I AM DIVINE B+
USA (90 mi) 2013
d: Jeffrey Schwarz Official site
An energetic and fun film, offering little new about Divine,
but offering a wonderful portrait of her life, especially providing key insight
into what made her vital and unique. Jeffrey
Schwarz has quite a long history of making documentary short films, making
behind-the-scenes videos for films like FOOTLOOSE (1984, 2011), FRIDAY (1995),
and RESIDENT EVIL (2002) that were added as DVD extras, though recently his
interests have turned to creating feature length biographies of outsider
artists, particularly those in the LGBTQ community, like film historian Vito
Russo, gay porn star Jack Wrangler, and the master of promotional gimmicks,
William Castle. Here he turns his
attention to legendary cult film performer Divine, using a brash, quick edited
style that is often hilarious, where her persona is born in underground films
where she became the queen of oversized drag queens. Born Harris Glenn Milstead in Baltimore, his
mother was devastated to learn from a physician that he was more feminine than
male, known as effeminate, so he was a shy and sensitive kid with no friends
who was relentlessly picked on and abused by various local bullies, where he
learned to despise school because of how he was treated there. Nonetheless, we meet the girl next door who
went to prom with Glenn, where he insisted upon doing her hair and make up,
eventually learning to be a hairdresser.
She was completely unaware of anyone being gay in those days, so his
coming out party was something of a surprise, especially when he chose to be
dressed as Elizabeth Taylor. For underground
film director John Waters, they met when Glenn moved into the neighborhood at
age 17, where he witnessed how he was treated at school, recruiting him to star
in his second film ROMAN CANDLES (1966), shot on 8 mm, notable for being
Divine’s first film, a name chosen by Waters to depict her larger-than life
persona, something she ultimately grew into, culminating with her now legendary
performance in PINK FLAMINGOS (1972), the film that put her name on the
map.
Without a doubt, the working relationship of Divine
throughout the career of John Waters is simply a match made in heaven, as
Divine became Waters’ outrageous alter-ego, willing to do anything for the
shot, where the clips from their earliest films together are simply hilarious,
one of which is a deliberately offensive recreation of the historic Zapruder
film of the Kennedy assassination in EAT YOUR MAKEUP (1968) with Divine playing
Jackie-O in a pillbox hat, or another holding her audience hostage at gunpoint
in FEMALE TROUBLE (1974) and demanding “Are you willing to die for art?,” where
she then proceeds to start shooting into the audience. What’s especially poignant is the effect
Divine had on other gay kids, especially the younger ones, as they literally
threw themselves at her during live appearances, as they were so taken by her
courage and bravery to stand up and be different. Divine’s coming out precedes the Stonewall
riots, where she’s wearing flagrantly shocking make up and giant wigs, where
Waters dared to turn a 300-pound drag queen who was not afraid to bare her
flab, or wear skin-tight dresses, into a larger-than-life symbol of rebellion,
taking her act onstage where she encourages the audience to insult and interact
with her during her performance, becoming the Goddess of Bad Taste, like a Don
Rickles diva, “So you think all of us outsiders—drag queens, lesbians and gay
men—are disgusting? Let me show you what
disgusting really is, you prigs.” The
list of people offering comments is neverending, yet most offer rare insight
into the man behind the persona, where despite the brash outer appearance as a
movie diva, expanding what a drag queen could be, he remained a completely
different person offscreen, a shy and introverted person who always wanted to
be accepted as a man.
One of the truly heartbreaking moments in her life was
confessing openly to her parents about her gay sexuality, and her mother
immediately threw her out of the house, where they didn’t speak for
decades. Her mother can be seen
indicating she realized this was a bad decision on her part and regretted it as
soon as she said it, but then she never called Divine afterwards to make things
right. Many attribute this unfulfilled
emotional emptiness as one of the many excesses in Divine’s character, where
she often ate to overcompensate for what she felt was missing in her life. But lest we think she was pining away in
solitude, think again, as Waters reminds us Divine had cute boyfriends, poster
boys and porn stars, and joined a San Francisco psychedelic theater group
called The Cockettes, another perfect match, as they both fed off one another’s
outrageousness, screening all the early Waters short films, establishing Divine
as a cult icon. Divine performed on
several hit shows off Broadway, where she met all the stars, including Andy
Warhol, where Elton John brought her onstage to perform with him at Madison
Square Garden, which may have started a music career as Divine hit the road
performing in small and sweaty clubs shaking her booty in slinky gowns, where
she was a very popular demand at various openings as she could elevate the
energy level to a disco party atmosphere, and Divine loved to dance.
Waters kept working with her for 20 years, where she was
always the star of the show, where the images of Divine going toe to toe with
Lanie Kazan in LUST IN THE DUST (1985) are simply hilarious, two enormously
big-bosomed women, but equally interesting is the affection that developed in
working with 50’s matinee idol Tab Hunter.
The other huge breakthrough was Waters’ HAIRSPRAY (1988), a hugely
successful film for both their careers, as it received critical acclaim from the
New York film critics and even Pauline Kael, describing Divine as “something
like the lunacy of a W. C. Fields in drag,” but it’s also a film where Divine
had to play second banana to a young overweight Ricki Lake as Tracy Turnblad who
was the film’s chubby star, and it featured Divine as a less than glamorous
drag queen, drawing sympathy from the audience for her believability in the
role of Tracy’s working class mother, “Could you turn that racket down, I’m
trying to iron in here.” Divine actually
reunited with her mother after decades of silence, an especially tender moment,
but also eye-opening when we see her mother hadn’t realized that her son Glenn
was actually Divine. Her death was a
jolt to everyone, especially because her life was finally obtaining some
well-needed balance, and she landed a spot as a regular on the cast of the TV show Married With Children, but had a massive
heart attack the night before shooting began.
The plethora of voices contributing to this overall portrait is really
quite outstanding, and the film is impressive, where even in death Divine
remains an iconic force for all rejected souls and outsiders, paving the way for
defining one’s own career long before there were publicity agents to do that
for you.
