THU, OCT 20, 9p:
The Florida Premiere Engagement of
the restoration of John Waters’
rarely seen “celluloid atrocity”,
unavailable for thirty years!
MULTIPLE MANIACS
Directed by JOHN WATERS/1970/96mins.
With Divine, David Lochary, Mary Vivian Pierce, Mink Stole,
Cookie Mueller, Edith Massey, Vincent Peranio
John Waters’ gloriously grotesque, unavailable-for-decades second feature comes to theaters at long last, replete with all manner of depravity, from robbery to murder to one of cinema’s most memorably blasphemous moments. Made on a shoestring budget in Baltimore, with Waters taking on nearly every technical task, this gleeful mockery of the peace-and-love ethos of its era features the Cavalcade of Perversion, a traveling show put on by a troupe of misfits whose shocking proclivities are topped only by those of their leader: the glammer-than-glam, larger-than-life Divine, who’s out for blood after discovering her lover’s affair. Starring Waters’ beloved regular cast the Dreamlanders (including David Lochary, Mary Vivian Pearce, Mink Stole, Edith Massey, and Cookie Mueller), Multiple Maniacs is an anarchist masterwork from an artist who has doggedly tested the limits of taste for decades.
“I’ve always referred to Multiple Maniacs as my “celluloid atrocity.”
Even though it’s technically primitive and the actors sometimes
forget their lines, it’s still my favorite of all my films. I like its
meanness and harsh documentary look, and for the first time
the actors could spew forth the endless pages of dialogue I had
written—lip-synched, at least.”-John Waters
Multiple Maniacs was shot on an Auricon 16 mm camera using
Kodak black-and-white reversal film with audio magnetic stripe.
Additional exterior footage was filmed on a Bell & Howell handcranked
camera. The reversal original was kept in John Waters’ closet from
1970 until he moved in 1990, after which it was kept in
Waters’ attic at occasional 100-plus-degree
temperatures—until the Criterion Collection retrieved it and
scanned it in 4K resolution on a Lasergraphics Director film
scanner at Metropolis Post in New York.
The film was in remarkably good condition even after
its tumultuous nonarchival history. Digital restoration
techniques were used to stabilize the image; clean up the dirt,
scratches, and debris; and give Multiple Maniacs a new shine
for its digital premiere. The picture is being presented for its
restored rerelease in Waters’ preferred aspect ratio of 1.66:1.
