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list price: $17.95
edition:Paperback
category: Performing Arts
published: May 2017
ISBN:9781551526836
publisher: Arsenal Pulp Press

Female Trouble

A Queer Film Classic

by Chris Holmlund, series edited by Matthew Hays & Thomas Waugh

tagged: history & criticism
Description

A Queer Film Classic on John Waters' 1974 dark comedy.

The first title in the Queer Film Classic series to focus on the work of legendary director and cinematic camp icon John Waters, best known for the underground classic Pink Flamingos and his later more commercial works such as Crybaby, starring Johnny Depp, and Hairspray, which was also made into a hit stage and film musical. His films are perhaps best exemplified by his partnerships with the late, legendary drag queen Divine, who starred in his most outrageous films, including 1972's Pink Flamingos and its 1974 follow-up, Female Trouble.

In Female Trouble, Divine stars as Dawn Davenport, a young troublemaker who runs away from home and embarks on a mind-bending journey in a world "where crime and beauty are the same." In his review of the film, critic Rex Reed asked, "Where do these people come from? Where do they go when the sun goes down? Isn't there a law or something?"

Chris Holmlund's book examines the film's camp aesthetic and its position in the history of independent film.

About the Authors

Chris Holmlund is Arts and Sciences Excellence Professor in Film and French at the University of Tennessee-Knoxville. Her previous books include Contemporary American Independent Film, co-edited with Justin Wyatt (Routledge, 2005) and Between the Sheets, In the Streets: Queer, Lesbian, Gay Documentary, co-edited with Cynthia Fuchs (University of Minnesota Press, 1997). She lives in Knoxville, Tennessee.


Matthew Hays is a Montreal-based critic, author, and university and college instructor. His articles have appeared in a broad range of publications. His first book, The View from Here: Conversations with Gay and Lesbian Filmmakers (Arsenal Pulp Press), was cited by Quill & Quire as one of the best books of 2007 and won a 2008 Lambda Literary Award. He is co-editor (with Thomas Waugh) of Queer Film Classics, a series of monographs for Arsenal Pulp Press on LGBTQ films; titles in the series include Paris Is Burning, Strangers on a Train, Law of Desire, and Female Trouble. He is the film instructor at Marianopolis College, and also teaches courses in journalism, communication studies, and film studies at Concordia University, where he received the Concordia Alumni Award for Teaching Excellence in 2007 and the President's Award for Teaching Excellence in 2013.


Thomas Waugh is a writer, programmer, and activist who taught film studies and sexuality at Concordia University from 1976 to 2017. He is the author of The Romance of Transgression in Canada: Queering Sexualities, Nations, Cinemas.
Editorial Review

This is a book to be enjoyed by both novices and die-hard John Waters aficionados. -Gay & Lesbian Review

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