"You stand convicted of Assholism!" -- in praise of John Waters

The real question in re: John Waters is a very rockist question: was the early stuff better, much better, or is that whole question bullshit? Everybody went nuts over Polyester which was good but lacked the "these people are truly insane" appeal of earlier films. Every JW movie since then has some embarassingly ham-handed moments, even the GREAT Cecil B. Demented (the scene where they sit around singing "Demented Forever" as they get branded made me cringe, it was so corny). At the same time, his eye for satire gets sharper as his audience widens. BUT AT THE VERY SAME TIME DONT'TCHA KNOW the jokes come less rapid-fire, seem more self-conscious, etc. Knowing that one has an audience & feeling obligated to same, Classic or Dud?

And his recollections live are pretty much like a standup comedy act. Very funny man in person.

Anyway, Divine's performance in Polyester, the crackup descent into booze and pills, is surely one of the greatest film performances EVER EVER EVER. The commitment and detail in it blows nearly all other movie "acting" out of the fucking pond.

"No single bullet can destroy the beauty of fascism"

Not only do I like "Female Troubles," I am also keen to "Polyesters," and "Hairsprays."

Same here. You can't top the unspeakably bizarre sensibility of the early films, but Hairspray, the greatest film of 1988, manages to keep the weirdness but add in his essentially, uh..., em,...er...sweet-- personality too. Ricki Lake was brilliant, Divine of course.

No, Homer. Ultrasuede is a miracle. This was just good timing. Or something like that.

Yeah, well agreed. And yes the movie overall is quite great!

i like how all his movies take place in baltimore.

What is the trick of being an adorable asshole?

John Water's Curated Collection at the Strand

He picked a book by my grandma's friend/former neighbor!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gd6EO6SGGU8

http://dcist.com/2012/05/hitchhiking_director_john_waters_pi.php

Earlier this afternoon, somewhere "in the middle of Ohio," groundbreaking indie director John Waters was found hitchhiking on the side of a road. We're trying to find out just what the Baltimore-based director of Pink Flamingos was doing begging for a lift in the middle of the Buckeye State—indie rock band Here We Go Magic says they picked him up! And he's currently riding around in their van.

http://dcist.com/attachments/nyc_arts_john/051612waters.jpg

http://distilleryimage5.instagram.com/bb4547969f9411e1abb01231382049c1_7.jpg

http://instagr.am/p/Ks2P0mHCIh/

dcist commenter beat me to NOTHING BUT THESE FUCKING JERKOFF HIPPIES ON THE ROAD

Hahah

is the band any good? nothing on ilm that i can see!

Well, uh...

http://www.allmusic.com/album/a-different-ship-r2433665/review

They're a motorik version of Tom Petty. I like them fine

I have never been to P'town either, but as I've read that he's a(n) habitue that would be a primary reason for ever going.

― Dr Morbius, Monday, June 2, 2008 2:42 PM (4 years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I'm reading his book Role Models, in which he writes: "Since I love minorities and Provincetown is a gay fishing village, I hang out in the two straight bars."

Aw man. Jean E. Hill -- aka Grizelda from Desperate Living -- RIP

http://dangerousminds.net/comments/john_waters_star_and_plus-size_greeting_card_model_jean_e._hill_rip

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KfqFdE-bXMg

Honestly amazed that she made it that long after seeing how she looked in A Dirty Shame.

so he's written this book after hitchhiking across America.

“There is no such thing as a $5 million independent movie. They want me to go make it like I used to, but I have no desire to do that. I did that. I have 17 movies, they’re all playing everywhere in the world, more than ever. I’ve spoken.”

http://articles.baltimoresun.com/2014-05-30/entertainment/bs-sc-john-waters-carsick-20140531_1_john-waters-carsick-east-baltimore

"The main thing is, when DVDs overnight died, that ended the safety net. That was profit. All foreign deals fell through. Nobody wants any movie that can't play in China. Nobody wants any movie that has to have any subtitles. They just want explosions. They want $100 million movies that are tentpole movies.

The worst thing they want … is a comedy based on wit. And if I was doing something, that's what I'd try to do.

Thank God I have five other careers."

Complete NYC retro in Sept, featuring several Waters intros/Q&As, plus 8 films programmed by JW (four of which I haven't seen):

The Mother
Roger Michell, USA, 2003, 35mm, 112m
A recently widowed grandmother turns horny and has a secret affair with her daughter’s much younger, loutish boyfriend (played by pre-Bond Daniel Craig). Gerontophilia never seemed so exciting.

Of Unknown Origin
George P. Cosmatos, Canada/USA, 1983, 35mm, 88m
The best rat movie ever. Period. End of discussion.

There's also a Mondo Trasho/Multiple Maniacs/The Diane Linkletter Story on 9/11 for holiday fun.

http://www.filmlinc.com/daily/entry/john-waters-retrospective-film-society-of-lincoln-center-2014

Did we ever have a thread on the I Am Divine documentary? It's on Netflix, enjoyed it very much.

S&M is dying too. There are very few leather bars left in the country. Gay bars are disappearing. It's getting uncomfortable. It's like having "black bars." They just hang out with everybody. Which I'm for. My message is that I've always been very against separatism. To me, I still like the biker culture, but all bikers are old now. And many of them are fat....

And if they are young, and dressing in leather, you'd think they're gay. They look sort of like the Eagles. But I guess that people tell me that the new, young S&M boys dress like fake skinheads. Non-racist skin heads. That's the look. I guess, I don't see it that much. But I don't go to the bars that much. I live at the beach, and S&M really looks stupid at the beach.

http://gothamist.com/2014/09/02/john_waters_justin_bieber.php

Great new interview:

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2016/aug/03/john-waters-multiple-maniacs-baltimore-criterion

Even with A Dirty Shame my father said after, “It was funny but I hope as hell I never see it again!” That’s a pretty good quote!

watched this at bma, didn't disappoint
http://www.nytimes.com/video/t-magazine/100000003435098/teaser-john-waters-kiddie-flamingos.html

Found a complete version of Desperate Living on YouTube last night and it fucking killed me again. So many totally insane characters and scenes. I never really noticed it b4 but its definitely his lesbian/dyke film. Of course, there are other um "avenues" explored but that one is most prominent. The low budget sets are fantastic! The buildings in Mortville are near psychedelic in their coloring. Just beautiful. And also of note, was the absence of Divine, fortunately the other Dreamlanders rise to the occasion. Definitely his darkest film by a considerable margin. I fucking love it!

"SEIZE her and FUCK her!"

LOL! Yeah, there are so many great lines in DL."look at that pelt", "every word I utter is to be taken as a direct, royal proclamation", the aforementioned white man/tampax line. It just goes on and on. The scene wherein Mo emasculates herself, tosses it and some random dog grabs it up. It's truly remarkable how successful it is even without The Divine Miss Divine. And its definitely a film whose appeal to me would never be explainable to my parents ala Warhols Trash and many other favorites.

For some reason, I can't get my library to stock the Criterion of Multiple Maniacs.

TELL HER this isn't some communist daycare center!!!

can't tell you how many times i've thought about the title of this thread re: current administration and basically every single news day about it

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m9P_sxaaMJE

this is pretty priceless btw; the two tone collar is dope and waters is sharp as a tack.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KEzk1DqTaaQ

amazed no one goes to waters these days with an open checkbook, seems like it would be printing money... has he said he's just not making anything anymore?

I remembered a funny John Waters anecdote yesterday that I told to friends

I saw him speak on my college campus, probably fifteen years ago, and he was joking about how after he'd mentioned poppers a number of times, one of the manufacturers had gifted him a "lifetime supply"

I saw him again a couple years ago, and the topic came up. He said he'd nearly run out! Either they underestimated him or he's lived longer than expected

It’s a good thing I’m not relying on making movies. That’s the only one of the careers I have today that isn’t going so great. In the independent film world now, they want you to make it for $2 million and I don’t want to go backwards. I don’t want to be a faux anarchist underground filmmaker at 71 years old. People say, ‘Well, why don’t you raise money on Kickstarter?’ I own three homes. I’m not panhandling. So that’s fine because I have different ways to tell stories.

Do you miss filmmaking?

No. I mean, I do. I miss it, but not completely. I would make another movie in a minute, but I don’t know when I would make it. I am scheduled for the next year already! I made a lot of movies. It’s not like they’re hard to see. I know I would miss it if I didn’t write. I would miss it if I didn’t do spoken word. I would miss it if I didn’t have a photography career. I’d be happy to make one, but if I don’t make another one, I’m fine with that too.

https://www.fastcompany.com/40480667/john-waters-is-done-being-a-faux-anarchist-underground-filmmaker

I own three homes. I’m not panhandling.

God bless him.

Odorama cards this Fri night in NYC

https://www.moma.org/calendar/events/6341

I still have my card from when I saw it in the 80s. Haven't sniffed it recently, wonder if it's still got the aromas.

A hero has passed.

https://www.baltimoresun.com/obituaries/bs-md-ob-david-gluck-20200619-tgunh2dcazbl5pvymnvho2ecvy-story.html

Also rewatched Female Trouble the other day having finally gotten the Criterion Blu-ray and man, that thing's more crazily prescient than ever.

But of course

John Waters bequeaths his art collection to Baltimore Museum of Art, whose bathrooms will be named in his honor https://t.co/BqVZPKx74z

— Ben Jacobs (@Bencjacobs) November 12, 2020

perfect

my house appeared in pecker for two seconds and i am trying to remember if the house at the end of my street was pecker's house or if i made that up, either way i feel part of this

Lovely new feature

https://www.townandcountrymag.com/leisure/arts-and-culture/a37460247/john-waters-cover-story-interview-2021/

Just saw the first date of this year’s Christmas tour here in SF, great as ever. Some news:

*4K of Cry-baby on Kino Lorber next year

* Possible Criterion of Pink Flamingos in the works.

* First novel next year! Liarmouth — about a woman who steals luggage from airports.

Seeing the Xmas show tonight

And it's happening

https://www.criterion.com/films/31320-pink-flamingos

Pink Flamingos is one of the films, like Texas Chainsaw Massacre, that I saw numerous times when I was younger, and agree is culturally or historically significant (!) yet have no desire to watch again.

I have Pink Flamingos on a VHS videotape somewhere and honestly watching it on a 4K Blu-Ray seems like an example of comically missing the point.

Luckily it's just a normal BR.

New book, new interview etc.

https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/scaachikoul/john-waters-book-liarmouth

Great read! Thanks Ned!

omg omg omg

John Waters to make first film in 20 years with Aubrey Plaza set to star

Here's hoping!

Wow, can't believe it's been that long. By a weird coincidence I am currently reading Liarmouth and it very much feels like one of his films.