Post by klep on Sept 28, 2020 7:55:35 GMT -6
MOVIE OF THE WEEK for 9/28: Pink Flamingos
Note: This week's essay is graciously provided by a guest contributor.
Pink Flamingos prides itself on being a filthy movie about filthy people. The advertisements for it in its original theatrical release sold it as “An Exercise in Bad Taste.” John Waters’ 1972 cult classic centers around two different groups of people who not only want the title of being “the filthiest people alive,” they also want to deserve the title. In one corner we have Divine (a notorious criminal living under the name “Babs Johnson”), her egg-obsessed invalid mother Edie, her perverted & delinquent son Crackers, and her sweet-on-the-outside traveling companion Cotton. In the other corner we have Mrs. & Mr. Marble, wealthy suburbanites with minds as diseased as their very-unfinished basement. The Marbles read in a tabloid that Divine has been declared “the filthiest person alive” and they resent their own lack of notoriety so much that they set out to both sabotage & out-filth Divine.
And by filth, I do mean filth. This movie depicts incest, kidnapping, public flashing, cannibalism (in full violation of health code by eating it uncooked), murder, bestiality (in a scene that may also be rape for one of the human participants), meat product stored inside genitals, meat product tied to genitals with a string, castration in a non-medical setting, artificial insemination in a non-medical setting, vengeful salivating, and a singing prolapsed anus. And if all that weren’t enough to shock an audience, Pink Flamingos still makes room for an infamous scene of eating non-human fecal matter. Since props, sets, makeup, and special effects all cost money, this microbudget exploitation film settles for doing everything for real. (Mercifully, the castration and the cannibalism are probably faked.)
Why would anybody want to watch this?
3 years after the Stonewall Riots, nobody was yet talking about the suburban assimilationist dream of same-sex marriage. Queerness existed on the social fringe. Queerness was essentially a birthright form of punk - let your freak flag fly and do anything to piss off the squares. Queer presence in mainstream studio cinema was rare, was almost always subtext, and was almost always othering; if people wanted gay shit by someone who spoke their language they had to go where Hollywood wasn’t. Simultaneously the counterculture embraced cult films - grindhouse, exploitation, acid, stoner, pornography (Pink Flamingos came out the same year as Deep Throat), and all the tastelessness money wouldn’t buy. With its gleeful shock value and defiant queerness, Pink Flamingos instantly found an audience in the cult circuit; 3 years before The Rocky Horror Picture Show, Pink Flamingos was known for midnight screenings where the audiences had callout interactions with the screen.
Can a film that exists for its shock value hold up 50 years later — in the age of 4chan, pornhub, South Park, 2 Girls 1 Cup, and the infinite kinks of the internet?
Not only yes, but hell yes.
It’s easy to read off a shopping list of Pink Flamingos’ scatological atrocities, and that shopping list is definitely words and ideas that would make an old square reach for their smelling salts. But shock value alone is as deep and lasting as a jump scare or a Family Guy reference joke. Once you know the shock, well there it is, that’s the shocking thing. So shock value really has little to do with staying power.
Part of why it still holds up is the audacity of depicting everything it does onscreen. It’s excruciatingly clear how much of it isn’t faked. You just don’t see that go-for-broke commitment to perversion anywhere else. The Aristocrats is a whole movie of fully-clothed standup comedians reciting the kind of jokes that Pink Flamingos does for real. Trey Parker & Matt Stone have been doing South Park for 23 years and are just an Oscar shy of their EGOT, but there’s an aesthetic (and workplace) safety in conveying their stuff through animation. John Waters and his merry band of degenerates still inspire awe.
Note: This week's essay is graciously provided by a guest contributor.
Pink Flamingos prides itself on being a filthy movie about filthy people. The advertisements for it in its original theatrical release sold it as “An Exercise in Bad Taste.” John Waters’ 1972 cult classic centers around two different groups of people who not only want the title of being “the filthiest people alive,” they also want to deserve the title. In one corner we have Divine (a notorious criminal living under the name “Babs Johnson”), her egg-obsessed invalid mother Edie, her perverted & delinquent son Crackers, and her sweet-on-the-outside traveling companion Cotton. In the other corner we have Mrs. & Mr. Marble, wealthy suburbanites with minds as diseased as their very-unfinished basement. The Marbles read in a tabloid that Divine has been declared “the filthiest person alive” and they resent their own lack of notoriety so much that they set out to both sabotage & out-filth Divine.
And by filth, I do mean filth. This movie depicts incest, kidnapping, public flashing, cannibalism (in full violation of health code by eating it uncooked), murder, bestiality (in a scene that may also be rape for one of the human participants), meat product stored inside genitals, meat product tied to genitals with a string, castration in a non-medical setting, artificial insemination in a non-medical setting, vengeful salivating, and a singing prolapsed anus. And if all that weren’t enough to shock an audience, Pink Flamingos still makes room for an infamous scene of eating non-human fecal matter. Since props, sets, makeup, and special effects all cost money, this microbudget exploitation film settles for doing everything for real. (Mercifully, the castration and the cannibalism are probably faked.)
Why would anybody want to watch this?
3 years after the Stonewall Riots, nobody was yet talking about the suburban assimilationist dream of same-sex marriage. Queerness existed on the social fringe. Queerness was essentially a birthright form of punk - let your freak flag fly and do anything to piss off the squares. Queer presence in mainstream studio cinema was rare, was almost always subtext, and was almost always othering; if people wanted gay shit by someone who spoke their language they had to go where Hollywood wasn’t. Simultaneously the counterculture embraced cult films - grindhouse, exploitation, acid, stoner, pornography (Pink Flamingos came out the same year as Deep Throat), and all the tastelessness money wouldn’t buy. With its gleeful shock value and defiant queerness, Pink Flamingos instantly found an audience in the cult circuit; 3 years before The Rocky Horror Picture Show, Pink Flamingos was known for midnight screenings where the audiences had callout interactions with the screen.
Can a film that exists for its shock value hold up 50 years later — in the age of 4chan, pornhub, South Park, 2 Girls 1 Cup, and the infinite kinks of the internet?
Not only yes, but hell yes.
It’s easy to read off a shopping list of Pink Flamingos’ scatological atrocities, and that shopping list is definitely words and ideas that would make an old square reach for their smelling salts. But shock value alone is as deep and lasting as a jump scare or a Family Guy reference joke. Once you know the shock, well there it is, that’s the shocking thing. So shock value really has little to do with staying power.
Part of why it still holds up is the audacity of depicting everything it does onscreen. It’s excruciatingly clear how much of it isn’t faked. You just don’t see that go-for-broke commitment to perversion anywhere else. The Aristocrats is a whole movie of fully-clothed standup comedians reciting the kind of jokes that Pink Flamingos does for real. Trey Parker & Matt Stone have been doing South Park for 23 years and are just an Oscar shy of their EGOT, but there’s an aesthetic (and workplace) safety in conveying their stuff through animation. John Waters and his merry band of degenerates still inspire awe.
And the even bigger reason why it holds up is because the movie is so much fun. John Waters has an innate sense of camp. The larger than life characters are a joy to spend time with, even as you’re grateful you can’t smell them. The absurd dialogue is a joy to hear and is endlessly quotable. The movie even invites its audience to spread the message of hedonism. Divine goes on an unstoppable rampage when someone tries to take the title of “filthIEST” away from her, but she’s more than overjoyed to invite dozens of filthy perverts to her birthday party.
OUR NEXT MOVIE OF THE WEEK for 10/5: Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me
CATHARSIS WEEK!
Shortly after Twin Peaks ended, David Lynch delivered a film shedding light on some of the mysteries behind the death of Laura Palmer and exploring the twisted knot of abuse and exploitation that defined her life. Come join our discussion next week of Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me, available on the Criterion Channel and HBO Max and for rent in the usual places.
NEXT PICTURE SHOW PODCAST for 9/29: F for Fake
Join us Wednesday for a pack of lies and even some truths from one of the great masters of cinema, Orson Welles, as the podcast kicks off a pairing on the blurring of narrative and documentary cinema. F for Fake is available on the Criterion Channel, HBO Max, and Kanopy and for rent on Amazon and iTunes.
CATHARSIS WEEK!
Shortly after Twin Peaks ended, David Lynch delivered a film shedding light on some of the mysteries behind the death of Laura Palmer and exploring the twisted knot of abuse and exploitation that defined her life. Come join our discussion next week of Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me, available on the Criterion Channel and HBO Max and for rent in the usual places.
NEXT PICTURE SHOW PODCAST for 9/29: F for Fake
Join us Wednesday for a pack of lies and even some truths from one of the great masters of cinema, Orson Welles, as the podcast kicks off a pairing on the blurring of narrative and documentary cinema. F for Fake is available on the Criterion Channel, HBO Max, and Kanopy and for rent on Amazon and iTunes.