John Waters Is a Very Nice Fellow
Despite having a reputation as a filthy degenerate filmmaker(to be fair, he has hardly been filthy since the 70s, and much of his post-Divine work has been chock full of 'family values'), John Waters is a gracious and polite gentleman. My wife and I had the pleasure to meet him briefly at a book signing last night in DC, and it was a real thrill.
Having been a youngster when he was being branded an outlaw artist and underground hero in 70s Baltimore, I came to love Waters' odd sensibility and devastating wit in my college years. It was just what I needed to mentally combat the stifling rigidity of the Christian college I was attending(another long story...let's just say John Waters was not about to get a call to come speak at Bethel College).

HAIRSPRAY was the film that blew Waters up with the mainstream audiences, and I was lucky enough to have seen it in the theatres when it was released. Once that opened my eyes, I rented his back catalog available at my local video store....MONDO TRASHO, MULTIPLE MANIACS, PINK FLAMINGOS.

CRYBABY and SERIAL MOM were still up around the bend, further exploring his taste for movie musicals(which would eventually culminate in Hairspray evolving into a HUGE Broadway hit) and everyday life co-existing with an obsession with serial killers and conspicuous criminality. It was during this time in the late 80s I discovered my two favorite John Waters' films, POLYESTER and the supreme marriage of compelling narrative, high concept and gutter trash, FEMALE TROUBLE.
FEMALE TROUBLE is in my humble opinion, Waters' magnum opus, his statement of purpose. I know that a lot of people credit PINK FLAMINGOS as the flick that propelled him beyond Baltimore into the World's Arbitor of Bad Taste, but I would argue that it's the most satisfying and incisive writing of his pre-Hairspray career. Funny, tragic, horrible,sexy, repulsive, irresponsible,hysterical...this film has it ALL. Divine is finally captured portraying an actual character, even if it is all her on a magnificent scale. The not-at-all cautionary tale of Dawn Davenport, juvie deliquent turned model/killer/deathrow inmate is really something one has to experience in all it's glory to fully appreciate John Waters' ouvre. Back in print in a great mid-priced DVD, replete with Waters' excellent commentary.
Also available again on DVD is POLYESTER. This is Divine's most subtle performance, and really shows that she had so much more to offer than a drag act. This film is the story of Francine Fishpaw, a suburban MD housewife pushed to the edge, a modern-day Job, attacked on all sides by the likes of her porno-theatre-owner husband and her sadistic and cruel mother. The film features great performances by Waters' regulars Edith Massey and Mink Stole, but the most odd turn is by ex-teen idol and matinee idol, Tab Hunter. Hunter chews scenery like the old pro that he is, and his scenes with Divine are a crack-up. The film uses the theatre gimmick, Odorama, which is really just a tip-of-the-hat to director William Castle and utilizes a series of scratch-n-sniffs on a card to coincide with numbers flashed on the screen. In the commentary Waters' describes watching a whole theatre full of people knowingly scratch and sniff what they KNEW was going to smell like a fart. Again, the commentary is a must-listen. Also, look for Stiv Bators of the Dead Boys as Francine's slutty daughter's deliquent boyfriend.

QUOTE OF THE DAY
"Parents should worry if their children haven't been arrested by the time they turn sixteen."
-John Waters