waters sort of way. I don’t know if she ever did make that album. R.I.P.
Mondo Trasho is just a terrific non-apologetic film which has always been a favorite of mine in regards to John Waters.
Bob, she did record at least one single, a version of “Big Girls Don’t Cry” that is astounding.
Justin, I’m going to have to search that out and find it. Thanks!
You’re welcome.
Did anyone see him on Dateline last year? When he revealed he had pills to turn his stool gold? I love him.
I have heard two by her, and found them again for you, http://crudcrud.blogspot.com/2008/09/big-girls-dont-cry.html
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/world_news_america/7814498.stm
I love him, more than his movies, but those are all soo great too….
Matthew – great finds. I for one am greatly appreciative, thank you. A shame a Baltimoron like myself didn’t already have these songs in my collection. tsk, tsk. John Waters is a national treasure, even if all of his films may not be.
Although I find some of his work entertaining I actually enjoy listening to him better. There is a DVD available of him talking to an audience.
John Waters is a great American humorist with an utterly unique sensibility. In addition he’s an extremely nice man. “Female Trouble” remains my favorite but all his films are worth seeing.
I recently became somewhat related to him.
My cousin married his niece this summer. He was at the wedding. My cousin nor aunt nor uncle mentioned that John Waters was going to be there at the wedding so we were really surprised. The family has a lot of money and it seemed like no one thinks much of him and he was just the gay uncle that makes dirty movies.
OK. So I wasn’t really at the wedding but I wish I was! My parents and sister went and they got to talk to him (no one else at the wedding even knew of his movies). I didn’t go because I thought it would be boring!
gosh! that’s funny, you could rent Blood Feast 2, he plays a priest/father at a wedding.
He’s in tons of films in cameos. I began writing to his crew back in the early 80s and maintain pen-pal friendships with several of his oldest pals. I’m too intimidated to write to him, but I’m always thrilled to get Christmas cards from Mink Stole and Mary Vivian Pearce (“Bonnie”). I never got a chance to tell Edith how much she meant to me, but I was having phone conversations and small talk with Jean Hill for a few years…I gave up and got busy with a real life eventually. It’s still nice to swap Xmas cards with Mink and Bonnie though. :-)
John Waters is one of my favorite people on earth. Cry Baby… so awesome, although I do love the weird trashy stuff too. And his one man show is brilliant – This Filthy World.
Waters is an important American director. The documentary Divine Trash was revealing. Hope Criterion gets Pink Flamingos in its ouvre soon.
He was good in Sweet and Lowdown too. Didn’t he play Penn’s agent in that one?
I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE JOHN WATERS. HE IS MORE THAN JUST A FILM MAKER. HE IS AN ANTHROPOLOGIST, SOCIOLOGIST AND PSYCHOLOGIST OF AMERICAN CULTURE. HIS VISION OF WHAT ALBERT CAMUS USED TO CALL “HAVING TO STAND NAKED IN THE FACE OF THE ABSURD” RESONATES THROUGH EVERY FILM. HE IS TRULY A GENIUS AND A VISIONARY BUT MORE THAN THAT HE HAS ONE OF THE MOST COMPASSIONATE EYES I HAVE EVER WITNESSED. OUT OF ALL THE FOOLISHNESS COMES A HUMANITY THAT TRANSCENDS THE ABSURD AND GIVES HIS CHARACTERS LIFE.
John Waters sort of looks like Steve Buscemi.
Thea,
A great local bookstore in Baltimore, Atomic Books has a Christmas card with a picture of Steve Buscemi dressed as John Waters, pencil mustache and all. http://www.yelp.com/biz_photos/48al_WClD7DHV-MXAMVI3Q?select=spSbRLBYUXCOVil6ZqliOg
actually watching the new version of HAIRSPRAY right now, love John Travolta in this.
When I was in my 20s, I had a girlfriend who loved “Female Trouble” — in fact, from time to time she’d spontaneously break into the theme song during our dates. Looking back on it now, I think…that was kind of odd, wasn’t it?
My favorite Waters line: “I wouldn’t suck your cock if it had the last oxygen in the world in it.” — from “Desperate Living” (as I recall…)
Also, if you get a chance to hear him speak, pay whatever the venue is charging. He’s more hilarious than any 30 of the stand-ups going on stage tonight in Vegas.
Buffalo
John Samuel Waters, Jr. (born April 22, 1946) is an American filmmaker, actor, writer, celebrity, visual artist and art collector, who rose to fame in the early 1970s for his transgressive cult films. Waters’ 1970s and early ’80s trash films feature his regular troupe of actors known as Dreamlanders — among them Divine, Mary Vivian Pearce, and Edith Massey — often committing cinematic crimes. Starting with Desperate Living (1977), Waters began casting real-life convicted criminals (Liz Renay, Patricia Hearst) as well as famous (Sonny Bono, Debbie Harry, Tab Hunter) and infamous people (Traci Lords, a former porn star).
Waters skirted mainstream filmmaking with Hairspray (1988), which introduced Ricki Lake and earned a modest gross of $8 million domestically. In 2002, Hairspray was adapted to a long-running Broadway musical, which itself was adapted to a hit musical film which earned more than $200 million worldwide. After the crossover success of the original film version of Hairspray, Waters’ films began featuring familiar actors and celebrities such as Johnny Depp, Edward Furlong, Melanie Griffith, Chris Isaak, Johnny Knoxville, Martha Plimpton, Christina Ricci, Lili Taylor, Kathleen Turner and Tracey Ullman.
Although he has apartments in New York City, San Francisco and a summer home in Provincetown, Waters still mainly resides in his hometown of Baltimore, Maryland, where all his films are set. He is recognizable by his trademark pencil-thin moustache.
PINK FLAMINGOS
Pink Flamingos is a 1972 American transgressive comedy directed by John Waters.1 When the film was initially released in 1972, it caused a huge degree of controversy and thus became one of the most notorious cult films ever made. It made an underground star of the flamboyant female impersonator, Divine. The independent film also stars David Lochary, Mary Vivian Pearce, Mink Stole, Danny Mills, Cookie Mueller, and Edith Massey. Produced on a budget of only $10,000, it was mostly shot on weekends in Phoenix, a suburb of Baltimore, Maryland.2
Since its release it has had a rather devoted cult following and is one of John Waters’ most famous or downright notorious films due to some shocking scenes and the wide range of perverse, taboo acts performed in the film. In 1997, for the 25th anniversary of the 1972 premiere, the film was re-released. The new version featured an improved stereo soundtrack (which, unlike the original, was made available to the general public, on compact disc), and after the end of the original movie the new version contained a brief video commentary by Waters, plus a few scenes cut from the original release. The re-release was rated NC-17 by the Motion Picture Association of America. This edition was later released on DVD.
The film came in at number 29 on the list of 50 Films to See Before You Die on a show in the United Kingdom.