DESPERATE LIVING (1977)

• Director: John Waters
• Cast: Liz Renay, Mink Stole, Susan Lowe, Edith Massey, Mary Vivian Pearce
• Film: 90mins + Introduction | USA
• Event: 20:00 [18+]

“IT ISN’T VERY PRETTY…”

A rich society woman murders her husband aided by her maid; on the run, they are exiled to Mortville, a filthy shantytown ruled by a fascist queen.

Thanks to my lovely friend Ryan at Video Bazaar, I have been invited to introduce a screening of John Waters’ DESPERATE LIVING (1977) as part of the DIVINE TRASH season at The Garden Cinema. The screening takes place on Friday 29 August at 8pm, or you can see this rarely screened oddity without me on Wednesday 20 August (but I’m hoping to see you at the BAR TRASH: SEASON 10 closing night screening of TURBO KID at Genesis Cinema on that date ;).

If you haven’t seen DESPERATE LIVING, it’s the first film Mr Waters made without Divine who was appearing on Broadway in ‘Women Behind Bars’ at the time, and without David Lochary, who was battling an addiction to PCP that would contribute to his accidental death shortly after the film released.

Starring fan favourite Mink Stole, another prolific Dreamlander, Susan Lowe, was given the role of lead lesbian Mole McHenry intended for Divine. The cast includes several of Waters’ other regular cast members — Jean Hill making her first appearance on the Baltimore trash team — and special guest star, celebrity stripper Liz Renay. Made after FEMALE TROUBLE (1974), DESPERATE LIVING forms the final part of Waters’ iconic ‘Trash Trilogy’ that started with PINK FLAMINGOS (1972). DESPERATE LIVING is one for John Waters completists certainly, but it’s also an outrageous serving of trash cinema in its own right, featuring acts of radical filth, lesbian sex, and epic production values (well, for the Dreamlanders…).

“John Waters’ first feature without Divine in the lead takes some cues from mid-century women’s pictures and queers it up with the gross-out, boundary pushing, excess that made him famous and an ambitious foray into fantasyland. Mink Stole is hysterical (and hysteric) as a woman on the run hiding out in the fairytale town of Mortville where evil Queen Carlotta (Waters regular Edith Massey) rules with an iron fist. Every emotion is played pitched up to the highest height while all of the humour skews to the lowest low. If something so deliberately tacky and in such poor taste could be considered operatic, then DESPERATE LIVING is it.”

The Garden Cinema

Queer film fanatic TOKEN HOMO is the creator and host of cult film nights BAR TRASH and QUEER HORROR NIGHTS. Follow on Instagram and Letterboxd @tokenhomo and visit tokenhomo.com for all the gory details.