John Waters @ 75 : Female Trouble (1974)

Team Experience is celebrating John Waters for his 75th birthday this week

by Jason Adams

If you'd like a new addition to your "Damn why wasn't I there?" list of super-cool world events of the past, have I ever got a doozy -- circe 1973, not long after Pink Flamingos had become a cult sensation, a screening of the film was set up by Fran Lebowitz (because obviously) for Andy Warhol and his various hangers-on at Warhol's Factory in New York. John Waters was already a big fan of the soup-can man -- he still owns a "Jackie O" print that pre-dates his homosexuality, gifted by his then-girlfriend in 1964 -- and so this was no doubt a big deal for the famed Baltimorean, and he's recalled the night fondly in interviews:

"... [Andy] had been shot recently, and the last thing he needed was to meet a bunch of new lunatics.... I brought my gang and Candy Darling was there, and that's when Divine met Candy, and they got along great. Andy watched it sort of hiding it in the closet, and then when it was over he went in the back with me and said, "Why don't you make the exact same movie over again?" And then he said he would back my next movie, which shocked me because no one was saying that, but I think I wisely said no, because it would have been Andy Warhol's Female Trouble...

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John Waters @ 75: Pink Flamingos (1972)

This week Team Experience pays tribute to John Waters for his 75th birthday.

by Nathaniel R

Unlike eggs and fresh meat, both of which are memorable supporting characters in John Waters Pink Flamingos (1972), movies don't come with expiration date. Nor should they. The expiration dates for movies are theoretical, figurative, and cultural, and are thus almost never agreed upon. Some movies magically live forever losing little of their original flavor. Some become even more flavorful and would be better suited to a wine analogy than this ill-advised animal byproducts one we're pursuing. We call these expiration-date busting films, classics. Whether they make you sick, these "old" movies, is entirely up to you. Can you remove yourself from the now while watching them or do you expect all movies to cater to the accepted opinions, values, and mores of the right now (which will have its own expiration date)? These are questions we might ask about any classic especially in our current very volatile and angry social climate, where everything is being reevaluted (which is a good thing) and mostly branded unacceptable (an unfortunately reductive thing, especially when it comes to art from previous eras).

But since our subject tonight is Pink Flamingos (1972) which wants to make you sick, it's the wrong question altogether. Maybe we don't have a question at all. Our eyes are still wide, heads still spinning, and feeling slightly nauseous...

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Tweetweek Raging

Because we're not feeling super productive, here's a random collection of tweets we loved from the past couple of weeks...

im in fuckign hysterics over this pic.twitter.com/0tNypOzcnL

— SAM (@notedchampagne) December 15, 2020

LOL. BUT THAT'S TOTALLY A GOOD QUESTION. More fun tweets after the jump...

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Top Ten season begins with John Waters... as ever

by Nathaniel R

Butt Boy - no, really, that's the name of the movie

Infamous former* filmmaker John Waters has released his annual Top Ten List in ArtForum and it's as completely entertaining and performative as ever. He kicks things off with two movies about people putting things into various orifices that don't belong there (Butt Boy and Swallow, the latter of which we've discussed before) and ends with a double-feature of courtroom docu-dramas (Trial of the Chicago 7 and Mangrove) to keep you guessing. You should read it but here are two brief spotlights just for fun...

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Truth-Telling