Bring on the badness
Pink Flamingos
"To me, bad taste is what entertainment is all about" - John Waters
'The Baron of Bad Taste', 'The Sultan of Sleaze' and - his own personal favourite -'The Pope of Trash', are just some of the many titles bestowed upon legendary cult filmmaker John Waters.
Waters, the man who made bad taste fashionable, is bringing his one-man show, This Filthy World, to Australia, and it promises to be hilarious, shocking and enlightening.
To celebrate, ACMI have programmed two key films from Waters' back catalogue for our late night Freaky Fridays sessions. First up is his most infamous film Pink Flamingos (1972), followed by his most recent work A Dirty Shame (2004).
Though he has worked with everyone from Johnny Depp to Johnny Knoxville, and two of his movies have been turned into Broadway musicals - Hairspray (1988) and Cry Baby (1990) - and even though your parents probably know who John Waters is, his work still carries a lingering aroma of the taboo.
Why? Because after the comparatively wholesome Hairpsray, Waters is still most famous for Pink Flamingos. Yes, this monstrous comedy still reigns as the most offensive movie ever made, in which the characters vie for the title of the 'World's Filthiest Person'. The movie culminates with its star, 300-pound transvestite Divine (Glenn Milstead), eating dog excrement - a finale that, as Waters predicted, no one would ever forget. This is but one high point in the general parade of "badness" in the film that also includes bestiality (of sorts) and a man with a talent for "lip" synching.
A Dirty Shame, Waters most recent work, sees the director return to his roots. Exploring the wide divide between prudes and the world of sexual excess, A Dirty Shame is a carnival of carnality. Tracey Ullman stars and has her own Pink Flamingos-esque moment during a particularly enthusiastic bout of the "Hokey Pokey" where she picks up a water bottle with her "special area" at a nursing home. A Dirty Shame reaches a fever pitch of sexual anarchy where the whole town indulges their every last desire, even the squirrels.
Click here for screening details.
Published Thursday, 25 February 2010
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