Pink Flamingos, one of American cinema’s most mundane films, was born in a pretty notebook. The story of drag queen Divine (Harris Glen Milstead), who claims to be the most unpleasant person in the world, is told in tight blue ink calligraphy. The handwritten letters are perfectly arranged between the lines of the notebook, respecting the margins and with hardly any crossing out. This first script for a cult work perfectly reflects its author, John Waters, one of cinema’s greatest provocateurs. A man who usually dresses like a dandy and sports a neatly trimmed mustache. This week, at the opening of the largest retrospective of his work, Waters warned the press: “Welcome to the dump of my memories.”
Shortly after “Pope of Trash” opened its doors at the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures in Los Angeles, laughter could be heard in the galleries. The exhibition will be open to the public from this Sunday until August 4, 2024. It is a new big opportunity for an institution that is still trying to make a name for itself in the local cultural offering. The center opened almost two years ago with a major exhibition by Hayao Miyazaki, the Japanese animation genius. This was followed by a film about the film noir made between 1898 and 1971. Now it is the turn of the director and sometimes the author who has outraged thousands.
The costumes from “A dirty Shame”, John Waters’ latest film, are part of the exhibition.Charles White (Charles White, JWPictures/©Acad)
A room modeled on a church serves as an entrance to the world of Waters, who was born in Baltimore in 1946. The walls of the gallery are painted black. Inside are stained glass windows of the muses who inspired the filmmaker’s work, characters who strive for fame, whether that comes through appearances in the newspaper events section. This mural depicts “Cinderella,” the first film Waters saw in the theater and which had a major influence on him. The introduction is an allusion by curators Jenny He and Dara Jaffe to the beginning of the filmmaker’s career. This began in 1964 with his first steps as a great provocateur, when he showed his early short films in an Episcopal church in his city.
“I would love my parents to be here because they always made me believe that I could do whatever I wanted, even if they were horrified by what I was doing. They thought: What could be better than this? It’s better than prison. Because if I hadn’t had the opportunity to use all my anti-social lunatics, who knows what would have happened,” Waters said during the inauguration.
Before the explosion of streaming, Hollywood was obsessed with writers whose vision was strong enough to draw audiences to the theaters. Pope of Trash shows that any trick is valid to achieve this goal. At the premiere of “Pink Flamingos,” Waters requested that paper bags be handed out to the audience in case anyone vomited. This ploy caused many to flock to the Elgin, the only theater in New York that shows it at midnight, to test their stomachs.
Due to the great demand of the audience looking for strong emotions, this film was shown for a year. The film’s trailer, another piece that is part of the exhibition, did not contain a single scene from the film. Only opinions from viewers who had just seen it appeared. “It’s the most unpleasant thing I’ve ever seen in my life,” “Wonderful,” “It’s better than screams and whispers.” [la película de 1972 de Ingmar Bergman]“, are some things that are said.
“With this exhibition it becomes clear that there is a sense of humor that never makes our enemies feel stupid. We make them feel intelligent even when they are not, we make them laugh and we can make them listen,” Waters said in a conversation with the curators this Thursday. Thanks to the creator’s musical obsessions, the exhibition also invites you to dance. These are issued on two bands. The first is “Hairspray” (1988), in which Debbie Harry of “Blondie” fame appears, and then “Crybaby” (1990), in which the filmmaker gives television star Johnny Depp one of the first leading roles.
In 1980, the director used a different tactic to cater to his niche. For Polyester, his first studio film, Waters revived a technology used 20 years earlier. In 1960, the thriller Scent of Mystery starring Peter Lorre and Elizabeth Taylor used something called Smell-O-Vision, a scent spray that accompanied the footage and promised the viewer a unique sensory experience.
The exhibition recreates the trailer in which Divine lives in “Pink Flamingos”, the 1972 film by John Waters.Charles White (Charles White, JWPictures/©Acad)
Waters took this idea and made Odorama. Instead of giving off the scent of Elizabeth Taylor’s perfume, as Jack Cardiff’s film did, Waters offered the smell of disgust thanks to a scratch-and-sniff box that had to be brought close to the nostrils in eight scenes. “Smelling is believing,” was the phrase of the filmmaker, whose scent menu consisted of farts, gasoline, the essence of a skunk, glue and the stench of smelly shoes.
Any good Simpsons aficionado will remember the episode in which Waters voices John, a homosexual who shows the family the importance of living the life you want, regardless of what others think. This to Homer’s outrage. The director calls these brief appearances or supporting characters a form of “celebrity retention.” And it’s not just limited to hit titles. It appeared in content as diverse as Alvin and the Chipmunks for children, to CSI and even horror classics like Chucky’s Seeds. The exhibition also devotes space to Waters’ influence on American popular culture.
The Hollywood establishment has long resisted the charms of the pontiff of filth. Waters only joined the directors’ union in the 1990s, when he was joined by David Lynch and Claudia Weill, director of the indie classic The Friends (1978). It was a pat on the back for the great rebel of American cinema. A gesture that the author never stops looking for. John Waters hopes this exhibition can make it easier for him to finally have a star on the Walk of Fame. It would be the penultimate symbol for the King of Trash.
All the culture that goes with it awaits you here.
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