The most successful of John Waters’s late movies. A masterful satire on showbiz, telling the story of a gang of filmmakers-turned-terrorists who took their nicknames from independent directors (they include an “Andy Warhol”, a “Pedro Almodóvar” and a “David Lynch”). One day, the group led by the eccentric Cecil decide to kidnap a spoiled Hollywood starlet, Honey Whitlock (a self-ironic Melanie Griffith), and to force her to star in their low-budget film. To everyone’s astonishment, the celebrity befriends her kidnappers… Waters’s work was loosely inspired by the story of Patty Hearst, granddaughter of media mogul W.R. Hearst, well known to all fans of Citizen Kane, kidnapped by the left-wing Symbionese Liberation Army in 1974. Just like Honey in the movie, Patty switched sides and started supporting the criminal activities of her oppressors. After her re-entry into society, Hearst befriended Waters and played small roles in several of his films, including Cecil B. Demented.
Born in 1946 in Baltimore, Maryland. Since childhood interested in macabre and black humour, he completed one semester of a film school in New York. His amateur films shot with friends exhibited conscious violation of moral and aesthetic standards (Mondo Trasho, Multiple Maniacs). His Pink Flamingos was a great commercial success, enabling him to make higher-budget movies, the most popular of which was Hairspray, adapted to a Brodway musical and to a high-budget remake with John Travolta. Waters is also a stand-up comedian and actor appearing in films of his friends.
1969 Mondo Trasho
1970 Multiple Maniacs
1972 Różowe flamingi / Pink Flamingos
1974 Kobiece kłopoty / Female Trouble
1988 Lakier do włosów / Hairspray
1994 W czym mamy problem? / Serial Mom