Those of you who bought all three John Waters collection DVDs (that
means Hairspray / Pecker, Polyester /
Desperate
Living, and Pink Flamingos /
Female Trouble) are in for a little holiday treat. New Line is
making available to anyone with all the proofs of purchase for those
sets a neat-o John Waters bonus disc. Since this is basically an entire
disc of extras, we'll break it down into pieces:
Navigation:
The navigation is kind of a mess. I wouldn't usually bother mentioning
this but it makes it a bit tough to find the content. Hunting around
can
be fun (especially when you don't know what you're going to find) but
looking for something in particular can be a drag. The disc is
organized along a timeline stretching from Waters' birth to
the
present ("This DVD is produced" is the last entry). Lots of important
dates, both in Waters life and in general, are marked off and video and
audio clips can be found in the camera and microphone icons,
respectively.
Still, a menu somewhere with every clip compiled in one place would
have
been a good addition.
Videos:
The videos start with home movies of Waters as a young child and
stretch
through promotional material for Pecker (Cecil B.
Demented, like other non-New Line releases is not represented).
Rumor was that hours of footage would be included. While a lot less
than
that actually appears, there is some terrific stuff. Foremost is Robert
Maier's 1975 short "documentary" Love Letter to Edie. This
bizarre
look at Waters regular Edith Massey (The egg lady from Pink
Flamingos) includes some extraordinarily weird footage, right from
the opening moments ("Look at all these loooovely leeeetters!!!")
through a strange brouhaha at Edie's Fell's Point shop. Previously only
available on dubs of dubs, Love Letter to Edie is the most
exciting item included on the disc (so to all those of you who have
written me over the years asking where you can find it, here it
is!)
My next favorite item is a short interview with Waters conducted by
WJZ's Denise Koch, a strange, shrill newscaster who stands out among
the
weirdo crowd of Baltimore anchors. Her stoned affect always makes
watching the nightly news an adventure and her funny 80's tour of
Waters' apartment is perfect.
Also of local interest is what Waters calls the 25 cent tour of
Baltimore, a quick drive through some of the city's more decrepit
areas.
Waters laments the closing of the Wigwam Room, which he says was a
velvet rope VIP room for bums.
There are a few interviews with Waters from Boston and San Fransisco tv
which are nice for completists, but not essential. Similarly, a recent
20 minute interview from the Sundance Channel is included.
Also included is a huge selection of recent interviews with Waters
regulars on topics ranging from deceased friends to wild adventures. These are hit and miss as some of these characters are
truly too wacked out to tell a coherent story: Several minutes into a ramble about the late Cookie Mueller, Susan Lowe
(Mole from Desperate Living mentions that the two were once kidnapped by hootch swilling hillbillies. Say
what?
Behind the scenes footage from several films is included. The footage from Pink Flamingos should look familiar to those who've
seen Steve Yeager's Divine Trash, but it is still a great addition.
The big dissapointment here is that none of Waters early films, like Eat Your Makeup, Roman Candles, or The Diane
Linkletter Story are included. The scope does seem a bit narrow, but overall this is still an extremely entertaining disc and an amazing
supplement to the other John Waters Collection discs.
Audio:
Another treasure on the disc is a large collection of audio interviews that Waters took of Divine. There is almost too much
to go through here, but there are some truly classic moments. Divine describes a long drawn out series of events that ended
with him dueting with Elton John at Madison Square Garden, all while his birds chirp away noisily in the background. It's
great that this material will be preserved for future generations to marvel at.
Trailers for each of the films in the John Waters Collection are
included, although they are also on the individual discs too.
Additional
publicity materials for some of the films are also included.
VIDEO:
The video quality is mostly pretty low. The archival footage is of
varying quality, but most of it is, technically, in bad shape (and bad
taste). The recent interviews look fine. They're shot on video. Most of
the clips are window-boxed (they appear in a black frame on all four
sides) so nothing is cut off.
AUDIO:
The audio, also is a mixed bag. most of the footage has VERY humble
origins. Don't expect much.
NOTE:
Mark Rance, the producer of the John Waters Collection DVDs wrote in with a little information about the bonus disc:
"I thought the nearly 6 hours of audio archives would make up for the shorts missing. This is the ONLY place you will ever hear Divine tell the story of the White Worm himself — and for me that is the best thing on the disc.
"Two notes: (1) John wishes to keep his short films to himself these days and (2) having also done
Criterion's POLYESTER and all of John's laser discs and DVDs since and knowing full well what of Waters
archive is out there, these materials ARE the masters and most of them are deteriorating 3/4's and VHS dubs."
Mark is right. The content here is indispensible and, my wishlist aside, more than anyone could ask for. It's a shame that Waters isn't interested in releasing the shorts right now (Diane Linkletter has what might be David Lochary's funniest performance) but you can't argue with director's intent. The technical limitations of the material, however, are worth pointing out. Regardless, it's archived now on DVD and won't degrade any further. Thanks Mark!
FINAL THOUGHTS:
Truly a no brainer. If you have the proofs of purchase, get this. If
you
are considering buying it on eBay or someplace similar, be aware that a
lot of the footage that you might be expecting isn't there. What is,
however, is largely terrific.
Other John Waters reviews:
John Waters
Collection 2: Polyester / Desperate Living
John Waters
Collection 3: Pink Flamingos / Female Trouble
Buy: