Video: John Waters Talks Early Production Days at 'Celluloid Atrocity Night!'

Photo by Sean DeSerio.

Moviegoers this month had a rare opportunity to enjoy some some of John Waters's early work on the big screen at the Film Society. Mondo Trasho (1969) and Multiple Maniacs (1970), Waters's first two feature-length films, screened with his short film The Diane Linkletter Story (1970) for “Celluloid Atrocity Night!” as part of the complete retrospective “Fifty Years of John Waters: How Much Can You Take?.” The films screened in 16mm, coming straight from Waters's own attic.

In a hilarious conversation with Paper magazine critic Dennis Dermody, Waters shared his stories behind the wild productions of the films with an audience lucky enough to attend the sold-out screening. Even the slightest prompting regarding scenes and shooting locations brought back the wild antics of The Dreamlanders. “We didn't ask… we just filmed there,” says Waters of shooting a Mondo Trasho scene in a public park. “And somebody called the cops and said we were making a porn movie and the cops raided it. We all ran! We escaped and Divine got away, which is pretty funny considering it was November: he was in a red Cadillac convertible with the top down and a gold lamé outfit and there was a nude man in the backseat.”

Below, take a look at the entire post-screening discussion. Also currently online: Waters's post-film discussion following Female Trouble on the retrospective's opening night, a discussion between Waters and actress Isabelle Huppert after a screening of Abuse of Weakness, as well as short festival trailers featuring Waters's takes on his individual films.