A Dirty Shame

[bonanzataz]

The new John Waters movie. It deserves its own thread b/c it opens next month (september 24) and b/c john waters is awesome.

notice john waters, hanging out in the corner ala kevin smith's jersey girl dvd.

official site (contains trailer links): http://www.adirtyshamemovie.com/

[ᾦɐļᵲʊʂ]

Is this just select theaters?

I saw a blurb about this on Graham Norton and was interested.

[MacGuffin]

Is this just select theaters?

Yes. It'll get a limited release since it's rated NC-17.

[RegularKarate]

John Waters will be presenting this at the Alamo here...I've been looking forward to this as it seems he's going back to his older style... he's even said "it seems I'm back".

[bonanzataz]

John Waters will be presenting this at the Alamo here...I've been looking forward to this as it seems he's going back to his older style... he's even said "it seems I'm back".

yeah, but he's making real movies now with a commercial company (new line). i don't think he can ever do anything REALLY disgusting ever again. i hope i'm proved wrong. that'd kick ass.

[MacGuffin]

It's a 'Shame' About NC-17 Tag for Waters Film

The producer of the upcoming John Waters comedy "A Dirty Shame" has accused the U.S. movie ratings system of bowing to political pressure and a "family values" agenda by giving her project the commercially unfriendly NC-17 tag.

Speaking at a news conference during the Deauville Festival of American Cinema Monday, indie veteran Christine Vachon accused the Motion Picture Assn. of America (MPAA) of consigning movies to oblivion by certifying them as NC-17 -- no one under 17 admitted.

"I think that even just two years ago, the MPAA would have given ("Dirty Shame") an R," which requires viewers under 17 to be accompanied by a parent or adult guardian, she said. "I think the pressure has to do with the current administration, and (there is) this encroaching feeling constantly of the notion of family values."

"A Dirty Shame," which was handed the NC-17 tag because of "pervasive sexual content," opens Sept. 24 via Fine Line Features. It depicts the hijinks that ensue when a horde of sex addicts invade a blue-collar neighborhood in Baltimore.

"'Dirty Shame,' like most of John Waters' films, is a cheerfully dirty movie with no mean spirit whatsoever, and it would be far worse to let a child see a violent film than to see something like a 'Dirty Shame,"' Vachon added.

The NC-17 rating effectively destroys a film's commercial potential, she said, because some theaters will not screen it, some papers will not carry ads for it, and No. 1 video chain Blockbuster does not stock NC-17 films.

But she added that Fine Line's New Line Cinema parent had kept faith with the project, even though the original contract was for an R-rated John Waters film.

"(New Line) stuck by us and did not make us do any cuts," she said. "The MPAA said that if we were going to cut 'Dirty Shame' to an R, it would be 10 minutes long."

The MPAA declined comment Tuesday.

[matt35mm]

I love Christine Vachon.  It's because I'm reading her book, "Shooting to Kill," and it's quite fantastic and she's very open in it.  She's accused of being a bitch a lot of the time, and she admits that she can be, but she seems to let her guard down in the book and just openly detail the producing process.  Plus, a lot of the movies that she's produced are fantastic and it's wonderful to get a producer's perspective on movies that I know, like Todd Haynes's movies and Happiness and Boy's Don't Cry, etc.

[MacGuffin]

Film's Marketers Try 'Dirty' Tricks

For any movie outside of the mainstream, the Internet's ability to find and connect with likely fans has been a blessing. But even so, promoting John Waters' latest film, "A Dirty Shame," needed special handling both on- and offline.

The Fine Line Features comedy, which pits the blissfully sex-addicted against their repressed suburban neighbors, was given an NC-17 rating for "persistent sexual content." For Gordon Paddison, New Line Cinema's executive vp integrated marketing, putting together a responsible and appropriate campaign ruled out trailers that might inadvertently be seen by children.

"Even though it's NC-17, the spirit of the property is joyous and innocent with a little bit of camp," Paddison said. "Waters is very specific about how he approaches his audience and his brand. He's honest and truthful and fun."

In order to communicate this spirit to potential moviegoers, Paddison placed nine two-minute vignettes throughout numerous but carefully selected Web properties. These merry scenes from the movie alternate with clips from an interview with Waters in which the auteur discusses such subjects as Baltimore locations, sex in the cinema and how the film relates to the Republican party.

"They're little brand messages done in a very intelligent way," Paddison said. "It's a fun and interesting way to culturally influence an audience without marketing to them. That's how we met the challenge."

He also reached out to dozens of online outlets, providing them with access to interviews and assets that would fertilize the already growing grassroots buzz.

Fine Line then decided to work with Gawker Media to create an openly branded blog for "A Dirty Shame," giving the sexploitation parody automatic visibility through links from that company's network of Gawker, Defamer, Gizmodo and other targeted blogs.

The resulting site is written by Remy Stern and designed by Patric King, the same team that created a branded blog for Nike's Art of Speed campaign. They were given editorial freedom, Paddison said. "It's the voice that we're partnering with," he said. "We've given him the freedom to riff on the unique content. Our goal is to engage the audience."

Gawker's "A Dirty Shame" blog isn't solely about the movie. There are obvious items, like published reviews and interviews with Waters and his stars Selma Blair , Johnny Knoxville, Tracy Ullman and Chris Isaak . But then there are items likely to interest people who would have an affinity for the film's fearless humor, like a "fetish of the day" essay and ephemeral bits about where stars have been spotted in public, conveyed with irreverent affection.

The blog also covers each of the stars individually, promoting everything from Ullman's Purple Skirt online fashion store and Isaak's top-selling music to DVDs of Knoxville's "Jackass" television series and Waters' other movies, like "Pink Flamingos."

The film's separate, official Web site reaches the existing audience, Paddison said. The blog lets Fine Line "extend our reach to a very specific audience -- influences, connectors, mavens, hipsters, every consultant has a name for who these people are," he said. "These are people who you generally do not reach through marketing."

[hedwig]

John Waters talking 'Dirty'

BY RENE RODRIGUEZ
rrodriguez@herald.com

''Let's go sexin'!'' is the battle cry used by Ray-Ray Perkins (Johnny Knoxville), the messianic leader of a gang of sex addicts in John Waters' A Dirty Shame. Ray-Ray and his merry perverts have invaded a quiet Baltimore suburb to discover a new, never-before-performed sex act that will bring about ''the carnal rapture.'' Their quest enrages the conservative locals, or ''neuters,'' who declare war on the intruders.

A Dirty Shame, which opens Friday, is rated NC-17 (no children under 17 admitted), which suggests Waters is returning to the hardcore territory of the early, no-budget films (Pink Flamingos, Desperate Living) that made him an cult icon. The movie stars Tracey Ullman as a sexually repressed housewife who becomes insatiably libidinous after suffering a concussion.

But for all its salacious humor, occasional flashes of nudity and fixation on all things sexual, A Dirty Shame turns out to be just as sweet and silly as Hairspray, Cry-Baby, Pecker and the other, more recent comedies made within the Hollywood studio system that have earned Waters a small but devoted mainstream following.

During a recent visit to New York City, The Herald sat down with Waters, 58, to talk about sex, perversion and the ratings board.

Q: So I have a feeling that your movie is going to make some viewers kinda horny.

A: [laughs] That's so great! That's the best review we could ever get! But which part?

Q: It wasn't any particular scene, because there's nothing remotely erotic in the movie. I just liked the spirit of it, the message that sex is really fun, even when it's bad.

A: Yes. I think the exact line is `Nobody is bad in bed.'

Q: Which is funny.

A: And optimistic! [laughs]

Q: But the whole movie is like this big, joyous celebration of getting off.

A: It is. But I had to be really careful and make sure all the sex we showed was safe. I can't do a movie that says you should go out and [have sex with] everybody in sight. It's a tricky thing these days. There are more new diseases than hairstyles nowadays. I had to think about that too, which is why there's no real sex in the movie. That's the thing that was lost on the ratings board. How could I get an NC-17? There's no sex in it!

Q: Did you try to fight the rating?

A: Yes. We appealed it and lost. They were very nice. They gave me cookies at the appeal hearing! They said to me: 'There's nothing the matter with the movie. We thought it was funny. But it's for adults.' Well, they're technically right. But I was still surprised. I asked them what they wanted me to cut out, because I would have cut it, and they said, `We stopped taking notes.'

Some people have told me, 'Are you crazy? What did you think you would get?' I don't know. I guess I was being naive. I still think that a year ago, we would have gotten an R. But I'm not going to complain and make a big deal about it. And my fans love the idea, so I don't care.

Q: There have been several NC-17 movies released this year by major studios. It's as if they're really trying to give the rating a chance.

A: You can tell the ratings board wants to rehabilitate the NC-17. This year, Young Adam got one. The Dreamers got one, and that one had explicit sex in it. Mine is the first non-explicit NC-17 comedy. OK, fine. I'll go out and sell it. But help me. This is a huge economic hardship I have to face with this rating. So help me! You've got the strongest lobbyists in this country! Go out there and help change the law so your rating is OK. Make Blockbuster change their policy. Make Wal-Mart carry NC-17 movies. That's the only thing they're not doing. So the rating will affect video and DVD sales. I know we have three different newspaper ads with varying sizes of Selma Blair's breasts. One for the big cities, one for the Midwest and one for Utah.

Q: What was the inspiration for the story?

A: One summer I heard about people who had head injuries and turned into sex addicts. The whole concept of sex addicts always seemed to me like a result of capitalism. It's an addiction for people who have a lot of spare time. I mean, could you be a sex addict if you were starving? Are there sex addicts in Iraq right now?

Q: It does seem like an odd addiction.

A: I'm sure there are people who have ruined their lives because of sexual obsession. But if that's your worst problem . . . I mean, if I were a sex addict, I'd just go to group meetings and hook up with whoever was failing. It's so obvious. Just find someone with a nervous tick in their eye and say, `Come on, let's get out of here.'

Q: The movie also taught me a lot of new terms for sex, like 'sneezing in the cabbage' or `whistling in the dark.'

A: [laughs] That was the other inspiration for the movie. I've always loved the vocabulary game of, 'Do you know what this means?' Those two things melded in some way.

Q: I also wasn't aware of all the bizarre fetishes that are out there.

A: There was stuff even I hadn't heard about, like Roman showers. I don't know what I think about people puking on each other, other than they should go to a psychiatrist.

Q: Or the guy who likes licking dirt and eating ashtrays.

A: The eating of the cigarette butts, I made that up. Although I did do that when I quit smoking. But the other thing is real. It's called mysophilia. It's a sexual attraction to dirt. At the old Hellfire Club, I once saw a guy licking the floor. He hadn't taken a shower in months. He was the filthiest person alive! He was going at it for hours, licking the floor in a filthy bar. I thought, 'Man, am I glad I don't have that.' And we would throw stuff down at him too, like cigarette butts. And he loved it! He was having fun.

Q: That's just gross.

A: I find it so amazing that some of these obscure erotic groups have no humor about it whatsoever. It's pretty hard to see a 250-pound man dressing up as an adult baby and not think it's funny. And they don't. Not one bit. The ad campaign I wanted for this movie is, 'Can tolerance go too far?' Because maybe it can.

Q: It can lead to anarchy, as it does in this movie. Even the trees get horny. But it's a sweet, nonthreatening anarchy, which is always the case in your movies.

A: It's freedom gone berserk. But isolated, in just one area where everyone is having a good time. You're right -- my anarchy never destroys anyone else. Even in Pink Flamingos, Divine didn't attack anybody. She was alone in her trailer writing her memoirs, and then someone attacked her. In this movie, nobody attacks the neuters. They just sort of take over. Neuters are certainly very mean-spirited, but we have neuters in America today, and they're in power.

Q: Basically, both sides go overboard.

A: There's no middle!

Q: Which, in a way, makes it a movie about liberals and conservatives.

A: Yes! That's what it is: a political movie! [laughs]

Q: What do you think about the way the presidential race is playing out?

A: I wish the election was tomorrow. I'm so sick of it already. How much more of this do we have to put up with? I mean, who hasn't made up their mind yet? Actually, my father hasn't. He has never not voted Republican, and he hasn't decided, so that's a good sign.

I don't know what's going to happen. I think the election could be decided by a difference of one vote, which will be anarchy. They'll be hand-counting votes in every polling place in the country. It's weird to me, because I know people who actually like Bush. I always think, 'Could you sleep with somebody who likes Bush?' I could, if they were cute enough. I just wouldn't talk about politics with them.

But I'm voting for Kerry's wife. That is my choice. I'd like to have dinner with her. She's smart and funny. She's a good rich person.

Q: Speaking of rich, Hairspray is a gigantic hit on Broadway, which must be great for you.

A: It's been a thrilling and exciting thing. For the first time ever in my life, I have a passive income, which I always wanted but never got from my movies. That's thrilling to me. And now there's going to be a movie of the musical.

Q: Who's going to direct it?

A: You'll know very shortly. I'm not allowed to say. And we're very close to bringing Cry-Baby to Broadway. So now I'm thinking I want A Dirty Shame to be a Broadway musical. It could be like West Side Story, with the sex addicts versus the neuters!

[Pubrick]

he's so outrageous!

[bonanzataz]

support john waters and the nc-17 rating! GO SEE THIS MOVIE OVER THE WEEKEND!

[Finn]

That's not what Ebert suggests.
He gave it one star.
He's the first couple of paragraphs in his review...

There is in show biz something known as "a bad laugh." That's the laugh you don't want to get, because it indicates not amusement but incredulity, nervousness or disapproval. John Waters' "A Dirty Shame" is the only comedy I can think of that gets more bad laughs than good ones.

Waters is the poet of bad taste, and labors mightily here to be in the worst taste he can manage. That's not the problem -- no, not even when Tracey Ullman picks up a water bottle using a method usually employed only in Bangkok sex shows. We go to a Waters film expecting bad taste, but we also expect to laugh, and "A Dirty Shame" is monotonous, repetitive and sometimes wildly wrong in what it hopes is funny.

[hedwig]

I'm with Taz. Go see a Dirty Shame (At MIdnight!)