John Waters

Le cinéma de John Waters est imprévisible. Là où une certaine cinéphilie devrait l’inciter à investir le champ de la culture highbrow, il n’a de cesse de réinventer le lowbrow, là où son goût de la contre-culture devrait l’inciter à rejoindre New York, le cinéaste s’installe dans les salons pour dames de Baltimore, lieu essentiel de son inspiration. Ce décentrement artistique et géographique repose sur un élément paradoxal : l’amour sincère que le cinéaste porte au kitsch, c’est-à-dire à une version supposée « dégénérée » de l’art. Après une définition du concept de kitsch et de sa plus ou moins grande parenté avec la notion de camp, cet article analysera dans un premier temps les multiples objets et stratégies qui donnent forme à cette notion complexe dans le cinéma de John Waters, puis, dans un second temps, il décryptera l’univers familier du cinéaste/auteur/artiste visuel en analysant cet espace intime comme le lieu ultime du kitsch, pour tenter de répondre à la question suivante : John Waters a-t-il fait de sa demeure l’intériorisation de ses films, ou bien a-t-il fait de ses films l’extériorisation de son espace intérieur ?

French Masters thesis examining three atypical modes of odour reception in the modern period ; applying theories of Viktor Shklovsky, Sianne Ngai, Spyros Papapetros, Walter Benjamin, Theodor Adorno, Umberto Eco, Fredric Jameson, and Gertrude Stein, among others. ####

I. Atmospheric utopias and gas actors ; Fedele Azari's Futurist vision, Brave New World, Konstantin Melnikov's SONaya SONata, scent organs, and symbolism. ####

II. On the scent ; odor as a nexus in the history of modern policing, the birth of detective fiction, anthropology, and experiments in smell cinema up to John Waters' Polyester. ####

III. From perfume to virtual reality, the personal is political ; examining odor as a tool to expand the limits of the body and the mind in the art of COUM Transmissions, Takako Saito, Morton Heilig, Cerebrum NY, Rei Kawakubo, Sissel Tolaas, etc. ###

English version to follow.

“A Camp Fairy Tale: the Dirty Class of John Waters’ Desperate Living”. In The Dark Side of Camp - Queer Economy of Dust, Dirt and Patina, edited by Franziska Bergmann, Ingrid Hotz-Davies and Georg Vogt. London and New York: Routledge, 2017. pp:115-126.

The following paper will provide an analysis on how midnight movies evolved and the role of queer identities in their progression. Furthermore , this paper will provide an examination in the development of american counterculture in 1960’s and 1970’s. The counterculture will be analysed as to explore the argument that midnight movies began as a reaction to conservative politics by transgressive identities. Moreover, the paper will provide an introduction into how the genre of midnight movies began, before analysing the role of queer identities in its evolvement through the two main case studies Pink Flamingos and The Rocky Horror Picture show. Finally, this paper aims to reach a conclusion on the importance of queer identities in midnight movies and open a discussion on where , and if, the genre still exists today.

This essay uses the post-structural feminist criticism of Kaja Silverman (The Acoustic Mirror) to assess the queer authorial voice of John Waters in his films, ranging from his 1960s avant-garde works to his more mainstream, contemporary New Hollywood films.

O John Waters é um artista relevante para maior compreensão de moda e entretenimento. O cineasta encoraja a utilização do estranho, através do mau gosto e do shock value, para a criação de uma estética exagerada e divertida. O estranho é celebrado por Waters em seus livros, filmes e exposições. Por meio destes, o público underground cria interesse e recebe subsídios para desenvolver teorias individualizadas sobre quaisquer temas abordados. A presente pesquisa tem como objetivo analisar a presença do shock value nos longas-metragens do cineasta para desenvolver uma coleção de moda a partir dos elementos que possam se repetir nesta trajetória. A fim de atingir este objetivo, é necessária a apresentação do cineasta, a observação do shock value na primeira fase cinematográfica de John Waters, a relação da primeira fase com o célebre longa-metragem Hairspray e a análise dos elementos visuais elencados através desta relação; a fim de utilizar a marca própria Flamboyant para o desenvolvimento de uma coleção de moda. O desenvolvimento da coleção se dá através das etapas de planejamento, construção e comunicação. Estes objetivos são realizados por meio de materiais publicados; tais como filmes, documentários, livros, entrevistas, artigos, notícias, roteiros originais e fotogramas.

Palavras-chave: Moda. John Waters. Shock value.



John Waters is na relevant artist to compreehend fashion and entertainment. The filmmaker encourages the utilization of the uncanny, through bad taste and shock value, to create an exaggerated and fun aesthetic. The uncanny is celebrated by Waters in his books, films and exhibitions. As a consequence, the underground community acquire interest and receive aid to develop personal theories about any given subject. This research intents to analyze the shock value’s presence in the director’s films to develop a fashion collection using the elements that might repeat itself in this journey. In order to fulfill this goal, it’s required the introduction of the filmmaker, the observation of the shock value in the first cinematic phase of John Waters, the relationship between the first phase and the renowned film Hairspray and the analysis of the listed visual elements via this relation; embracing the personal label Flamboyant to develop a fashion collection. The development of the collection occurs through the steps of planning, construction and communication. These goals are realized throughout published materials; such as films, documentaries, books, interviews, articles, news, original screenplays and film frames.

Keywords: Fashion. John Waters. Shock value.

This essay will compare the cities of New York and Baltimore, looking through the prisms of the 1991 documentary Paris is Burning (dir. Jennie Livingston) and the 1972 black comedy/exploitation film Pink Flamingos (dir. John Waters). I will be using both queer theory, and a film studies approach to compare how both films use their respective cities to convey particular ideas about gender and race. Paris is Burning is a documentary shot during the late 1980s and early 1990s that focuses on the Harlem “Ball” scene; a community of black and Latnix gay and transgender people that use the balls as a way to socialise and to show off new fashions and dance moves. Pink Flamingos is a surreal comedy/drama famous for its shocking scenes and is perhaps one of the most infamous John Waters projects that stars Glen Milstead’s drag persona, Divine. Both films celebrate and pay homage to the cities in which they are set and highlights the cultural differences that prevail either side of the Mason-Dixie line.

At only 22 years old, New York-based curator, writer, and Ph.D candidate William J. Simmons has knowledge beyond his years. One minute Simmons is diverting a phone call from his dad ("He gets anxious if I donʼt answer"), but the next he is passionately speaking about the expression of queer and gender equality within art history. He explores this topic through his latest research and curatorial endeavor, resulting in the group exhibition "Queen Fantasy." Opening on Saturday at OHWOW Gallery in Los Angeles, the show addresses the marginalization gayness and queerness within art history.

Wer würde denn erkennen, dass, wer in der Sichtbarkeit gedemütigt, angefochten, verworfen und getötet wird, in höchstem Maße zugleich inwendig erhöht, getröstet, angenommen und lebendig gemacht wird, wenn er nicht vom Geist durch den Glauben gelehrt würde? Martin Luther, Psalmenvorlesung 1513-1515

Lo abyecto atravesó la experimentación estética durante el pasado siglo buscando visibilizar grietas en la constitución normativo-disciplinaria del sujeto moderno. En este sentido, la cinta «Pink Flamingos» de John Waters, y particularmente la figura drag de Divine, constituyen ejes paradigmáticos para comprender lo abyecto como ejercicio de performatividad paródica, en los términos planteados por la filósofa queer Judith Butler. Esto implica situarla en el contexto de las manifestaciones contraculturales que emergieron en el seno de la crisis de los modelos disciplinarios durante las décadas del '60-'70.  A partir de esto, el artículo analiza los efectos de neutralización en las estéticas transgresoras durante la rearticulación del capitalismo posterior a la crisis de los modelos disciplinarios, intentando comprender el paso desde la parodia al pastiche.

Baptised by William Burroughs as ‘the Pope of Trash’ and known by Baltimore’s press as ‘the Prince of Puke’, John Waters has forged a career as a successful cult filmmaker. From his first steps in underground filmmaking with the Dreamlanders in the 1970s, to his studio films produced in Hollywood in the 1990s and 2000s, he has directed twelve films that share a comic tone and a joyful vindication of queer politics and trash cinema. My research project studies the representation of bodies and the politics of transgression in Waters’ cinema as “Cult Cinema meets Queer Cinema”: a cinema that seeks to shock spectators and to always go too far, re-defining beauty standards, gender expectations and family values. From Divine eating dog shit (Pink Flamingos, 1972) and being raped by a lobster (Multiple Maniacs, 1970) to being kissed by Tab Hunter (Polyester 1980), and after Hairspray (1988) becoming a mainstream success with numerous adaptations, Waters’ cinematic universe moves through the decades committed to the bad taste aesthetics and shock value strategies. What are bad taste and shock value, and how are these exploitation gimmicks employed in comedy? What politics they embody? Can they offer resistance and critical agency? My research project weights these questions against the mainstreaming process of Waters’ late career. “Everyone wants to be called an outsider so I’m a proud insider now”, he jokes, celebrating his own position in the spotlight. The study of such position and creating an overview of Waters’ cinematic career with special emphasis on its countercultural value are the main interests of my research.

*Senior Yr Undergrad* For Cahill, the gimmick film is best understood through the Heideggerian concept of ‘enframing’ which posits a relationship for the physical filmstrip, the profilmic and the perceiver of the frame. Castle utilized the enframing techniques to flatten the 4th Wall into an osmotic barrier by which the spectator is physically, as well as consciously interpellated into the cinematic experience
and the film text. The Emergo and Percepto moments act to disintegrate the insulation of the profilmic from the exterior of the frame in the most direct manner - by connecting the diegetic space with the space of the cinema theatre. The containment and separation of enframing most effectively
broken down by the Castle gimmick (whether they be subtle like Macabre or overt like The Tingler) were then also the films which received higher critical praise and were overall the most effective films stylistically (unobtrusive system). (**typo in paper, replace Hegelian with Heideggerian**)

‘Homer’s Phobia’, the awarded Emmy episode of The Simpson featuring John Waters, aired 20 years ago in a world where same sex marriage and openly queer cultural products on television seemed an utopia. Today, rather than to question the queerness of the text, the episode invites to an analysis that interrogates the uses of Camp. As a taste, or a sensibility, ‘Homer’s Phobia’ defines Camp a series of objects (plastic pink flamingos, corn-cob-dotted drapes) but also as a sign of queerness. In the episode, Camp functions as the glue between the Simpsons family and the kitsch trader John, and a relation is established, one that questions how the quintessential parody of an American family addresses effeminacy, homosexuality, humour and taste. This paper seeks to explore the multi-layered and post-modern sensibility of The Simpsons in its tentatively first approach to queerness. It also intends to analyse the presence of the cult queer filmmaker John Waters in the show in order to understand gay visibility, then and now, and to explore Waters’ authorship and public persona: how did the Bad Taste advocator, Pope of Trash-infamous filmmaker was integrated to Mainstream? How did he manage to maintain his cult reputation while simultaneously reach a wider audience and maintaining his relevance in Pop Culture?  I would like to argue that The Simpsons’ family embrace of John, the gay antique dealer, runs parallel to 21st Century America infatuation with John Waters.

In John Waters’ Pecker (1998), an amateur young photographer is discovered by a New York art dealer and becomes an overnight sensation in the art world. When he is recognized as an artist, however, the spontaneous snapshots he used to take -of his abnormal friends and relatives, of his local striptease and gay clubs, of Baltimore’s buses, fast-food joints and alleys- are no longer accessible to him. Surreptitiously alluding to the photography of Diane Arbus and Nan Goldin, Pecker illustrates conflicts between taste, class, and distinction. Drawing on the work of Pierre Bourdieu, I argue that the film shows how taste organizes the social world and parodies the ways in which outsider art constitutes a type of social capital. Through textual analysis, this article argues that Pecker illustrates Baltimore as a queer site and explores the meta-reflectivity of the text, as Pecker’s art mirrors Waters’ authorship. Pecker represents, I argue, an interesting case study to comprehend Waters’ humour and operations of taste and authorship in the lesser known and studied years of his filmmaking career (post Hairspray 1988).

In his book Shock Value: A Tasteful Book about Bad Taste, independent filmmaker John Waters described beauty as “looks that you can’t forget. A face should jolt, not soothe”. Inspired by Genet, the Manson Family and the motto ‘crime is beauty’, the film explores the life of Dawn Davenport, from high school suburban years to her life as a stripper, a thief, a crime model, and ultimately, her death in the electric chair. Featuring Divine, a three hundred pounds drag queen, as the beauty protagonist, Female Trouble (1974) allows us to explore the embodiment of bad taste, in a cinematic universe where all traditional values – and especially the aesthetics ones, are overthrown. This paper looks into Divine’s unruly body in Female Trouble, the corporeality and grotesqueness of her performance, and the unapologetic queerness of the film. Female Trouble creates a space where heterosexuality is parodied, crime is beauty and to die in the electric chair is like receiving an Academy Award. Working with a Bakhtinian concept of the Carnival, I argue that the film that inspired the title for Judith Butler’s Gender Trouble is a perfect illustration of Queer Cinema and its aesthetics
of transgression.