LWLies 94: The Pink Flamin­gos Issue – On sale now!

The sto­ry goes that John Waters asked Divine if she would eat dogshit on cam­era for his new film Pink Flamin­gos. Brush­ing it off as just anoth­er of the director’s increas­ing­ly crack­pot ideas, Divine shooed him away and said, ​“Yes, yes, what­ev­er…” Fast-for­ward to the end of the shoot, and it’s time for the big scene. Once Divine dis­cov­ers that Waters was indeed seri­ous about his request, she read­ies her­self for the grand finale.

The scene took a long time to film, because the dog they crew had sequestered to ​“per­form” for them was a lit­tle shy. The own­er returned home to feed it up, and even gave it some dog­gie lax­a­tives in order to, ahem, force the issue. But there was noth­ing doing. Even­tu­al­ly, after a long old wait in the streets, with Divine dressed to the nines and in full make­up, mag­ic time final­ly arrived. The cam­eras were rolling and the rest, as they say, is history.

It’s sad to say that Pink Flamin­gos is still some­thing of a film mau­dit in the UK due to our restric­tive cen­sor­ship laws. Over the years, cer­tain sequences have been approved, but nev­er to the point where a cit­i­zen of these fair isles could walk into a cin­e­ma with the free­dom to see the full, unex­pur­gat­ed film in all its gaudy glo­ry. With the 50^th anniver­sary Cri­te­ri­on Blu-ray release on its way, we decid­ed that now would be the per­fect time to return to the scene of the crime and look back at this mas­ter­piece of sicko cinema.

So, with this issue, we’ve wiped the mat­ted chick­en feath­ers from our eyes, warmed up a rump steak in our undies and boiled up a whole mess of eggs to cel­e­brate a film of bound­less cre­ative ener­gy and wicked humour, and that’s also a paragon of that very frag­ile human urge to just have fun while you’re young and test the lim­its of your per­son­al experience.

On the cover

We’ve ush­ered in Bris­tol-based Rosie Lea Brind to riff on the iconog­ra­phy of Flamin­gos-era Divine, with a bold, colour­ful por­trait that harks back to ​’70s hand­made screen prints. 

Also in the issue, we show­case new illus­tra­tion work from: Alice Carnegie, Wan­da Dufn­er, Fiona McDon­nell, Joel Miller­chip, Lydia Sil­ver, Stéphanie Sergeant.

In this issue

Lead Review: Pink Flamingos

On the occa­sion of its 50^th anniver­sary, Aimee Knight prais­es John Waters’ tran­scen­dent trash opus.

The Gospel Accord­ing to St John

Juan Bar­quin enters into a lewd dis­course with Baltimore’s finest, John Waters.

John Wal­ters: An Oeuvre

A spry dash through the Pope of Trash’s gross cin­e­mat­ic output.

The Dream­lan­ders: A Who’s Who

Charles Bram­sco offers an index of John Waters’ reg­u­lar collaborators.

The Divine Right of Queens

Lil­lian Craw­ford unpicks the rep­re­sen­ta­tion­al evo­lu­tion of the late drag icon Divine.

What a Swizz!

Is Pink Flamin­gos a muck-smeared one-off? Or is it a tem­plate for more mid­dle-brow auteurs? Soma Ghosh investigates.

A World of Filth

Kat McLaugh­lin is MC and organ­is­er for a world cham­pi­onships of sicko filmmakers.

The Lit­tle Block­busters That Could: A Dossier

Five essays on weird movies from across the globe that have struck box office gold against all the odds.

Threads #21: Blue Eye Shadow

Christi­na New­land explores how Divine’s make­up style influ­enced a gen­er­a­tion of strong screen women.

In the back section

Essay: Rais­ing the Dead

Mari­na Ash­i­oti meets film­mak­er Char­lie Shack­le­ton to explore the broad and poet­ic impli­ca­tions of his con­cep­tu­al 35mm fea­ture film, The Afterlight.

Mia Hansen-Løve

David Jenk­ins speaks to the French Bergman Island writer/​director about the sub­lime intri­ca­cies of the cre­ative process.

Nin­ja Thyberg

Han­nah Strong meets the direc­tor of Plea­sure, an glassy-eyed and provoca­tive explo­ration of the mod­ern porn industry.

Daryl McCor­ma­ck

Steph Green meets the star of tomor­row today – who’s cur­rent­ly head­lin­ing Good Luck To You, Leo Grande.

Udo Kier

The icon­ic Ger­man-born bit-parter final­ly gets a lead in Swan Song, and Anna Bogut­skaya speaks to him.

Baz Luhrmann

Ella Kemp chats to the max­i­mal­ist-and-proud Aus­tralian auteur who’s new film, Elvis, is a biopic of The King himself.

In review

Mia Hansen-Løve’s Bergman Island
Ed Perkins’ The Princess
Wawrick Ross and Robert Coe’s Blind Ambi­tion
Nin­ja Thyberg’s Plea­sure
Jacque­line Lentzou’s Moon, 66 Ques­tions
François Ozon’s Every­thing Went Fine
Mar­tin Bourboulon’s Eif­fel
Michelan­ge­lo Frammartino’s Il Buco
Jes­si­ca Beshir’s Faya Dayi
Pietro Mar­cel­lo, Alice Rohrwach­er and Francesco Munzi’s Futu­ra
Jonas Carpignano’s A Chiara
Jim Archer’s Bri­an and Charles
Todd Stephens’ Swan Song
Damien Odoul’s Theo and the Meta­mor­pho­sis
Justin Kurzel’s Nitram
Lucile Hadžihalilović’s Ear­wig
Baz Lurhmann’s Elvis
Panah Panahi’s Hit the Road
Sophie Hyde’s Good Luck to You, Leo Grande

Plus, Matt Turn­er selects six key home ents releas­es for your con­sid­er­a­tion. And Han­nah Strong sends a post­card from the 2022 Cannes Film Fes­ti­val, high­light­ing some of her favourite titles and mus­ing on the messy sub­jec­tiv­i­ty of taste.

LWLies 94 is avail­able to order online now from our online shop. Become a Mem­ber or Sub­scribe today to make sure you nev­er miss an issue.