ReFocus: The Films of John Waters

Michelle E. Moore is Professor of English at the College of Dupage, where she teaches courses in film studies and literature. She is the author of Chicago and the Making of American Modernism: Cather, Hemingway, Faulkner and Fitzgerald in Conflict (2019) and coeditor of Refocus: The Films of Paul Schrader (2020). She has published articles in Faulkner Studies, Cather Studies, and Literature/Film Quarterly, in addition to contributing chapters to Modernism in Wonderland: Legacies of Lewis Carroll, Rape in Art Cinema, and Hemingway in the Digital Age. Brian Brems is a Professor of English at the College of DuPage, where he teaches film studies. He is the author of The Films of Walter Hill: Another Time, Another Place (2022) and the co-editor of ReFocus: The Films of Paul Schrader (2020), with other publications appearing in several edited collections on Westerns and horror films. He is also a regular contributor to a variety of online publications, including Vague Visages.

• List of FiguresAcknowledgementsNotes on ContributorsIntroduction: Meeting John WatersMichelle E. MoorePart I. Authorial Identity, Aesthetics, and Style1. Multiple Melodramas: Melodramatic Influences and Their Uses in the Cinema of John WatersJamie Hook2. John Waters in the 1980s: Publication, Performance, and the Redefinition of Authorial IdentityMatt Connolly3. The Bloodless 1990s: From Serial Mom to Wes Craven’s ScreamFernando Gabriel Pagnoni Berns and Canela Ailen Rodriguez Fontao4. Artsy Fartsy: Pecker and the Guilty Pleasures of John Waters’ "Bad" Art HabitsKristen Galvin5. “Full of Grace”: John Waters as Auteur with the Semiautobiographical Film PeckerJohn P. Bray6. “Technique Is Failed Style”: John Waters, Style, and Cecil B. DementedBrian Brems7. Little Movies: John Waters and the Visual ArtsNicholas MorganPart II. Collaboration, Subversion, and Queering the Family8. Once Upon A Time in Dreamland: 2015 Recollections and ReflectionsChris Holmlund9. Family Values: Charles Manson and John Waters’ Cult CinemaKate J. Russell10. Queer Moms, Trash Aesthetics, and Suburban Filth: The Portrayal of Maternal Abject in John Waters’ CinemaSony Jalarajan Raj and Adith K. Suresh11. Fame! Fortune! Glamour! John Waters Remembers Midcentury TVHollis Griffin12. An Audience with John WatersJane GilesPart III. Interview13. Interview with John Waters Conducted by Michelle E. Moore and Brian Brems at his Home in Baltimore, November 2 2023FilmographySelected Writing by John WatersBibliographyIndex

"The unique and often outlandish films of John Waters, including Pink Flamingos, Cry-Baby and Pecker, require a specifically greased lens if they are to be critically examined. Michelle Moore and Brian Brems have marshalled a stellar troupe of contributors who dismantle Waters' films from a variety of angles, from Waters' 'film family' and identity (including his own), to tropes such as comedy, celebrity culture, trash and melodrama. This is a highly enjoyable and smart book that combines intellectual rigor with the necessary flavour and smell that befits Waters' oeuvre.