John Waters
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in his own words:
'I took my little movie photographs
for years without telling anybody.
it all started with my obsession to have a still
from one of my older films which was never
taken on the set.
I remembered divine's face in the one moment
between rape and miraculous intervention
where he lived up to the spirtual side of his
name, but I didn't have the picture to prove it.
I took hundreds of shots off the TV monitor,
blundering my way into photography the same
way I blundered into films, until I finally produced
the still I wanted.'
and he does this to literally hundreds of films.
john waters is the 'pope of trash' - william burroughs
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waters believes
'life is nothing if you're not obsessed.
iIf you're an outsider, as soon as you stop being
uptight about it and believe that it's an advantage,
you'll win. that's what my movies are about.
the things you get hassled about exaggerate
them, be proud of them, and then people will really
respect you. make friends with your neuroses :
that's modern maturity.'
'the only way I have to change anyone’s
opinion is if I'm making them laugh at something
that they've maybe never laughed about before,'
waters says. 'I use humor to get people to think the
way I do.' |
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JOHN WATERS
was born on
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april 22, 1946 in baltimore, maryland.(the city in took pride in its famous resident
by naming february 7, 1985 as 'john water's day.')
john waters is a prolific film director, author,
photographer and sometime actor.
he is best known for his films, the content of
which have sometimes shocked and always
entertained an international audience.
waters writes all his own films.
present in many of his films are the plastic
sincerity and squashed innocence of late 50's
and early 60's americana.
drugs, queers, abortion, religion - nothing is
sacred in his field of vision.
waters' films
waters made his first film, a 8-mm short,
'hag in a black leather jacket' in 1964,
followed with 'roman candles' in 1966,
the first of his films to star divine and mink stole.
in 1967, he made his first 16-mm film
'eat your makeup', the story of
a deranged governess and her lover who
kidnap fashion models and force them to
model themselves to death.
'mondo trasho', waters first feature length
film, was completed in 1969.
in 1970, waters completed what he described
as his first 'celluloid atrocity', 'multiple maniacs'.
in 1972 waters created what would become
the most notorious film in the american
independent cinema of the 1970s,
'pink flamingos', the ultimate trash masterpiece.
waters borrowed the money to make ' pink
flamingos' from his mom and dad,
but forbid them from ever seeing it.
in 1974 he created 'female trouble',
1977 marked the premiere of 'desperate living',
in 1981 waters completed 'polyester' -
filmed in glorious 'odorama', ticket buyers
were given scratch on sniff cards that allowed
the audience to smell along with the characters
in their fragrant search for romantic happiness.
'hairspray' (1988),
'cry-baby' (1990),
'pecker' (1998)
'cecil b. demented' (2000)
'divine trash' (2000)
'pie in the sky: the brigid berlin story' (2001)
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waters' favorite actor
waters's favorite actor, a 'terrorist drag queen'
who appeared in nine of his movies, in which he
was raped by a giant lobster (multiple maniacs); fell in love with tab hunter (poIyester);
performed a trampoline act while condemning
audience members to death (female trouble);
played jackie in a reenactment of the kennedy
assassination (eat your makeup);
and, most famously, ate actual dog shit
(pink flamingos).
divine died in 1988, shortly after the release
of 'hairspray'. |
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critics tend to divide waters's work into two
categories: his darker, earlier projects,
and his later, more commercial movies,
starting with hairspray.
the earlier films are filled with passionate,
if not always convincing, cross-dressing,
close-up crotch shots, occasional blasphemy;
the later movies are sweeter and bigger-budget, |
and feature hollywood stars ( johnny depp,
kathleen turner) and a variety of pop-culture
figures (deborah harry; patricia hearst).
interviews, articles and books
waters has contributed many essays and articles to
publications such as newsweek, american film,
and playboy.
read some articles by john waters
http://www.northcoast.com/~shojo/Waters/articles.html
interviews and his books
http://www.dreamlandnews.com/print/index.html
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