A restored print of “Multiple Maniacs,” John Waters’ crude — and crudely made — classic underground “celluloid atrocity,” will screen at International House at 11:59 p.m. Oct. 1.
The film, long out of release, features a helluva performance by Divine. The drag queen plays Lady Divine, proprietor of “The Carnival of Perversions.” She lures suburbanites into tents to see acts like “queers” kissing, or “the puke-eater,” and then robs them. She even kills one woman. However, Lady Divine is having trouble in her relationship with Mr. David (David Lochary). He has become more interested in Bonnie (Mary Vivian Pearce), so Divine conspires to kill Mr. David.
“Multiple Maniacs” gets stranger in ways best left for the uninitiated to discover. But two classic moments involve Lady Divine getting a “rosary job” from Mink (Mink Stole), and raped by Lobstora, a 15-foot broiled crustacean.
Waters recently chatted about what he has claimed is his favorite film of his career.
PGN: You struggled to show “Multiple Maniacs” in midnight venues in 1970 when it was made, and it’s long been unavailable. Now you are getting the Criterion treatment. What can you say about your experience with “Multiple Maniacs”?
JW: It’s funny, the other day we were 100-percent [fresh] on Rotten Tomatoes and when it came out we were 100 percent the other way. The time capsule was kind. I guess it seems new again, which surprises even me. The re-release has been great. It’s in all the right theaters. Criterion has been the class act they always were. The first moment of comedy in the film is the Janus logo. That’s the most shocking thing!
PGN: I see your film as an extreme comedy of manners. How did you come up with the film’s plot and characters?
JW: I watched it [again] and thought, What was I thinking? I was trying to make [a] movie that my friends and I would think is funny. It was made with humor to satirize hippy beliefs, even though I lived in that world. Bikers came to see it; it was not necessarily the gay audience. Many people were horrified, but they liked it. It was what was allowed — exploitation films were big then. I loved Herschel Gordon Lewis’ “Blood Feast” and “Two Thousand Maniacs”!
PGN: Your film offers, as Mr. David promotes, “real filth” that will make viewers “recoil in disgust … a loathsome display that will be branded in your mind.” What can you say about creating the daring and risky acts that you asked your actors to perform?
JW: I used to go to a freak show, the one Diane Arbus photographed. [The acts in “Multiple Maniacs”] aren’t that bad: smelling a bicycle seat, someone taking photos of a crotch, queers kissing is now on TV. It’s a joke of society being horrified … The pitiful tents I rented. I noticed something in the restoration: the curtains Lady Divine opens have a glitter “L” and “D” on them. I don’t know who did that. I only saw that when it was restored. Good thing I wasn’t an interior decorator!
PGN: You (comically) attack religion, sex, conformity and social taboos. People are still shocked by two queers kissing. Can you talk about how you think attitudes have changed between when the film was made and now when it has been restored?
JW: Multiple Maniacs” is more shocking today because it’s politically incorrect. [The characters shout] “Kill the pigs!” There couldn’t be a worse time to say that, but in the 1960s that was a fairly common chant in marches. It’s shocking that no group today would say that.
PGN: You have some great, quotable lines in the film, especially, “I love you so fucking much I could shit!”
JW: That’s a Valentine card right there …
PGN: You may be talking trash, but the dialogue is very precise and reveals the characters. Can you talk about writing the film?
JW: I found handwritten scripts in Wesleyan, where my archives are. “Multiple Maniacs” was written as we went along. The Carnival of Perversions was written down.
PGN: How long did it take you to make “Multiple Maniacs”?
JW: The film was shot in eight-10 days, but not in a row, like one day a week. We started in the fall and finished in the winter. I don’t know how I got any movies made. We had a crazy life at the time. It was harder to make films back then. There was no money, no food and no permits. We jumped out of the car, and shot [a scene] and ran. I filmed on my parents’ lawn. Divine’s apartment in the film was my apartment. We didn’t change anything. The dive bar where Edie worked was where she worked. The scene at the end was shot really early on a Sunday morning. You can see neighbors joining the crowd running down the street.
PGN: Divine looks like Liz Taylor, acts like Mae West but has a style all her own. Can you discuss her performance?
JW: Divine was in “Mondo Trasho,” but this was the first role with dialogue. He was nervous to say all the lines. He was not like [his character] in real life. He used the anger from being bullied in high school to bring the rage to the screen. He loved playing characters and wanted to be a monster. He loved that role. He was called Lady Divine, but the Lady never stuck.
PGN: What can you say about the other star of “Multiple Maniacs,” Lobstora?
JW: Lobstora came from Provincetown that summer. They had postcards of the beach and in the sky was a broiled lobster. It came from tripping. Lobsters were often used in surrealist art by Salvador Dali and Jack Smith. Lobsters had a history of being in the art movement. I was influenced by The Theatre of the Absurd — and LSD. It was a perfectly believable plot to me!
PGN: And what happened to Lobstora after filming?
JW: I had Lobstora in my apartment in a spare room for a while, but it fell apart. So Vincent Peranio [the production designer] and I finally took it to the harbor — this was back before Baltimore’s Inner Harbor was developed — and dumped it in the water. We gave it a sea burial.