Female Trouble Thu, Sep 28 | 7:30pm | TMT Two years after Pink Flamingos (1972), John Waters’s follow-up film, Female Trouble , chronicles the life of Dawn Davenport—once again starring his muse Divine—from juvenile delinquency to death row, as deranged Dawn enters a life of depravity in the pursuit of beauty and fame. Highlighting Waters’s recurrent themes of crime, infamy, and dying for art, the film takes on classic Hollywood noir biopic with an anarchic twist. In developing the film, Waters took inspiration from the Diane Arbus photograph A young Brooklyn family going for a Sunday outing, N.Y.C. (1966). Female Trouble features Dreamlander David Lochary’s final film role. DIRECTED/WRITTEN BY: John Waters. WITH: Divine, David Lochary, Mary Vivian Pearce, Mink Stole. 1974. 89 min. USA. Color. English. Rated NC-17. 35mm.
Hairspray Thu, Oct 5 | 7:30pm | TMT Set in 1962, two years before the Civil Rights Act, Hairspray centers on Tracy Turnblad (Ricki Lake), a “pleasantly plump” teenager who attempts to racially integrate a local teen dance program, The Corny Collins Show . Considered John Waters’s most commercially successful film, and his only dance film, Hairspray was nominated for the Grand Jury Prize at the 1988 Sundance Film Festival and received six Film Independent Spirit Award nominations. In 2002, the film was adapted into a hit Broadway musical, winning eight Tony Awards, and in 2007, was remade into a musical film. Hairspray was Divine’s last Dreamland role, passing away shortly after the film’s premiere at the age of 42. DIRECTED/WRITTEN BY: John Waters. WITH: Ricki Lake, Divine, Jerry Stiller, Ruth Brown. 1988. 92 min. USA. Color. English. Rated PG. 35mm. Print courtesy of the Academy Film Archive.
(Kathleen Turner) is a suburban housewife often compared to June Cleaver. But the charming Beverly is secretly prone to murdering her neighbors for perceived crimes against polite society, such as wearing white after Labor Day and neglecting to rewind a rented videocassette. While on trial, Beverly becomes a media sensation, and is even set to be portrayed by Suzanne Somers in a made-for-television movie—the very kind Waters is spoofing. Though it was not a success at the box office upon release, Serial Mom has been propelled into cult classic status ever since. DIRECTED/WRITTEN BY: John Waters. WITH: Kathleen Turner, Sam Waterson, Ricki Lake, Matthew Lillard. 1994. 95 min. USA. Color. English. Rated R. 35mm.
PINK FLAMINGOS, Photo: Lawrence Irvine
Pink Flamingos Sat, Sep 23 | 7:30pm | TMT
After it premiered at a rented hall at the University of Baltimore in March 1972, John Waters’s third feature established his reputation as a cinematic provocateur. To hype the film’s outrageous imagery—most infamously a scene involving Divine and dog excrement—and extreme themes including incest, coprophilia, and exhibitionism, barf bags were distributed during screenings during the film's original run. Waters also knew that word of mouth— spurred by shock, sensationalism, and catchy dialogue— would fill theater seats, which led to Pink Flamingo’ s success as a midnight movie at New York’s famed Elgin Theater, where it ran for over a year. DIRECTED/WRITTEN BY: John Waters. WITH: Divine, David Lochary, Mary Vivian Pearce, Mink Stole. 1972. 93 min. USA. Color. English. Rated NC-17. 35mm.
MULTIPLE MANIACS, Photo: Lawrence Irvine
POLYESTER, Photo: Larry Dean
DESPERATE LIVING, Photo: Bob Adams
Multiple Maniacs Thu, Sep 21 | 7:30pm | TMT
Polyester Fri, Sep 29 | 7:30pm | TMT Premiering at Charles Theater in his hometown of
Desperate Living Fri, Oct 20 | 7:30pm | TMT
John Waters’s second feature, his first with synced sound, showcases his muse Divine, who leads a traveling troupe of exhibitionists cast with Dreamlanders, Waters’s go-to band of players. This first collaboration with Vincent Peranio, who created the giant lobster prop central to one of the film’s most memorable sequences, would cement their bond as collaborators; Peranio would create the distinct look and feel of all of Waters’s following films as set designer, art director, and production designer. Shot in Waters’s hometown of Baltimore, with some sequences filmed in his parents’ yard, Multiple Maniacs and its “Cavalcade of Perversions” is a prime example of Waters’s signature cacophonous barrage of bad taste and no-holds-barred anti-establishment energy. DIRECTED/WRITTEN BY: John Waters. WITH: Divine, David Lochary, Mary Vivian Pearce, Mink Stole. 1970. 96 min. USA. B&W. English. DCP.
Peggy Gravel (Mink Stole) and Grizelda Brown (Jean Hill) escape arrest by running away to Mortville, a fantastical, trash-filled slum ruled by the fascist Queen Carlotta (Edith Massey), where they receive alarming makeovers. Van Smith, a Dreamland regular, designed the makeup and costumes, amalgamating the film’s garish outfits with drastically clashing textures and colors for a full-on assault on the eyes—and taste—of the audience. The third in John Waters’s so-called “trash trinity” that started with Pink Flamingos (1972) and Female Trouble (1974), Desperate Living’ s fantastical sets were designed by his frequent collaborator Vincent Peranio with literal trash from Baltimore streets for a truly tasteless look. DIRECTED/WRITTEN BY: John Waters. WITH: Liz Renay, Mink Stole, Susan Lowe, Edith Massey. 1977. 90 min. USA. Color. English. Rated X. 35mm.
Baltimore and later screening at the Cannes Film Festival, John Waters’s first studio film winks toward the overblown melodramas of the 1950s. Polyester again stars Divine, here as Francine Fishpaw, a matriarch who wants nothing more than to keep a respectable suburban home but whose happiness is thwarted by her smut-peddling husband (David Samson) and the hunky Todd Tomorrow, played by ’50s heartthrob Tab Hunter in a role that would resuscitate his career. Reviving the “Smell-O-Vision” experiments of the 1960s with custom-made “Odorama” cards, audiences could inhale the putrid smells of the film right alongside the film’s heroine. DIRECTED/WRITTEN BY: John Waters. WITH: Divine, Tab Hunter, Edith Massey, David Samson. 1981. 86 min. USA. Color. English. Rated R. DCP.
FEMALE TROUBLE, Photo: Bruce Moore
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