John Waters on DVD

[Lino]

A Dirty Shame (John Waters)

New Line Home Entertainment have announced the Region 1 DVD release of A Dirty Shame for 14th June 2005 priced at $27.95 SRP. The outrageous John Waters (Hairspray, Pink Flamingos) once again delivers a hilarious snapshot of suburban Baltimore and a cast of eccentric characters in A Dirty Shame. Starring Tracey Ullman (TV�s The Tracey Ullman Show, TV�s Tracey Takes On�), Johnny Knoxville (Men In Black II, TV�s Jackass), Selma Blair (In Good Company, Legally Blonde) and recording star Chris Isaak (Showtime�s The Chris Isaak Show), A Dirty Shame embraces the over-the-top spirit of the John Waters classics and is available in both its theatrical, NC-17 version and an R-rated, �Neuter� version.

Features include (NC-17 Version Only):
1.85:1 Anamorphic Widescreen
English DD5.1 Surround
English Stereo Surround
Spanish subtitles
Audio commentary from writer-director John Waters
�All the Dirt on A Dirty Shame� featurette

I'm glad that he is doing the audio-commentary for this one as well. In fact, I was watching his own Serial Mom just last night with that option on and I must say he makes the funniest and greatest commentaries ever! Plus, he delivers some one-liners that are just fantastic! Recommended!

[THX1378]

I didn't get to see this film in theaters since it never played here in Fresno. Everyone who did get to see it said it wasn't the greatest Waters film, but that it was a lot better than Pecker and Cecil B. DeMented. DVDtimes also listed on the same page that a gift set is coming out also

Released on the same day is the new John Waters DVD Gift Set which features a collection of the unconventional director�s most popular films plus the bonus disc, John Waters DVD Scrapbook, available together for the first time. The seven films include Hairspray, Pecker, Pink Flamingos, Female Trouble, Desperate Living, Polyester, plus his newest release, A Dirty Shame (NC-17 version). Each DVD features a commentary from director John Waters, and the gift set is marked at a $102.98 SRP on DVD.

Seems it's the same 2 disc sets that came out a couple of years ago repacked all together with A Dirty Shame and the Scrapbook disc that was part of a mail-in if you got all the 2 disc sets that New Line put out. I must say that after reading the review about the Scrapbook disc, that alone if your a Waters fan would be worth picking up the set.

[Lino]

Seems it's the same 2 disc sets that came out a couple of years ago repacked all together with A Dirty Shame and the Scrapbook disc that was part of a mail-in if you got all the 2 disc sets that New Line put out.

I don't believe they are the 2XDVD sets that originally came out. Last year, New Line put out single editions from those sets that I think will make their way onto this new Boxset. Shame about that as I have them all already but would kill to have that extra one...

I'm especially excited about this feature here:

available in both its theatrical, NC-17 version and an R-rated, �Neuter� version.

Will this prove to be as hilarious as the "bleeped" version of Chris Cunningham's Windowlicker video? One hopes so...

However, John did say that if ever A Dirty Shame got an "R", it would only be 5 minutes or so long...which isn't a bad thing to put as an extra on a DVD (just for laughs, of course...). Either way, we're in for a treat with this one!

This is what you will be getting as a bonus if you buy the boxset. Very much worth the high price, I tell you.

[Gregory]

What follows is NOT a rant against the film, which I found very funny, but just some observations:
I finally saw this film and I'm baffled that it got an NC-17 rating. It's a film about extremes -- a world of two extremes, in which the only explanation for change is drugs or a conk on the noggin. But as hard as Waters is reaching to portray these extremes, the film remains surprisingly tame. There is actual (non-prosthetic) nudity in only about 10 seconds of the film. Sex is portrayed as wanton facial expressions, groping, and dry humping -- and of course extensive use of space outside the camera's view. The sex addicts express their desires in hilarious euphemisms, slang, innuendo and computer-generated symbolism. The word 'cunt' is not even uttered once, unless I missed it. It's amazing that he could make such an outrageously over-the-top film about sex addicts that shies away from actual sex so completely.
The main reason the sex addicts are so shocking to the neuters is because the neuters are so extreme in the opposite direction. Thus the mere fact that it got an NC-17 rating proves that the U.S. is dominated by neuter-like values and sensibilties. The film makes this statement, too, because the neuters are the ones who get to define themselves as normal, set the boundaries of perversion, prescribe drugs to those who fall outside them, and so on.
I'm no Waters expert, but it seems to me that from Hairspray on he's been more interested in making comedies with a whiff of trash cinema that are bizarre at times but don't really shake viewers up too much. And he did go a little farther out with this film than with Pecker and Cecil B Demented. Still, given the subject matter and how consciously outrageous the film is meant to be, I found it odd how much the writing and direction kept sex at such a comfortable distance. Thoughts?

[ben d banana]

I think your second paragraph nails it.

As far as Waters pushing boundaries, what do you do after having an obese trannie actually eat dog shit? I don't really see the point in continuing to attempt to outdo yourself for years, esp in the case of extremity, and it's pretty much only a fool who would think they can. Plus, it seems the man's interest in film and such goes beyond the merely shocking, not that he doesn't relish it. The fact that he's cemented his name in film history w/ that one scene, which still mortifies most after 30+ years, is testament enough. Still, I think Joe Lunchbucket would be decidedly upset by A Dirty Shame and much of his studio work. I saw it at a rep theater as the second half of a double bill and at least 20-30 people walked out, and that's after they watched the abysmal Napoleon Dynamite (which we weren't present for but endured 30 mins of the gf's sister's dvd one night).

[Lino]

(this is for Gregory)

I think that is the whole point of the movie. I mean, for a NC-17 movie you get NO sex scenes, some brief frontal nudity (male and female), a lot of swearing and... that's it!

My take on it is that he was trying to prove that today's society is so over the top on its moral values and paradoxical at the same time (because you can show people getting killed to a child but not two people having sex) that you've reached a point that you completely lost any sense of impartial judgement.

And that whole deal with verbal euphemisms is hilarious as well. It reminds me of a scene in "Sophie's Choice" where the character Stingo is ready to finally have sex with a girl he's courting for some time but he soon finds out that while she can utter the word "fuck" and not feel guilty about it (this is the 50's), she ultimately can not do the deed...! And the same thing happens here - you can say the lewdest things and not show sex but you get a NC-17 nevertheless...! Jeez! Do we live in a neuter world or what?! Not to mention that today EVERY sex act or sex taste or sex whatever has a name for it - and that to me is both mindboggling AND funny too!

And as a critique of that very thing, I think it's one of the funniest and more to-the-point than most I've seen recently.

[ben d banana]

Too bad about the 20 minute or so lull before the climax (literally). Otherwise, laughs a-plenty.

[Buttery Jeb]

Cry-Baby Director's Cut

Hey guys, we got preliminary word from Universal's Home Video website that a Director's Cut of John Waters' "Cry-Baby" will be coming out on July 12th. No word on complete specs, or if the original cut of the film will be included the disc. However, I do remember Waters as going on record that he wouldn't do a Special Edition without Johnny Depp's participation; so bear that in mind.

BJ

[Lino]

Sweet! And about damn time, too! Now if only this would usher new to DVD releases of Mondo Trasho and Multiple Maniacs I would be a more complete person. sigh. Keep us posted on those specs, ok?

[yumitree]

i wonder if the "director's cut" will just basically combine the cable version and the theatrical release because, if i recall, there are different/added scenes in both. regardless, this is very good news.

[dx23]

DVD Times has more info, including cover art:

Cry-Baby (Director's Cut) in July
Universal Studios Home Video have announced the Region 1 DVD release of Cry-Baby (Director's Cut) for 12th July 2005 priced at $19.98 SRP. Johnny Depp stars as 'Cry-Baby' in John Waters' 1990 musical which runs 7-minute longer (92mins) in this director's cut version.

Presented in 1.85:1 Anamorphic Widescreen with English Stereo audio and English, French and Spanish subtitles bonus features are currently TBC

I just hope that bonus features include commentary of Waters and wishfully thinking, of Depp. Most likely there are several making of featurettes and infamous Universal forced trailers.

[THX1378]

For some reason, maybe it's because I never really gave it a chance, I've never really liked this film. I hope that Waters will do a commentary because even if it's not one of his better films *just look at Pecker*, he makes up for it with his commentarys. What is sad is that Depp is off filming the new Pirates film so unless they find some time soon I dont' think he's going to be able to be a part of the dvd.

[Ashirg]

It sucks it doesn't have a commentary, but at least it has

# "It Came from Baltimore" - An in-depth look at the making-of with John Waters and cast
# Never-before-available Deleted Scenes

[Lino]

A Dirty Shame will be part of the upcoming boxset.

Don't forget that if you buy it, you'll get an extra disc of rare material not available anywhere else.

DVD Talk review of the boxset and of the A Dirty Shame single release are up.

I was wondering if the Waters commentary on both the Rated and Unrated versions are different in any way? I'd bet he'd be game to do two of them! Any info?

edit: just found out that the commentary is only available on the NC-17 rated version. That'll teach those neuters!

[Buttery Jeb]

Thought it worth noting that, according to these Menu Screenshots of the Cry-Baby DVD will have a John Waters' commentary track on it.

-BJ

[Lino]

Sweet! =P~

[Mr Pixies]

Sweet! =P~

definitely! I read a while ago an interview with a guy that worked for Criterion, and now runs the Three Legged Cat productions, who worked an all the John Waters commentaries, he mentioned him recording a commentary for Cry Baby and A Dirty Shame, but I then got worried when the Cry Baby commentary wasn't listed in the specs, great news.

[Mr Pixies]

I rented the "R rated" Neuter version of A Dirty Shame for kicks...saw the actual movie in theaters, though I haven't seen it enough to tell all the differences between the two. The neutered version has to be some kind of joke, it was edited like it was for television. There's some nudie archive montages in the film (when a character get's knocked in the head and becomes sex addicted), (John Waters said he worked with Frank Henenlotter from Something Wierd to use the footage that he owns the rights to) and all their breasts and butt cracks are blurred out. There's some different takes here and there, Ursula Udders' topless act is cut to where you don't get to see her tits, and Sylvia Stickles' water bottle act is cut from the nursing home scene.

I'll buy the regular version soon, when Cry-Baby comes out.

[4LOM]

Interview with John Waters about DVDs of his films at IGN.

About "Cry-Baby":

What have you added to the Cry-Baby Director's Cut DVD?
Waters: A lot. Some scenes that were certainly- two whole musical scenes that were cut out, and we did a reshoot, so I have part of the old end and part of the new end, the parts with Mink Stole, some of those supporting roles of the parents where Mink Stole was selling cigarettes outside the school and everything. Iggy Pop doing a chicken dance. And then on the side we have, not put back in, but footage that was taken out at the end, a complete subplot that went way too far away from Johnny Depp and that's why it was cut out of Traci Lords being kidnapped by Toe-Joe the pin-up photographer.

Also, they did a documentary where they found everybody, including Johnny Depp, and brought him back and they talk about their experiences. So it's really amazing to me because half of these faces, I hadn't seen Kim McGuire since we made the movie, and she's kind of a middle-aged woman, she's a lawyer in Mississippi. It has some- I think Mark did a really great job on it. That's the only one of my movies that hasn't been out on DVD.

We did a reshoot when the movie came out. Originally it was tested and everything, and I wasn't against trying a few things that people didn't understand, but I took [out] someo of the things that I liked, and there was another musical number that got cut that I put back in. so I'm just trying to show the fans that know the movie, and I think the movie was tested a lot. Probably at the end they just said, 'well, this needs to be a little shorter, but today I think seeing Iggy Pop do a chicken dance makes the film better.

[Lino]

On that interview, Waters mentions that he was really influenced by the films of Bergman's - among others - and he states that the swedish director was the one that first put puke on film before he did. Can someone please tell me in which film that happens? I can't for the life of me think of a Bergman film that has someone doing that though I know that as soon as someone mentions it, I'll just go "D'oh!" and slap my forehead.

...and then later in life, Bergman movies that were shown in Baltimore as sex movies because they showed breasts, and he had vomit first before anyone did in movies. I always joke he was the puke king, I wasn't.

[Arn777]

The silence?

[Michael]

Could that Bergman film be Brink of Life? I remember reading something about Waters calling it one of his favorite films, his favorite Bergman film.

[Lino]

I couldn't tell as I haven't seen it myself. As for The Silence, the Ingrid Thulin character does seem at various points in the movie as if she is going to indeed vomit but she never does.

Any thoughts on Brink of Life by those who've seen it?

[Galen Young]

Any thoughts on Brink of Life by those who've seen it?

Brink of Life: twenty-four hours inside a maternity ward with Ingrid Thulin, Eva Dahlbeck and Bibi Andersson = intensity as only Bergman can do it! (where's the DVD?!)

I don't recall there being a vomit scene in Brink of Life, but there is one in The Virgin Spring: after the two brothers rape Karin and tell the youngest brother to wait; he tries to eat some food, vomits -- haunted I presume at the murder of Karin. Stares at her dead body, throwing some dirt on her...

[Lino]

Thank you! That must be it and that is one Bergman I've yet to see but long to for the longest time. Guess my days of waiting for the CC edition will soon be over as I'm very tempted right now by the Tartan edition that is long available in the UK.

Our own dvdane has done his reviewof A Dirty Shame on DVDBeaver. and he even included a Beaver shot to match. Shame that he spoils the ending in his written review... [-X