John Waters' Favorite Movies

Photo from source, NPR

I love John Waters. OK, I don't know him, but everything I know of his tastes, his humor and his talents fall right in line with my outlook on the world. Sure, he's a little creepy looking (that probably helps with his image), and his early films were--shall we say--extreme. But the great thing about him is that he knows exactly what buttons to push to get a positive response from his fans, and a negative response from everybody else. He's like Andy Kaufman without the contempt for his audience.

And who could forget his guest starring role on The Simpsons, in one of their best episodes, "Homer's Phobia?" It set the standard for laughs per minute on that series. It also included a whaaa??? moment, with the robotic Santa Claus.

Anyway, John has a list of favorite movies, which are of course strange, and he's shared them with NPR. So if you want to enliven your video viewing time this weekend, check it out!

[Excerpt]

John Waters' Extremely Strange DVD Favorites

Ask filmmaker John Waters to name his favorite movies and he'll tell you that just about nothing is off-limits. The Baltimore native, best known for Pink Flamingos and the original Hairspray, says his DVD-watching habits tend toward the strange, the shocking and the exploitative.

Oh, and the extreme. . .

Check out the list at: NPR

Halloween Horrors: The Rocky Horror Picture Show

Image from Wikipedia

I've covered several genres of horror movies over the last several days, and I thought it was time to do a post on a non-horror, but purely Halloween flavored movie: The Rocky Horror Picture Show! It has "horror" in it's title, but you will either be delighted or bewildered, not terrified.

As most people know, Rocky Horror was originally a stage musical in England, made its way (not very successfully) to the States, and then was developed into a motion picture by 20th Century Fox in 1975. It may have hit our shores a bit too early for people to "get" it, though, and it flopped. Somebody got the bright idea to market the film as a "midnight movie," and RHPS took off. It's been playing regularly in theaters around the country, every weekend for over 30 years.

My first contact with RHPS was on something called "Telecinema," a precursor to HBO, probably around 1976. I was 10 and deeply didn't get it. But a few years later, it became a staple of High School life. It was a way for all kids, gay, straight, jocks, nerds--all of us--to get together and have a good time. We did have a little difficulty explaining to our parents the rice trails we left from the front door to our bedrooms in the wee hours of the morning.

RHPS

was unavailable for many years, though eventually was released on VHS, and later on DVD. If you can get your hands on the 25th anniversary edition, it's chock-full of extras, and elaborate photography, in a deluxe case. A must have for a "regular Frankie fan."

Here are a few scenes from the film to get you warmed up. Below that are previous links I've posted, with more clips. Have fun!




12/26/07 UPDATE: A warning folks, but is wont to happen with these clips, FOX has apparently pulled many of their videos. While all of these are still here, they've pulled all of the Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Simpsons clips. I fail to see why, as all these YouTube clips do is keep interest going in their projects, and raise the profile of their properties. My site has made a whopping 81 cents since it debuted, and I can't even cash that out. I am not putting a dent in Rupert Murdoch's profits. Anyway, it probably won't be long until these are gone too.

Previously:
Happy 61st Birthday to Susan Sarandon!
Meat Loaf's 60th Birthday is on Thursday

A note on these clips: YouTube addresses change often, and are sometimes removed, so if you've found these clips months after I've posted them, they may not work. In that case, go to YouTube.com and do a search. There will likely be new posts up.