Directed by John Waters • 1970 • United States
The gloriously grotesque second feature directed by John Waters is 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 Waters' native Baltimore, with the filmmaker 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 mounted by a troupe of misfits whose shocking proclivities are topped only by those of their leader: the glammer-than-glam, larger-than-life Divine, out for blood after discovering her lover's affair. Starring Waters' beloved regular cast the Dreamlanders (including David Lochary, Mary Vivian Pearce, Mink Stole, Susan Lowe, George Figgs, and Cookie Mueller), MULTIPLE MANIACS is an anarchic masterwork from an artist who has doggedly tested the limits of good taste for decades.
Up Next in Close to Home
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La chambre
Directed by Chantal Akerman • 1972 • Belgium
In Chantal Akerman's early short film LA CHAMBRE, we see the furniture and clutter of one small apartment room become the subject of a moving still life, with Akerman herself staring back at us. This breakthrough formal experiment is the first film ...
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Italianamerican
Directed by Martin Scorsese • 1974 • United States
Starring Catherine Scorsese, Charles ScorseseIn one of his most personal works, Martin Scorsese sits down with his parents, Catherine and Charles, in their New York apartment for a free-flowing discussion that touches on family history, the imm...
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The Garden
Directed by Derek Jarman • 1990 • United Kingdom
Starring Tilda Swinton, Johnny Mills, Kevin CollinsHalf waking dream and half fiery polemic, THE GARDEN was born of director Derek Jarman’s rage over continued antigay discrimination and the sluggardly response to the AIDS crisis (he himself he h...