SYDNEY FILM FESTIVAL: To be a teenager growing up in the early 1970s between Baltimore, Maryland to the north and Washington, D.C. to the south, was to be drawn to the legendary Charles Theatre in the former, or the late exhibitor S. David Levy’s long-gone Key Theatre in the Georgetown neighborhood of the latter, for a weekend midnight screening of Charm City writer-director John Waters’ infamous and revolutionary 1972 low-budget indie Pink Flamingos. (Only the insufferable scenesters showed up for The Rocky Horror Picture Show, but that’s another story.)
[an] affectionate portrait of a unique star
It was a rite of passage, but at first only for a select few. Though the film took place on streets everyone recognised, the distinctive style of the Baltimore house that subsequently featured in so many Barry Levinson films, and fields that could only be Maryland in the winter (The Blair Witch Project has the identical look, as it was filmed a few hours northeast of Baltimore), the bizarre way the characters acted, surreal logic of the revenge tale the film told and the climax, which showed the lead character, a 300-pound cross-dressing"¦ person with enormous breasts and demented bouffant eating dog excrement she scoops up off the street, demanded that only the coolest, most open-minded school friends be invited along.
A good time was usually had by all, though it was every man for himself when it came to explaining one’s whereabouts to the parents next morning.
All this to preface praise for the time warp that is director Jeffrey Schwarz’s affectionate portrait of a unique star. I Am Divine celebrates the life and work of Harris Glenn Milstead, whose gender-bending embrace of the outrageous as the exuberant Divine influenced and continues to impact such stars as Elton John and Lady Gaga.
The film opens only weeks prior to his death at 42 of an enlarged heart, at the gala Baltimore premiere of Waters’ beloved 1988 musical Hairspray. (Look closely for the marquee of the beloved Senator Theatre, which recently changed owners and is currently closed for renovation.) The evening, and the ecstatic reception of the film, were high water marks for Divine as well, as Milstead’s creation was moving from the radical novelty act of Waters’ earliest films to a more mainstream approach.
Milstead had grown up on the same street as Waters, who remembers him as a shy and quiet kid. The son of conservative parents, he was teased in school for both weight issues and choice of part-time job (a hairdresser). But once he and Waters began fooling around with short films and concocting such radical homemade features as The Diane Linklatter Story (1969), Multiple Maniacs (1969) and Mondo Trasho (1970), the die was cast.
Schwarz spends a good amount of time charting Milstead’s subsequent careers on screen and stage; sadly, he died in Los Angeles the night before he was to film a major guest role on a season finale episode of Married"¦ With Children. His high school sweetheart is interviewed, as is his mother and other members of the Waters stock company that appeared in all of his early work.
What may be most remarkable about the Divine persona (Waters stole the name from a Jean Genet novel), is how fully formed it was from the very beginning. Though these films may seem almost quaint today, their transgressive nature and radical content rendered them both simultaneously unique and intimidating in the day; what’s often said about Waters is true of Divine as well: they always knew who they were and what they wanted, all that was required was the patience to wait for everyone else to catch up.
And for those who are still catching up, I Am Divine is a fine place to start.
