Cecil B. Demented
October 1st 2008 04:20
Cecil B. Demented - A comedy by John Waters
Melanie Griffith and Stephen Dorff in Cecil B. Demented
Recently I caught a screening of John Waters’ 1998 film Polyester at the Sydney Underground Film Festival. It was a fantastic screening with the entire audience in hysterics. I have seen only a few of Waters films now, my favourite being Cry Baby and similar to his obvious inspiration, Paul Morrissey, he is definitely an acquired taste.
With the approach of the Melbourne Underground Film Festival, it is probably appropriate to have a look at the film that came after Polyester, his celebration of underground cinema; Cecil B. Demented. Like I mentioned, Waters is an acquired taste, a taste I haven’t come to fully appreciate yet. Waters’ movies are certainly, for better or worse, occupied with the exact same style, humour, acting and dialogue, in other words its immediately obvious you are watching one of his films in the first few minutes.
Revolution in the name of independant cinema!
Cecil B. Demented was made in 2000, its gallery of misfits include a cast lead by Stephen Dorff, Melanie Griffith, Alicia Witt, Adrien Grenier, Maggie Gyllenhall, Patricia Hearst and as usual Ricki Lake. The opening credits had me in stitches as these actors names appear in the credits on cinema billboards next to theatres playing Star Trek, Star Warz, more Star Trek, more Star Warz and some Star Trek. Included in these credits are film theatre listings for Scream 4, Vertigo the remake and probably some other horrible film titles that cracked me up. As you can see the agenda is obvious. The film begins with Hollywood A-list actress Honey Whitlock (Melanie Griffith) heralding her arrival at the premiere of her new film ‘Some kind of happiness’. In the meantime, underground film maniac Cecil B. Demented (Stephen Dorff, an inexplicable casting choice) and his crew of film making terrorists, ‘The Sprocket Holes’, are preparing to kidnap Ms. Whitlock in the name underground cinema.
I found some of the story funny, while some of it I found to be untapped, feeling like Waters’ was sometimes missing the point of his own joke. The bad tasting humour of the film is simply to be expected considering that this a John Waters film. One strong element of the film is the naivety Waters’ manages to so lovingly capture in these group of idealists who have spent their boiling time angry over the state of cinema (hey, it’s a valid concern) and how they will be the ones to fix it with their purist attitudes and intentions. There are definitely other elements, which make this a great watch, such as the militant shooting up of the screening of ‘Patch Adams: the directors cut’, a title which I’m giggling over as I write this.
I liked Cecile B. Demented, possibly enough to give it a second viewing, however, being someone who is so in touch with the films concept, I can’t help but feel that Waters’ heart wasn’t really into it. I frankly can’t decide whether I’m being objective in saying that or whether its my disappointment in trying to locate this film for the last year and not getting what I wanted when I finally saw it. It’s definitely joyous and entertaining, but it’s nowhere as good as Cry Baby or the bizarrely subverted ‘Polyester’.
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