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John Waters (filmmaker)

“Isn't that the most perverse thing you've ever heard?”

John Waters (born April 22, 1946, Baltimore, Maryland) is an American filmmaker, who became well known in the early 1970s for his intentionally transgressive comedies.


Contents

Directing career

Waters grew up in Towson, Maryland, a suburb of Baltimore. His boyhood friend and muse Glen Milstead, later known as Divine, also lived in Baltimore County, Maryland, a short distance away. Waters' films would become Divine's primary star vehicle. Waters' early films were all shot in the Baltimore area with his company of local actors, the Dreamlanders. In addition to Divine, the group included Mink Stole, Cookie Mueller, Edith Massey, David Lochary, Mary Vivian Pearce, and others. These early films were among the first picked up for distribution by New Line Cinema. Waters Premiers his films at the Baltimore Senator Theatre and sometimes at the Charles Theatre.

A young Waters in the "Trash Trilogy" era

Waters' early campy movies present filthily loveable characters in outrageous situations with hyperbolic dialogue. His early films, Pink Flamingos, Female Trouble, and Desperate Living, which he labeled the Trash Trilogy, pushed hard at the boundaries of conventional propriety and movie censorship. A particularly notorious final segment of Pink Flamingos, simply added in as a non sequitur to the end of the film, featured, in one take without special effects, a small dog defecating and Divine eating the dog feces.

His 1981 film Polyester starred Divine opposite once-teen-idol Tab Hunter. His films have become less controversial and more mainstream, although works such as Hairspray, Cry-Baby and Serial Mom still retain his trademark inventiveness. The film Hairspray was turned into a hit Broadway musical, which swept the 2003 Tony Awards, and a remake is currently being filmed.

Waters' most recent film, the NC-17 rated A Dirty Shame, is a move back toward his earlier, more controversial work. He also had a cameo in Jackass Number Two, which starred Dirty Shame co-star Johnny Knoxville.

He is currently a professor of Cinema and Subcultural Studies at the European Graduate School. [1]

John Waters Filmography (as Writer / Director)

John Waters Filmography (as Writer Only)

Writings

Original cover of 'Shock Value'

Waters has published collections of his writings including:

The photo collections:

Other Works

Trivia

Det. John Munch: [looking at corpse] With those beady eyes and that mustache he looks like a cross between Steve Buscemi, John Waters and Edgar Allan Poe.

Det. Tim Bayliss: Aren't they all the same person?

Categories


1946 births | American film directors | LGBT directors | Living people | People from Baltimore | Roman Catholic entertainers | Transgressive artists | English-language film directors | LGBT people from the United States | LGBT screenwriters

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