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Format: VHS
Jan 2001
Rated R
Recording Mode: (unknown)
Sound: Stereo, HiFi
Closed Captioned
88 min.
Color
UPC: 012236108351 |
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* ML=ships from multiple locations, AE/AP/AA=ships from U.S. Military location.
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* ML=ships from multiple locations, AE/AP/AA=ships from U.S. Military location.
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Movie Description
John Waters follows 1998's benevolently vulgar PECKER with this reactionary story of another young artist. Cecil (Stephen Dorff) is a radical young (and arguably insane) filmmaker whose motive for creating his art stems from a violent dissatisfaction with the pandering product produced by Hollywood. Cecil and his gang of film terrorists, the Sprocket Holes (who each has a tattoo of the name of their favorite director), kidnap spoiled superstar Honey Whitlock (Melanie Griffith) at the Baltimore premiere of her new film with the intention of forcing her to star in their antistudio opus RAVING BEAUTY. When Honey sees the street credibility she gets from her association with Cecil's terrorist antics, however, she no longer has to be forced to participate in the Sprocket Holes' outlandish schemes.
Less polished than some of his previous works (SERIAL MOM, CRY-BABY) but not nearly as crude as his reputation-earning early films, DEMENTED fits somewhere in the middle of Waters's ouevre. With an anything-goes spirit that one can rarely find outside of Waters's gleeful taboo-breaking creations, DEMENTED allows true lovers of cinema to live vicariously through characters who are desperately trying to remedy the sad state of the medium at the turn of the 21st century.
Film Notes
Theatrical release: August 11, 2000.
The story of CECIL B. DEMENTED mirrors that of Waters favorite Patty Hearst, the heiress who was kidnapped by a terrorist group in 1974 at the age of 19, brainwashed, and made to rob a bank. She portrays Fidget's mother in the film.
The theater from which Honey Whitlock is kidnapped is Baltimore's Senator Theater, where Waters's films always make their debut.
The directors' names tattooed on the arms of Cecil and his gang include Otto Preminger, Spike Lee, Kenneth Anger, David Lynch, Rainer Werner Fassbinder, William Castle, Sam Fuller, Almodovar, Herschell Gordon Lewis, Andy Warhol, and Sam Peckinpah.
Industry Reviews
"...The role of Honey Whitlock...gives Ms. Griffith her most engaging screen performance since WORKING GIRL....CECIL B. DEMENTED is consistently amusing and smart..."
New York Times - p.E14 - Stephen Holden
"...DEMENTED is Waters the way we like him -- spiked with laughs and served with a twist..."
Rolling Stone - p.82 - Peter Travers
"...A fast, furious and funny fusillade of a movie....An uproarious, smartly crafted, hard action flick..."
Los Angeles Times - p.C2 - Kevin Thomas
Quotations
"Power to the people! Punish bad cinema!"--Cecil during the kidnapping of Honey Whitlock
"Your Hollywood system stole our sex and co-opted our violence; there's nothing left for our kinds of movies."--Cecil to Honey about why the violence in his films must be real
"O Andy Warhol! We worship you from the new cinema underground. Help us to use our sexual frustration as you did for the future of outlaw film!"--Cecil's prayer
"Please don't shoot me! I don't even go to the movies!"--Film exec about to be executed by Cecil's gang
"I walk out of your films on airplanes!"--Angry woman to newly minted outlaw Honey Whitlock
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