All language subtitles for Midnight Movies - From the Margin to the Mainstream (2006) eng

Woman: This is
a movie central

High-definition
original programming presentation.

(Clock chiming)

Well, it's nighttime,

And you're
with an audience.

And the lights go down,

And you go into a world.

Ebert: And at some point
in the '60s,

People became cynical
and ironic.

Midnight movies
were the opening wedge

In the birth of irony.

Waters: The very fact
that it was playing at midnight

Was almost a brand name.

It was a genre.

It sounded forbidden...
A "midnight movie."

It doesn't lie.

Write a script,

Get a crew,
do it!

It's all an experiment.

A "B" movie...
Horror, and, uh...

And Sci-Fi.

One cinema,
one little line...

Midnight.

Waters: Midnight movies
had to be funny

And/or shocking
in a surprising way...

Something completely new,

That you
hadn't seen before.

Mainstream society
hated these movies

And was against everything
they believed in.

(Gun fires)

Now, that's
radically different today.

Everything that was
in midnight movies

Is in Hollywood movies.

Everything that
midnight movies offered

Has become American humor.

There were so few
real midnight hits.

The first one
was El Topo.

The whole
midnight phenomena

Actually started
in the fall of 1970

With Alexandro
Jodorowsky's El Topo.

(Animals bleating)

(Woman moaning)

Jodorowsky:
We make El Topo,

And all the Mexicans
was laughing at me

Because I was making
something for the world,

You see?

Mexican pictures
never go out of Mexico.

You are crazy!

(Animals bleating)

The feeling was, "we need to
send to the United States."

In that time,
I believe America,

They are
the most wise country.

I have very romantic idea.

They know what they
are doing, you know?

When I make El Topo,

We came to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer,
Universal...

And they was enthusiastic
when they see that.

I hardly bleed.

I do not
resist the bullets.

I let them pass

Through the emptiness
of my heart.

Jodorowsky: But they say,
"we cannot sell this picture.

We don't know how."

And they say, "no, no, no."

And then came Alan Douglas.

He was underground...
Absolutely underground.

Douglas: Timothy Leary,
the last poets.

I was doing
Jimi Hendrix in 1970,

And those
are the products

That we were making
at the time.

Alexandro told us
about this film,

And he said
that it was very unique...

And that I should
take a look at it.

I was blown away
like everybody else.

Woman: Nothing.

I then went to,
probably,

Every distributor
that existed.

Nothing.

Nothing.

Everybody was,
I think,

Too afraid
of the film.

(Groans)

It was a little bit
too over-the-top.

We was really in a...

In a very bad situation.

Ben Barenholtz

Was the owner
of the Elgin theater

Down on 19th and 8th Avenue.

I began
getting the idea

That I could
utilize the theater

For midnight screenings.

One day,
I went to see a film

At the museum
of modern art.

It was El Topo.

They informed me
that the film had been sold

To a fellow named
Alan Douglas.

Ben said,

"Well, why don't you
put it in the theater?

"Why don't you put it
in the Elgin at midnight,

After all my shows
are over?"

And he... and through
the haze of smoke...

Said, "okay."

Today you are
seven years old.

Now you are a man.

Bury your first toy

And your mother's picture.

It was the first
picture show at midnight.

The total campaign

Consisted
of the little ad...

"Tonight at midnight,
El Topo"

Is all that we have
to advertise it,

And from mouth to ear,
the public came.

Came every night.

We opened
on a Tuesday night,

And by Wednesday night,
there were lines around the corner,

And it just didn't stop.

It went on and on and on.

Hoberman:
It was astonishing

How quickly people
knew about that movie,

How fast
that became a thing.

There were people
who saw El Topo 30 times,

25 times.

I have a lot
of fan mail...

Who went every night
to see that.

Barenholtz:
Within a few weeks,

We were selling out
a 600-seat theater every night.

There were just lines
around the corner.

It became
the thing to do.

Hoberman: Dennis Hopper
or Peter Fonda would show up,

Warhol people.

It's incredible, no?

It's really incredible.

It's against the system...

Was against the system.

(Groaning, gasping)

The Elgin was a sort of
a hippie theater.

You could smoke pot
in the Elgin.

Barenholtz: You would walk
into the theater,

And there was...
It was very electric.

It was very smoky.

You'd just inhale a few times,
and you'd be stoned.

The excitement came
not only from the film, but from the audience.

And it was like being in
a den of cinematic iniquity.

Being in this crowd of people

All going, you know,

Going completely
out of their minds

Was something
that was very unique.

Barenholtz:
It was launched at midnight without money,

And strictly depending
on word of mouth,

And, uh, without critics

That could write articles.

Vincent Canby,
the chief critic of the Times,

Did come to see it
at midnight.

Jodorowsky:
New York Times

Received so great
amount of letter

Against the critic,

They need
to give a whole page,

Speaking good
of El Topo

Because the public
react against.

Hoberman:
The Glenn O'Brien piece

That ran
in The Village Voice...

I mean, he
explicitly described it...

"Midnight mass
at the Elgin theater."

There was always the...

You know,
the marijuana cloud.

Always they give me
cigarettes of marijuana,

Always they applaud this.

Sounds kind of like
a ceremony.

Night ceremony.

Congregants:
You shall protect us, o lord.

Hoberman: It was sold
as a ritual experience,

As a trip.

All: You shall
protect us, o lord.

God loves us
and protects us.

Jodorowsky:
I put mystical scenes.

I put the person
who searches himself.

(Moaning, groaning)

I put a bandit

Who realized his violence...

And became a Saint.

So, really,
I didn't have a Western.

I have some kind of "eastern."

There were
a number of things

That El Topo
had going for it.

It was foreign.

It was very arcane.

It was some kind
of very bloody,

Uh, overtly
ritualistic Western.

El Topo was
a very violent film, also,

Even for... for the period.

(Screams)

(Groans)

It was violence
with a soul,

Violence with a rhythm.

It had violence
that was shocking.

I've seen lots of people
run out of the theater

'Cause they
couldn't handle it.

There were shock scenes in it

That you couldn't believe
you were watching.

Didn't it have a lot
of killing of animals in it?

It's so... so... so extreme,

You need
to laugh about that, no?

In El Topo, it's like
the freaks fight back.

This guy comes out there
and, like, destroys the town,

And that was new.

You didn't see
Dennis Hopper and Peter Fonda,

You know, dispatching
those rednecks.

I mean,
they were just victims.

Jodorowsky: I hate
everything who's normal...

Who they call "normal,"
I hate.

(Men chanting)

This "monster" side,
I like it.

I like this...
This feeling

Of... of the... monstrosity
as a part of life.

It's a beautiful
part of life.

(Chanting continues)

The film actually
ran for six months,

Seven nights a week.

It became a very,
very successful,

"Midnight movie" film...

Not only successful
from an audience point of view,

Successful from
the critical point of view.

Jodorowsky: I was
a celebrity rock person.

I didn't understand why.

Was some kind of mythical...
El Topo.

Many of the people
were coming two and three times.

Ebert: Movies like El Topo
are just so visually alive

That you can
see them over and over

Like an album...
Like you listen to an album.

Barenholtz: John Lennon
came at least two times

With Yoko Ono.

Jodorowsky: John Lennon
liked the picture.

Was a very good friendship.

Douglas: When I
got an urgent call...

"You must go to Allen Klein's
office immediately,"

"Because John Lennon
and Yoko are there"

"And they want to see you
about El Topo."

Barenholtz:
Lennon told Allen Klein to buy the film,

And they, uh,

Took it away
from the Elgin,

And after a six-month run...

Douglas: He put up
this billboard in Times Square

That was as large
as five buildings.

You cannot show
in theater, great theater.

It's a mistake.

Douglas: He put it into
a local Times Square theater.

Five shows a day,

Starting at 10:00
in the morning.

Man: Be prepared

To live the most wonderful
experience of your life.

El Topo
is more than spectacle.

It got blown out
in three days.

In three days
it was all over, right?

And El Topo lost
all of its theatrical value.

The aura was gone.

They could have...
Brought it back and given it back to me,

And put it
back on at midnight.

It would still
have worked.

But I am happy
because I am in history.

I am the creator
of midnight movies.

Happiness.

Hoberman:
Exhibitors realized...

Well before the end
of El Topo's run at the Elgin that...

That there
was an audience for midnight movies.

The hipper theaters
around the country

Began showing films
at midnight.

And then became,
you know,

The great search
for the next El Topo.

We'll make her
one of us!

A loving cup,
a loving cup.

(Loud, indistinct
chattering)

Gooble, gobble.
Gooble, gobble.

We accept her,
we accept her. No!

(Shouting indistinctly)

Freaks!

"Freaks" was a word
that people used to describe themselves,

And you can see how
that would follow from El Topo,

Which had armless guys
and dwarves.

(Thunder rumbling)

Aah!

Barenholtz: You can't make

A cult film intentionally;
It doesn't work.

It's the audience
that creates a cult.

It's not the...
It's not the filmmakers.

Man: Welcome...

To a night...

Of total terror.

(Woman gasps)

(Woman screams)

Barenholtz:
Night Of The Living Dead wasn't launched at midnight.

It opened in its regular run
as an exploitation film.

They had no...
No idea what they had.

Hoberman:
Night Of The Living Dead

Is the greatest horror film
ever made in the U.S.

(Screams)

When I first went to school,

I went to study commercial art,

Painting and design,

At Carnegie Mellon
in Pittsburgh.

In those days,

The news was on film.

Are they slow-moving,
chief?

Yeah, they're dead.

They're all messed up.

This is Bill Cardille,
WIIC, TV-11 news.

So, cities the size of
Pittsburgh had film laboratories

Doing 8, 16, 35
processing, work-printing.

That's where I went
to hang out, man.

I mean, it was, like...
Hanging out with these guys

That are right down in there
with the glue pots,

You know?

And... and, uh,
I was in seventh heaven.

I said, "well, man,
this is where it's at!"

By that time...

This was my fifth year
in Pittsburgh...

I had other friends,
so we got together,

And we said, "hey,
maybe we could use film"

To make commercials."

The first film
that I ever shot,

Possibly the scariest movie
I ever made,

Was for
mister Rogers' neighborhood.

Mr. Rogers
gets a tonsillectomy.

That was, like,
our big production...

All interiors,
in a hospital,

Dollies...

And I thought
I was in hog heaven, man.

"I'm makin' a movie here!"

This is 1966.

I said,
"hey, man, you know,

"Horror movies...
Maybe people would think

That would be
a little more commercial."

Man: Every one of you
watching this screen...

Look out!

Because soon, very soon,

The most horrifying
monster menace ever conceived

Will be oozing
into this theater.

Romero: Most horror,
through the '50s,

If there
was any message in it,

It was...
Be afraid of science.

Nukes are gonna get us!

Women are gonna become
50 feet tall,

And boy, will we
be in trouble then!

I had been educated
on E.C. Comic books,

Which gave me this idea

That horror movies
should have a little moral,

You know?

You could get
your political opinions in,

You know...
You can use it as a platform

To maybe express
some anger or something.

We were angry
because the '60s had failed.

We thought we had...
We changed the world,

And then, all of a sudden,
"oh, shit. It didn't work?"

(Screaming,
sirens wailing)

We're gonna
smack this in the face

And make this movie,
really, about revolution...

Pissed off, the '60s...
Forget about it.

We're gonna make a movie
about new society

Basically
swallowing up the old.

The old
doesn't see it coming

Because they are too trapped
in their own circumstance.

Started to write the script,

We had the equipment,

The lights,
the 35-millimeter camera.

We are staying
down here, Helen.

Harry, that's...

Romero: Carl and Marilyn
played Helen and Harry Cooper.

They were the people

That owned
the audio production house,

And there were ten of us...

We kicked in
600 bucks apiece.

On six grand...

That enabled us
to rent the farm house,

Buy film stock,

Make a deal
with the local lab.

Russ Streiner,
one of the producers,

Won the sound mix
for this movie

In a chess game

With the guy
that owned one of those labs.

God's truth.

We finished the film
and threw it in the trunk of the car

And drove it to New York

To see if anybody
wanted to buy it.

And Russ Streiner and I
were driving to New York,

And then, that was the night.

Man: Martin Luther King,
20 minutes ago, died.

(People exclaiming)

(Shouting)

The movie was made in 1968.

I mean, it was made

In the most violent year
in American history

Since the civil war.

They were shopping it around

In the aftermath
of the Kennedy, uh... uh,

King assassinations.

Hit him in the head,
right between the eyes.

There are very strong
political implications

In Night Of The Living Dead.

The fact that you
have a leading character

Who is black
and he's shot at the end...

Cooper!

Romero: Duane Jones
was the best actor

That we met to play
the lead role of "Ben."

He happened
to be African-American.

We thought,
"ain't it cool

"If we forget that?

"Forget that.

We're not gonna
change the script."

Hoberman: Night
Of The Living Dead

Opens towards the end of '68

In drive-ins and in
grind movie houses...

42nd street in New York,

Market street
in San Francisco.

And it's just
kind of an "X" cheap horror film.

I saw
Night Of The Living Dead

First run in Baltimore
at a drive-in.

(Screaming)

Night Of The Living Dead
was scary, not funny.

Night Of The Living Dead
got terrible reviews.

I mean, Variety

Thought that it was
practically pornographic.

There should be
a law against it.

Crazily enough, it...

You know, Night
Of The Living Dead,

Because it has
a black protagonist,

Is put on this double bill

With pre-blaxploitation
movie slaves.

There's
the horror film audience,

There's the African-
American audience

That they're looking for.

Romero: The intention
of this movie...

Scare you? Yes.

And push the envelope

Beyond where
other scare movies have gone

You know,
with the gut-eating

And all of that stuff,

Push that envelope
a little bit

Because everybody
was, you know...

Stopped short of that.

Maybe that will
get us some, uh, attention.

(Snarling)

Roger Ebert wrote
this famous denunciation

Of... of the movie
that was... that read...

Was published
in Readers' Digest.

Ebert: I saw it
at a children's matinee

On a Saturday afternoon

In a neighborhood
of Chicago,

And the children
were really disturbed.

They were not happy.

They were... they were sad.

They were crying.
They were scared.

(Crickets chirping)

I haven't really
seen too many movies

That had that kind of an effect
on audiences.

Shaye: A friend of mine
called me up

And he said,
"have you seen this movie,"

Which was being distributed
by Walter Reade at that time.

And I said, "no."

He said, "you've gotta
go and see it",

"Because it does something

That I've never had happen
to me before in a movie."

He said, "it unhinged my jaw."

The movie starts off...

There's this couple
that are going to a graveyard...

They're coming for you!

Look! There comes
one of them now.

Shaye: And all of a sudden,
this big guy

Turns around
and walks over to 'em,

And this was
in the first minute and a half

Or two minutes of the movie,

And the guy looks at him
and takes a big chunk of...

(Laughing) He bites...
Bites his shoulder.

Holy smokes!

What am I gonna see next?

(Thunder booms)

Hoberman:
It's barely noticed.

It develops
a kind of a cult,

A kind of
a critical following.

There's a review
that runs in the Voice

That talks
about how strong it is.

There's a cineprobe
at the Museum of Modern Art

Where it's...
It's really taken seriously.

Elliott Stein's review of it
in Sight And Sound...

Uh, talking about it being
just sort of... very special.

Romero: We shot
black and white.

Most televisions
were black and white.

Color TV was,
you know, just not even...

Just sort of
beginning to happen.

Get out of the truck!

We would never have been able
to get the textures in color.

Man: Let's get out of here!

The final scenes in the film,

Which are all hand-held...

I was trying to make them...

I'm trying intentionally
to make that look

Like the news
that we were seeing, you know,

From watts, from 'Nam.

Hoberman: It's shot
like Cinema Verite...

As though it were
the evening news.

But it never wavers
from its desire

To terrorize the audience

And offer no hope
at the end.

(Shouting)

Living in a country

Where there is intense
polarization and violence,

Then Night
Of The Living Dead

Could only
be understood, you know,

As a movie
about the Vietnam war.

I mean, people
got that right away.

Finally, in '71,

A theater in...
Washington, D.C.,

Begins running it
at midnight.

Night Of The Living Dead

Got a broad release
at midnight,

Which was a fairly new
kind of concept.

Look!

You're coming
from a meeting

Regarding
the explosion...

Hoberman: Then that's
when it began speaking

To this youth audience.

Do you feel
there is a connection between this and...

My title was "film buyer"
for Walter Reade.

We played
Night Of The Living Dead.

Woman:
Get out! Get out!

It was a different
kind of age,

Because all the movie theaters
had single screens.

We had 11 screens
in Manhattan.

That's where it
really found its audience

And really took off.

Night Of The Living Dead

Ended up playing
in thousands of theaters.

Some attorney at...
At Walter Reade

Wasn't paying attention,

And they didn't
renew the copyright,

So it went
into public domain.

One of the great
midnight shows of all time...

Anybody that had a print
could go out and play it.

Romero: The one thing it has
is an absolute goal,

And we were all
pushing toward that goal.

It doesn't lie to you.

Even if it's fucked up,

The screen direction
is fucked up,

No matter what...

Everybody's
pushing that fucking gun

Right into your face.

There's no lies.

There's no deception.
Here it is.

This is what it's meant to be,
and we're gonna give it to you

The best fucking way
we possibly can. Whap!

Okay, he's dead.
Let's go get him.

That's another one
for the fire.

The incredible
involvement and commitment

That had risen in the late '60s

Began to weaken

As we felt increasingly
politically impotent.

Man: Are you listening, Nixon?

(Crowd singing
"give peace a chance")

People took
their energies for change

And internalized them.

Saw the midnight hour

As a time to congregate.

The Orson Welles
opened in April of 1969.

In the greater Boston community,

There were
about 350,000 college students

Within a 12-mile radius
of that theater.

It had a certain mystique
about it.

I saw that you
could create a world

Around the concept
of midnight...

That at 12:00,

A different world
of movie going took place.

Man: Innocently they dance.

Innocent
of a new and deadly menace

Lurking behind closed doors...

Marijuana!

The burning weed
with its roots in hell.

Jackson: I saw
that this strange,

Anti-drug propaganda movie

That had been made
in the 1930s

Called Reefer Madness

Had been picked
for some midnight shows,

Was running in New York.

If you want a good smoke,
try one of these.

Debauchery!
Violence!

Murder!

Suicide!

(Screams)

Jackson:
So I booked the film,

Mixed in
some other wonderful things

Like Bambi Meets Godzilla.

(Exhales)

Midnight, there were lines
around the block.

(Playing piano)

Faster.

(Plays faster)

Faster!

Jackson:
For the first week or two,

It was like
a 400-seat opium den.

Play it faster!

Jackson: Things were going
and going and going gangbusters.

Reefer Madness
had become a phenomenon.

What we did
was turn midnight shows

Into, effectively,
a party for in...

Ironic insomniacs.

What do you want?

Bring me some reefers!

New line based its company
on the college market.

Reefer Madness
was more than a college market.

It was kind of a youth market.

Shaye: The first film that
we distributed theatrically

Was Reefer Madness.

Midnight movies
had just started.

I was quite envious of El Topo,

Which was playing at midnight

At Ben Barenholtz's
Elgin cinema.

I was looking for something

That could at least,
take its place

In the midnight
screening circuit.

Something comes

In a little
fiberboard container,

And it's
a 16-millimeter film

From some guy in Baltimore
who I had never heard of.

I grew up going to the movies
at the drive-in

To see exploitation movies,

Blaxploitation movies.

I always ran away to New York
and saw movies.

They had movies
you couldn't see in Baltimore.

I saw everything.

I'd go to Times Square,
I'd go to all the art theaters.

I'd go
to the underground theaters.

I went to the premiere
of The Chelsea Girls.

As a teenager,

I did see those movies.

I realized that you could
make movies with your friends,

Basically.

That was the great thing
about underground movies.

Man: Come on, come on.

You'll see two actual queers
kissing each other like lovers,

On the lips.

These are actual queers.

Bystanders: Eww! Yuck! Gross!

Filthy!

Waters: Multiple Maniacs
was a movie

Made for hippies
to offend them

And make them laugh

At being
politically incorrect, in a way.

At the height
of peace and love,

You didn't make a movie

About a drag queen
that butchered people,

Ate their guts,
and, uh...

Had cannibalism,
got raped by a lobster.

(Shrieking)

I sent it to new line.

This was, like, '71.

I've looked at this thing,
and it was just dreadful.

It was the worst.

(Moaning)

And I sent a letter
back to this guy, John Waters.

"Thank you very much,

"But this film really
doesn't work for us on college campuses,

"But if you would send me
anything else that you do in the future,

Please do so."

It played first in Baltimore,

Then Provincetown...
Our usual circuit.

Then San Francisco,
at the palace theater.

And then, it played in L.A.

Then I went for that premiere,

And I went to the Manson trial
the next day.

Man: How you doin',
Charlie?

Good, how are you
this morning?

Waters: That's when it
all fell apart.

That's when
everybody went crazy.

That's when hippies
all turned into drug addicts.

Believe me, it...

It was a very insane period.

I asked my father,

"Well, can I have
twice as much?"

Multiple Maniacs cost $5,000.

I paid him back,
and I have $10,000.

He went, "oh, God."
He said, "yes."

What is it, honey?

The Midnight, mama.

You made the cover
of the Midnight.

Oh!
The filthiest person alive.

Waters: And I knew

It was gonna be about
the filthiest people alive.

We'll see who's
the filthiest person alive.

We'll just see!

Exploitation movies were over,

Sexploitation movies
were over,

And porn was legal,
and Deep Throat happened

And became radical chic.

And that was the same year
that Pink Flamingos came out.

I made the movie
on my friend Bob Adams' farm

In Phoenix, Maryland.

We got the trailer
for a hundred bucks

In a junkyard.

We started filming
maybe one day a week,

And I had to get
some more money.

And we're...
And it wouldn't turn out,

'Cause I didn't know
what I was doing.

Steve, come here.

Can this thing
come up higher?

Waters:
It was freezing up there,

And I'd come back...

The whole film
would be black.

Or big scratches in it
where it would freeze...

The camera...
So it was really hard.

People had to memorize
three pages of dialogue

To do in one shot.

If they messed one word up,

We'd have to
do the whole take over.

I can't look
in that lens.

Start... start
the whole thing over.

So, we rehearsed endlessly

For weeks and weeks and weeks.

I had no work print.

I didn't know there was
such a thing as a work print.

I did tape splices,
you know, like this.

And every time
I looked at the cut,

I had to feed it through
the projector to watch it.

The music was recorded
right onto the projector

And recorded right on there.

You can hear the...
(Makes garbled noise)

The first screening I had

Was probably
for the Baltimore film festival,

And it was
completely sold out.

We all went...
Divine, everybody was there.

People went crazy.

I knew then
that it worked.

I sent it to new line.

I had talked...
Sent them Multiple Maniacs,

And they said, "come back
with something more polished."

Well, believe it or not,
this was more polished.

(Sighs)

Divine: Oh, my God almighty!

Someone has sent me
a bowel movement!

A larger fiber container
with a 16-millimeter reel

Arrives at my office,

And it says,
"dear Mr. shaye,

"I hope you enjoy this.

This is my latest work."

Signed, John Waters."

So, I slap it
on our projector,

Sit down in one
of our campus director's chairs,

And, uh, start watching
this movie.

But I've never done this...

I actually
stopped the projector

And ran it back

To be sure that I saw
what I thought I saw.

Waters: Uh, cut.

One shot that we can't have
anybody seeing, all right?

She has a penis!

A big penis!
Not a small one.

So, I couldn't
believe I had seen that.

I finished the film
and I said,

"I may have"...
Or "we may have,"

Because new line
did have, I think,

A couple of stockholders
at that point...

"A film that will qualify

For the tabernacle
of underground cinema."

Waters: And Bob shaye called
and said, "come to New York."

We went there,
signed the contract.

New line cinema's
gonna distribute it

Around the country and...
So, that's a little different,

'Cause I usually
travel it around, distributing it myself,

And we're gonna see
how it works this way...

With a distributor.

I... I hope it
works a lot better.

Then it didn't come out.
It didn't come out for a year.

They didn't know
what to do with it.

I'm all dressed up
and ready to fall in love.

Waters: There was
one executive at new line,

And he decided to open it

In a gay porn theater
in Boston.

I have nothing against
gay porn theaters.

But this ain't... Pink Flamingos
ain't the movie for it.

This movie was made to be
a midnight movie definitely.

I knew about
midnight movies.

I knew about
the business of it.

I had seen what...
I read Variety every week.

The Elgin was, then,
the radio city music hall

Of midnight movies.

And that slot
was the most important slot

In exhibition in the country

If you wanted to have
an underground movie.

Shaye said to me,
"there's this film

I want you to take a look at."

Zlatkin: Ben had said,
"if you get a chance,

Take a look at it."

I didn't know
who John Waters was.

I don't even think
it had the name

On... on... on the can.

I'm putting on this film cold.

"Hey, this is something
I haven't seen before.

It definitely,
has a good feel to it."

So then, I'm wondering,

You know, what's the payoff?

And then,
as soon as I see divine

Eat the poodle shit,

I go, "there's the money shot.
There's the hook."

I said, "listen, I don't know
what I just saw",

But it's
the next midnight show."

So, new line got it...

So they would...
When El Topo closed,

One night,
to see what would happen.

There was no ad...
Except The Village Voice,

Only said Pink Flamingo...

They didn't even
get the title right.

Bob shaye said, "get
your friends to go," right?

So, we got
enough people there.

I would say there was
maybe 100 people there.

So, they...
The Elgin said, "okay."

You can do it one more time."

We went back... Bob went, too...
I remember walking in there,

And the line was
all the way around the block

Of the Elgin,
all the way around...

Which was, I guess,

The happiest night
of my show business career.

A little sweet talkin'
goes a long, long way.

Barenholtz: Pink Flamingos
started a whole other trend,

An entirely
different audience.

I think it's
the future of city living.

Its initial audience
was mainly gay,

But then the audience widened.

The midnight show
was word of mouth,

And people were only gonna
come to see a midnight show

When you say to them,
"hey, you gotta see this."

Man: How'd you happen
to hear about it?

From some friends
who saw it

And thought it
was absolutely marvelous.

Rex Reed told us

That it's,
uh, fabulous.

Man: Why would you come out
at midnight to see it?

Why go home at midnight?

What are you
going to see there?

The audience was a great...

Great part of the success
of Pink Flamingos.

Oh, it's marvelous.
Absolutely...

Most disgusting thing
I've ever seen in my whole life.

Not to be believed.

Absolutely outrageous.

People coming out,
like, sort of being shocked.

It's a little gross,
but I liked it.

Not knowing
what they had seen.

Totally appalled
by the whole thing.

Probably you'll
all be very insulted.

Oh, it was, uh, really
the grossest film I've seen.

Hundreds of people who had
just had the greatest time

And loved
the whole experience

And were laughing
hysterically.

It was divine.
Fabulous.

I think John Waters

Has got his finger
on the pulse of America.

I think he's got his thumb
securely up America's ass.

Shaye: They were
completely crazed,

And they would stand up
in the theater

As if it were
a religious temple,

And would sway
back and forth.

They were just...
Complete cinematic bliss,

And I felt like
I had really...

I had accomplished my goal

Of delivering manna
to the new chosen people.

Waters: If anyone vomits
during one of my films,

It's like a standing ovation.

People vomit frequently,
watching this movie.

It was good
for word of mouth.

Eggs! Eggs!

Hoberman: I think
I was more shocked

By Edie the egg lady.

You know, like,
this adult woman

Acting like an infant
in the crib

Was really,
you know, like...

That was very creepy.

I have grade-a
extra large.

I have grade-a large.

I have medium.
I have small.

I have brown
and I have white.

Why, look...
Just look at these.

So fresh you could
hardly believe it.

Midnight movies
were about marijuana.

Everyone smoked marijuana.

In the theaters,
they smoked marijuana.

I mean, it was...
It was a very different time.

At the Elgin,
pot was like apple pie.

Everybody was high.

100% of the audience was high

Every night
for Pink Flamingos.

I was high when I wrote it;
I was not high when I made it.

Zlatkin:
By Pink Flamingos,

People had gone
from acid to speed,

And then...
(Sniffs) Poppers.

Hoberman: All the classic
midnight movies

Have some shock element...

Something that you
could never, ever see

In mainstream movies.

Had to go further
than Deep Throat,

Or anyway,
to have something in it

That... something they hadn't
made up a law against yet...

Which was coprophrasia,
which was eating shit.

(Dog barks twice)

(Barks again)

I knew the end,
what it was going to be,

And I had asked divine,
"will you eat dog shit?"

And he said, "yes."

I saved it for the very last
shot of the movie.

They went in and got
a hair dye bottle

And filled it and gave
the dog an enema with it.

And finally,
this little shit came out,

And divine said,
"that little one?"

And I said,
"go... yes! Do it!"

Have to be real fast.

Oh, I will.

Facing this way.

And he did it.
He ate it.

He gagged.
I said, "cut."

People would freak... what?!

It was like a bomb
went off in the theater.

That was the...

The imperial margarine
crown of filth,

I always say...
With a big "F."

It's still firmly in place.
It's in the closet.

I don't have to
ever take it out again.

I still made
the most hideous scene.

It basically
inverted everything.

It said that the people

Who were the absolute,
beyond-the-pale rejects

Were the people
that were being stood up for

And brandished
and celebrated.

I mean, how political
can you get?

Do you solemnly swear
to tell the truth,

The whole truth,
and nothing but the truth?

Sure, mom.
I wouldn't shit ya.

Waters: The Manson trial did
have something to do with it,

Because they
frightened the world.

Divine said things in it that
were Manson-esque certainly...

The kind of frightening,
hippie, violent things.

Kill everyone now.

Condone first-degree murder.

Advocate cannibalism.

Eat shit.

But played for laughs.

Played for, totally,
the ridiculousness of it.

Trial as theater.

You stand convicted
of asshole-ism.

The proper punishment
will now take place.

Waters: We just made movies
where we'd kill people.

They met people... where they'd
kill people in real life.

And in those days,
real life and the movies

Were whoo...
(Garbled sounds)

You never quite knew
which was which.

Pardon?

Uh, it's a...
It's all a play, isn't it?

Hoberman:
Pink Flamingos

Brings together a number
of different subcultures.

There's youth culture,
there's gay subculture...

In some respects,
a new sensibility.

Let mama receive you
like communion.

Hoberman:
Pink Flamingos was perceived as pretty shocking.

It shocked Andy Warhol.

Oh, do my balls, mama!

That's it! Ahh!

It was discovered
totally through word of mouth

From that 100 people,

And it went on
to be a giant midnight hit.

And it went to,
then, two nights a week,

Three nights a week.

It was a hit
as a midnight show for a while,

But don't forget...
It was still in 16-millimeter.

We ultimately did blow it up
to 35-millimeter...

But we stayed in New York,
and then we waited...

It still never got reviewed.

Fran Lebowitz gave it
a great review in Interview,

And then
New York magazine said,

"Beyond pornography,"
or something.

So we had two quotes...
Two great quotes to use.

The New York Times,
to this day,

Has never, ever reviewed
Pink Flamingos.

It's still not fit to print.

The entire ad campaign

Was almost all
negative reviews.

The Variety review
was something like,

"The sickest film ever made."

"A septic tank explosion

That must be seen
to be believed."

What more do you ever want
than that?

Pink Flamingos
leaves the Elgin

And goes to other theaters

Where it runs for...
For quite some time.

Pink Flamingos

Was the first real
commercial success,

Uh, in underground movies
since Warhol...

Well, you said that
all wrong, somehow.

And then it opened
in Washington next,

I believe,
with David Levy.

We did the midnight business
one city at a time.

I would come out first,
dressed like a hippie pimp,

And then I'd say, "the most
beautiful woman in the world,"

Divine would come out,
looking like divine.

You were in a secret club.

At midnight,
when you're stoned

And you're with your friends,

It is a lovely experience.

Finally, it opened in L.A.,

Which was our biggest market
outside of New York.

It eventually
played for ten years

At the Nuart,
at least one night a week.

And, uh,
talk about legs, right?

I mean,
that's a good run, right?

Pink Flamingos went on
to become this monster hit

Around the country.

Pink Flamingos was
brought back several times

Throughout the '70s.

Pink Flamingos
really turned out to be

The next El Topo.

As crude and as silly,
and as brash and as lurid,

And as everything
that you want it to be...

Whatever you think art is,

There is something
that's very valid

And very genuine
about it.

I will be queen one day,

And my coronation
will be celebrated

All over the world.

Do not forget...

I am divine!

Waters: Maybe that
was my mission...

To make bad taste
a little bit funnier

And a little bit
more accepted,

And to use it

As something that I
look up to, never down on.

And that's why, I think,
even if you hate my movies,

You can say
they're not mean-spirited.

(Laughing)

Barenholtz: The next one
after Pink Flamingos

Was The Harder They Come.

That was another film

That was not
launched at midnight.

Midnight movies
were very connected

To the existence
of the counterculture.

This whole way
of going to the movies

Is understood as being,
in some form, oppositional.

That anti-establishment,
anti-Nixon,

Anti-white house,
anti-Vietnam sensibility...

The midnight show
became a playground

For the ironic.

I started looking
for other films,

Maybe even
a political statement,

And early 1973,

Serendipity sprinkled
its fairy dust on me.

I was sharing a house
with a couple of guys,

One of whom was
a professional photographer.

And Frank had just
been to Jamaica,

And he had become friendly
with some people in Kingston,

One of whom
came to visit us.

And he said, "I have
a client in Kingston."

"He made a movie,

"Which is
the first Jamaican movie...

"The first movie
made in Jamaica

By Jamaicans
and about Jamaica"...

This movie called
The Harder They Come,

With a guy
named Jimmy cliff,

Whom none of us
in north America

Had ever heard of,

Nor had we
heard of the filmmaker,

This Jamaican man
named Perry Henzell.

You make a film
for an audience.

Not for everybody,
for a particular audience.

There is no impact
you will ever have

Greater than the impact
of showing a society

Itself on the screen
for the first time.

We opened
in a 1,500 seat theater,

Gigantic theater.

40,000 people
surround the theater.

♪ You can get it
if you really want... ♪

Henzell:
When there were three people sitting in every seat,

We rolled the film.

(Horn honking)

(Music continues)

They started screaming.

Never stopped screaming
for the rest of the film.

And I wasn't sure that it would
go beyond Jamaica.

To get it distributed
in the states was not easy.

Jackson: The guy who
was distributing the movie

Opened it in January

In 15 or 18 theaters
in New York City...

And died
by Sunday night.

And he said,
"my client is heartbroken

"Because he thinks

"That there should be
more of an audience

"For his movie.

Maybe you can help him."

And a print then arrives
the next week...

A 35-millimeter print

Of this movie called
The Harder They Come.

(Gun fires)

It was shot
in a grainy 16-millimeter,

Much of it handheld.

It had almost
a documentary reality to it.

(People shouting)

You run!

You run, but I'll find you!

I'll find you,
you hear?

And then,
we get to the music,

And the music
on this soundtrack

Is like nothing
I had ever heard.

♪ Well, they think that they
have got the battle won ♪

♪ Tell them that they
don't know what they've done ♪

I'm sitting there
in a screening room

At 10:00
on a Monday morning, you know,

And I can't sit still!

This... ha!

I want to dance
in my seat.

♪ And then
The Harder They Come ♪

♪ The harder they fall ♪

♪ One and all ♪

I called Perry Henzell
in Jamaica,

And he said, "well,
what do you think?"

Can you do anything
with my movie?"

And I said,
"your movie is great."

♪ One more time,
one more time ♪

Henzell: Barry, uh, Jackson

Was totally
on my wavelength.

We were totally...

We understood exactly
what had to happen.

Jackson: I'm not
gonna play the movie

And use the ad campaign

That launched the film
in New York at that time

That looked like
"super fly goes to Jamaica."

Man: From the top
of the hit parade...

♪ And then
The Harder They Come ♪

To the top
of the most wanted list...

He made them all.

He crawled
out of shantytown,

Fighting his way to the top.

With this dream

Came the raw world of crime...

Anger...

And love.

♪ The Harder They Come... ♪

Tells it like it is...

When the dream
becomes reality,

And life
becomes hell on earth.

But I knew
it wasn't, you know,

It wasn't Son Of Shaft.

I knew it was made
for a college audience.

Hey, good evening,
everybody.

Welcome to
"the big 't' show."

Back in my home where
the sweet soul sisters roam...

Jackson:
When I opened it

In the 400-seat auditorium
of the triplex,

Word of mouth started
to spread like wildfire.

People were coming
out of the theater

Humming the two main songs
from the movie...

"The Harder They Come"

And "you can get it
if you really want."

Cliff: ♪ you can get it
if you really want ♪

♪ You can get it
if you really want ♪

♪ But you must try ♪

♪ Try and try ♪

Henzell: There was
a buzz on the street,

And, I mean,
you can tell

When an audience
walks out of a theater

Whether it has enjoyed itself...
Of course.

Yeah, it was great.
It was really great.

That audience
saved my life.

It was a very
infectious score,

And it also
was something new.

And it's
an outlaw story

And a drug story.

Then it's set
in, you know,

Sort of
an exotic location.

There's lots of...
Lots of attractions.

The whole theme
of Harder They Come

Is, "can the little man
get through?"

The promise of the city

For somebody like that

Is an illusion,

And their illusion
is so strong

That they'd rather die
than give up the dream.

(Shouts)

(Machine guns fire)

This was a film which was...
So much of its moment

Spoke to
the political concerns,

The racial-political concerns,

The class-political
concerns

That were so much
a part of everybody's focus

And consciousness
in those days.

The Harder They Come

Was extremely political
in its impact and importance.

Part of what
people were responding to

Are these feelings
of frustration and impotence.

Don't fuck with me.
(Man screams)

Jackson: We opened
in April 1973.

In the first few months,

75,000 people
had gone to see The Harder They Come.

After six months,

We had to take
Harder They Come

Off the regular
screening schedule

And just be showing it
as a midnight show.

Going to a midnight show
of The Harder They Come

At the Orson Welles

Became the thing to do.

(Singing, shouting)

And we were running
to full houses...

400 seats after 400 seats
after 400 seats.

It wouldn't stop.

Week after week
after week after week.

And the picture
ended up playing

For over six years.

(Singing, shouting)

Henzell: They were looking
for an individual voice.

I think they were looking

For a glimpse
into another culture...

A place
where a white American

Could connect with
a black tropical character

And not feel a distance.

Hey, come back here, Mon!

And also, I think
they love the music.

Everywhere you would go
in Boston...

You'd go into a restaurant

Or you'd go into a shop
or whatever...

And the soundtrack
from The Harder They Come

Would come on
the loudspeaker system.

This was the music
that moved the community

In those days.

♪ And they say
nothing foolish-like ♪

♪ There's not time for this ♪

♪ Well, dem days it
is no wonder ♪

Hoberman: Reggae became
popular or well-known in the United States,

Certainly in the aftermath of
The Harder They Come.

Henzell:
After the picture opened

At the Orson Welles,

When Bob came to town
with the wailers

To do his first gig
outside of Jamaica,

They packed the concert.

It added
a whole new dimension,

Both to the film,

And it was a launching pad
for the wailers.

And from then on,
worldwide,

There was this relationship

Between the film,
which always went first,

And the concert audience

Which built on the film.

The Harder They Come
becomes the midnight movie

At the... at the Elgin.

Zlatkin: When the Elgin
went out of business

March of 1977,

The Harder They Come
was still playing there.

Henzell: And then it went
into San Francisco,

And L.A.,
and all the college towns.

It was, like, the biggest thing
on the college campuses

In the mid-'70s,

And, uh, it
just spread and spread.

It's incredible...

How... how much goodwill

I have, um, accumulated
out of that film.

All over the world.

I don't know what makes people
so friendly to that film,

And to me, who made it,
but it's there, believe me,

And it's
really changed my life.

Jackson: The right film,
the right politics,

The right music
at the right time

With the right
cultural consciousness...

It was like,
as they say,

Catching lightning
in a jar.

Waters: There were so few
real midnight hits.

I mean, if you were a hit,
you played ten years.

It was El Topo,
Pink Flamingos,

The Harder They Come,

And Rocky Horror,
the biggest of all.

What...
You've never been

To The Rocky Horror
Picture Show?

Come on, it's been
around for ten years now,

And it's still
packing them in.

Woman: You've seen
all kinds of movies.

But you've never seen anything

Like The Rocky Horror
Picture Show.

My name's Richard O'Brien.

I wrote
The Rocky Horror Show.

It's astounding.

Time is fleeting.

Madness takes its toll.

O'Brien: 1972...
I was very despondent.

I was at home,
out of work,

And so I think
I'll go back to New Zealand.

And then somebody said,

"Would you come
and do the Christmas show

"Out at EMI studios...

To the staff
of EMI studios?"

And I finished up,
and I was a success.

♪ I remember ♪

♪ Doing the time warp... ♪

It occurred to me
that, perhaps,

The idea of a horror musical
wasn't too extreme.

A "B" movie...
Horror and Sci-Fi,

All blended together.

♪ Let's do
the time warp again... ♪

O'Brien: Then I mentioned
to Jim Sharman, the director,

That I was playing around
with this little project

At the royal court theater,

And that was really
how it all started.

And within six months,
it was up and running.

A lot of it
grew in rehearsal.

We could seat...
For Rocky,

We could seat
62 people a night.

On our opening night,

There was thunder
and lightning.

The rain was pouring down,

And I had a skylight
above the audience.

We went to black
to start the show,

And the lightning crashed.

And there,
lit by lightning,

Sitting in the middle
of the audience

Was Vincent price,
and I go,

"Ooh, that's good.

That's... that's
a good omen."

♪ Into my life ♪

They got to, "over at
the Frankenstein place",

There's a light."

Both: ♪ there's a light ♪

♪ Over at
the Frankenstein place ♪

And the audience
roared with laughter.

The word of mouth
was fantastic.

It was
a happy period in '73.

We made an album.

It was coming
out of glam rock,

And heading
towards the punk era.

And Rocky
was right on that cusp.

We moved
from the theater upstairs,

Which is... up to Sloane Square,
end of the Kings Road,

To a... a little old
biograph kind of cinema

That, uh,
seated 300 people.

We stayed there
for about three months,

And then we went
further down the kings road

To a much bigger cinema,

Which seated 500 people.

They were going to a cinema

To see a show
about "B" movies.

Britt Ekland
had seen the show

And recommended it
to Lou Adler.

Adler: Britt Ekland
called me up and she said,

"I saw a play that I
think you ought to see.

"It's, uh,
a huge hit in London,

And it might be something
that you'd be interested in."

I had opened a club
called the Roxy

On the sunset strip,

And I was looking
for something,

But had no idea
that it would be a play,

Or theatrical.

But once I saw Rocky Horror...

This would be a great thing
for the Roxy.

This was the first
rock 'n' roll musical.

♪ Whatever happened
to Saturday night ♪

♪ When you dressed up sharp
and you felt all right ♪

♪ It don't seem the same
since cosmic light ♪

♪ Came into my life,
I thought I was divine ♪

Adler: It was just
the perfect setting...

400, 500-seater.

The sound was fantastic.

The microphones worked.

Adler: It was one of the great

Rock 'n' roll
opening night crowds...

You know, the Jaggers,
Bianca, Lennon.

The buzz started
after the opening night.

It was really something.

I loved it.
(Laughs)

And I used to say,

"When you're acting,
it's just 'b' movie acting,

"And when you're singing,

It's your rock 'n' roll
dreams come true."

The sexuality of Frank
was stunning.

Seeing this man
in ripped fishnets walk past them.

This is what I am,
and it's fucking in...

You know,
it's empowering.

♪ I'm just
a sweet transvestite ♪

♪ From transsexual,
Transylvania ♪

♪ Ha ha ♪

♪ Hit it ♪

♪ I'm just
a sweet transvestite ♪

Chorus: ♪ sweet
transvestite ♪

♪ From transsexual,
Transylvania ♪

♪ Ha ha ♪

O'Brien: Tim was
an instant success,

And the show
was an instant success in Los Angeles.

He did it for a year,

And then, we took him
back to England to do the movie.

Early on, I thought
of the movie possibilities.

Fox was the first place
that I went to.

We made a pretty quick deal.

We were given
$1.25 million.

Jim Sharman and I
took ourselves off to a hotel,

And sat down
and wrote the screenplay.

Take two.

Man: Playback!

Rock: It's shot
in the winter of '74.

It was bray studios,

Where they'd shot a lot
of the famous hammer films.

O'Brien: The house next door
was perfect.

It's been used
again and again in movies.

In fact, the people
that originally created it

And the actors
had a lot to do with

Creating the original Rock,
and we've kept...

A sort of basic core
of original people,

Through the various
sort of transformations

As the sort of monster
has grown.

The fact that they
had been together for so long

And all had... knew
the routines intimately

Helped enormously.

We just had
to put the camera there,

Get the lighting right,

And put the actors
in the right position,

And off we went.

We didn't require many takes.

Adler: They were
definitely a group,

And not only a...
Artistic group,

But they were all friends.

They all hung out together,
including the Transylvanians.

O'Brien: We were very lucky
with getting Susan Sarandon

And Barry Bostwick
as the two Americans...

That was the only stipulation
from 20th century fox.

Adler: Meat loaf had played
in the L.A. production.

Curry: I play
Frank N. Furter...

Who is a kind of, uh...

New variation
on the "mad scientist"

Of horror films
that we all know and love.

It's a sort of 1970s version
of The Wizard Of Oz.

Adler: Alan Ladd, Jr.

And about
six or seven executives

From fox U.S.

Watched the shooting
of the swimming pool scene.

I don't know what they
thought they were getting,

Or if they hadn't been
involved enough up to that point

To either have read the script

Or asked about the film,

But some of them
were stunned.

O'Brien: I'm gonna
have to be out of there...

It's Christmas coming up,

And the weather's dreadful.

And we managed
to shoot that in eight weeks.

Then we opened the play
in New York

In the following
January, February.

It wasn't a happy experience
in New York.

Adler: I went
to a very well-known theater

Called the Belasco,

And turned it
upside-down.

O'Brien:
Lou did make a mistake.

We couldn't have a catwalk
through the audience.

It took on
more of a society feel

Than a rock 'n' roll feel.

It was a mistake.

But in the end,
the downfall was the critics.

They murdered us.

We failed on Broadway.

What could be
possibly worse?

O'Brien: I remember
standing with Tim one day,

And the show
had finished in New York.

And I said, "well,
that's it, Tim, isn't it?"

It's... it's kind of
all over now, isn't it?"

He said, "yeah, I've been..."

It's been a... three years,
great ride, though, hasn't it?"

And I said, "yeah,
you're actually right."

"It has been a great ride
for three years.

It's been fun."

And then
I went back to England...

Adler: I was into the film.

I was into promoting the film.

I thought we had a good film.

And the Broadway thing
was out of my head.

I was into the film.

The Rocky Horror
Picture Show

Is something
that fox tried to open

As a regular
theatrical release.

It opened in L.A.
and flopped.

Talk about dejection...

At that point,
I was dejected.

Willenson: Bill Quigley

Was the film buyer
for Walter Reade,

And I said, "I bet fox
will let this out"

As a midnight movie
at this point."

A young publicist at fox
named Tim Deegan

Called me up,
and we spoke,

And he said he had
this film called Rocky Horror,

And that he thought
it was appropriate

For us to play
at the Waverly.

We opened in April,

And we put it
in at midnight...

Rock: Complete pandemonium.

I've never seen
anything like it,

Before or since.

Based on that reaction,

We went after other
midnight situations.

Deegan was able to
pick up other cities,

And there was
an underground buzz.

We knew we had an audience
that was coming back.

The first time I went to see
The Rocky Horror Picture Show,

I was 26 years old,

And when those lips
came on the screen,

I knew that this movie...
I was gonna love it.

Woman:
♪ Michael Rennie was ill ♪

♪ The day the Earth
stood still ♪

♪ But he told us ♪

♪ Where we stand... ♪

Piro: I started to go to see it
every Friday and Saturday.

We formed a kind of core
little fan club.

Once you see a movie
twice, or three times,

You begin to notice things

And you begin
to sing along.

We spontaneously
created audience participation.

When they kick the tire
in the beginning,

In the rain,

They'd yell, "kick it."
Crowd: Kick it!

When Janet was walking
around in the rain

With a newspaper
on her head...

Crowd: Buy an umbrella,
you cheap bitch!

And then the props began.

During "there's a light,"

People would start lighting
their cigarette lighters,

Or they'd bring flashlights,

Or they'd bring candles.

And so, now, you not only
were speaking to the screen,

And now participating
with the screen

As far
as props were concerned,

But people then started
dressing as the characters.

Riff: ♪ I remember ♪

♪ Doing the time warp ♪

(Crowd cheering, yelling)

♪ Drinking those moments ♪

♪ When the blackness
would hit me ♪

Riff and magenta: ♪ and the void
would be calling ♪

Chorus: ♪ let's
do the time warp again ♪

We were talking
to the screen,

We were acting out the movie,

And we had the props.

We were
taking over the movie

And making it
part of our lives.

People would say,

"Have you seen what
they're doing to your movie

In the states?"

And I said, "mmm..."

Opened and closed,
as far as I know."

"Um, nope.

It's, um, startin' to do
some midnight business."

Man: How many times
have you seen it?

About 56.
Around 100.

This is my 301st time.

Man: What does it
do for you?

It's... it just gets me
excited every week.

It's just something I...

I've just gotta go
every week and do.

It's gotten me more dates
than I ever got in high school.

Five days a week
I'm a nurse,

And two nights a week,
I'm a star,

And it levels out my life.

I stopped counting
after 2,000.

But I would say
I'm probably...

Seen it
close to 3,000 times.

Seeing an audience performing

And dressing up
as the characters...

The first time I saw that

Was at a convention
they held in long island.

To be in New York

With 2,000 people
celebrating your film

Was a very good feeling,

Especially since
we'd had such a hard time

With the show in New York.

Piro: Not only were
these fans

Participating in the film,

They were
taking the movie away...

Taking it away
from Richard O'Brien

And all the people
who produced it

And all the people
who made it,

And the studio.

That really
was the first time

The audience took over.

And not just an accessory...

They became
part of the show.

I didn't make
a midnight film.

Richard O'Brien
didn't, Jim Sharman...

We all made what we thought
was a mainstream movie.

The audience
made the midnight movie.

Throw open the switches

On the sonic oscillator!

Rocky was, strangely,

A bit like
Frankenstein's monster.

It kind of got
a life of its own,

Which was separate to us...

To anything that we wanted
to do with it, anyway...

Which was quite extraordinary,
when you think of it.

Some of the fans have said,

"Uh, Mr. O'Brien,
did you... d-d-did you...

"Did you keep the gaps

"Between the lines
of the players?

Is that so that we
could say our lines?"

And I go, "ooh."

I wished
I had been that clever."

The film was not
sufficiently theatrical,

So the audience
corrected that problem

By bringing back
the theatricality

That the film
somehow had diminished.

The kind
of extravagances...

Physical extravagances...
That I used on the stage

Were very theatrical ones,

And I've tried, in the film,
to make them...

F-filmic ones.

I mean... I mean, that
will do as a film gesture.

Then on the stage,
you want to maybe do that.

♪ I'm just
a sweet transvestite ♪

♪ From transsexual,
Transylvania ♪

♪ Ha ha ♪

Brad and Janet
really kind of represent

The young male and female
of the Eisenhower era.

Going from the '50s

Into this permissiveness
of the '70s...

♪ Touch-a, touch-a,
touch-a, touch me ♪

♪ I want to be dirty ♪

Hoberman: Rocky Horror
Picture Show

Has a lot to do with sex,

And that's
probably the reason

It has
the most elaborate cult.

Turned into
a kind of initiation...

People who were experiencing
the movie, really,

For the first time
are "virgins."

O'Brien: Rocky is
a rite of passage.

It is the journey
from childhood into adulthood,

The loss of innocence...

Simply because
it is the work of a...

Of a... of a 13-year-old,
an eternal 13-year-old.

Piro: It played down South.

It played up north.

Cities like Chicago
and San Francisco

Were big Rocky places.

When Rocky
was at a really high peak,

There were over 250 theaters
in the country

Playing the movie
Friday and Saturday at midnight.

There were casts
and fan clubs in every theater

Performing the film.

It was playing
all over the world.

To this day, you know,

There's somewhere...
At midnight,

Rocky Horror is playing.

Quigley: Rocky Horror
became such a phenomenon

That the profits
from Rocky Horror

Actually paid for
the distribution overhead

Of the studio each year.

It's extraordinary.

When this film
was first released,

It was a flop...

Until it was put into
midnight showings on weekends.

Now, the profit...

I'd be comfortable saying

$175 million,
you know.

♪ Give yourself over ♪

♪ To absolute pleasure ♪

O'Brien: I got asked
if there was a message,

And all I could say was,
"don't dream it... be it."

That's all I could say.

♪ Don't dream it ♪

♪ Be it ♪

Tim is the face,
if you like,

Of Rocky Horror,

But the true spirit
of Rocky Horror

Was always Richard O'Brien.

O'Brien: If we have made
the climate a little warmer

For people
who felt like outcasts

And... and... and included them
in to something,

And given them...
Even if it's only

A quasi-kind of family,

Uh, then I'm
quite happy about that.

♪ My, my, my ♪

♪ My, my, my, my, my ♪

♪ My, my, my, my ♪

♪ My, I'm a wild
and untamed thing ♪

♪ I'm a bee
with a deadly sting ♪

♪ You get a hit
and your mind goes ping ♪

♪ Your heart'll pump
and your blood will sing ♪

♪ So let the party
and the sounds rock on ♪

♪ We're gonna shake it
till the life has gone ♪

♪ Rose tint my world ♪

♪ Keep me safe
from my trouble and pain ♪

(Splat)

O'Brien:
Eraserhead in a cinema

Is a wonderful experience.

You feel as if
you're in a dream.

(Drill whirring)

Lynch: It's all an experiment

Based on the idea,

And one thing
leads to another,

And the thing evolves
before your eyes.

(Machine grinding)

It's okay.

Lynch: The idea
was Eraserhead.

Hoberman:
To compare it

To the other classic
midnight movies

As filmmaking...
It's really by itself.

It was definitely
inspired by Philadelphia.

I love industry.

I always loved it.

I like smokestack industry.

I like the sound of it,

The look of it,
the smell of it.

Henry lives in this
kind of, uh, environment.

It's just got
a particular feel

That, I guess,
grew out of some...

Some wind
in Philadelphia.

Eraserhead doesn't seem
like it was made in...

In Beverly hills,
California, but it was,

And it was made
in the stables

Of this 55-room mansion.

I was a student.

I was just given this place.

Different rooms...
A food room,

Editing room,
camera room...

And all this equipment.

I had that
for almost four years.

So, it was like
having your own studio.

We only worked at night.

There were five people
from the very beginning.

There were many, many years
no work was being done

Because I
didn't have the money.

There's a shot of Henry...

He takes the doorknob,
he turns it.

Then it cuts
to the inside of Henry's room,

And that's
a year and a half later.

I was mixing with Alan Splet.

The Cannes people...
They got in the room,

And they said
they wanted me

To submit this film
to the festival.

And I never heard one word
from the Cannes film festival.

I submitted it
to the New York film festival

And got rejected.

I got kind of depressed,

And there was a film festival
in Los Angeles at that time

Called the "Los Angeles
film exposition"... film-ex.

And this guy said,

"Just because
it was rejected there

"Doesn't mean
we're gonna reject it,

"And we're our own people,

And we'll take a look
at your film,"

And, you know,
"get out of here."

It got into that festival,

And it ran at midnight.

I wasn't in the audience.

I hate bein'
in an audience.

I was pacing out back.

But I could feel
that the film was too long.

And I cut 20 minutes
out of that film that night.

And I cut
the composite print,

Which you're
not supposed to do.

Barenholtz: One day
I got a call from John Quinn,

Who saw Eraserhead
at film-ex in 1977,

And he said,

"This is something that
might be right up your alley."

The fellow that was
doing my sales,

Fred Baker and I
were looking at it,

And in the middle
of the screening,

I just turned to him
and I said, "I want you"

To get on the phone.
I want this film."

Lynch: Ben is called

"The grandfather
of midnight films."

Getting behind that film
at that time

Was one of the best things
that ever happened to me.

Barenholtz:
It was so totally tactile.

It was an artist that did it.

You can almost touch it...
You can feel him.

I didn't know
about the midnight circuit.

I didn't know
about Ben Barenholtz.

Barenholtz:
I just thought

It would certainly
fit into the pattern

Of launching a film
at midnight.

This was something
quite unusual and original,

In effect,
much more so than

El Topo
or Pink Flamingos.

Lynch: He said,
"I am not going to spend

"One nickel
on publicity.

"I guarantee you...
In two months,

There'll be lines
around the block."

Barenholtz: Rocky Horror
was still running,

And certainly,
Night Of The Living Dead.

Pink Flamingos
was still being shown

In various places.

And we opened it Friday
and Saturday at midnight

At cinema village.

Lynch: The first night,

There were 26 people
in the theater.

The second night,
Saturday,

There were 24 people.

And, um, it was...
It was so empty.

I said to David,

"Don't worry.
It's working.

"You're ten years
ahead of your time,

And this is gonna be
a very, very slow process."

One of the first movies
that I was assigned to review

For The Village Voice
when I was a freelancer

Was Eraserhead.

Hiya, Sonny.
What've you got there?

Hoberman: I recognized
that this guy

Was a really talented
and original filmmaker.

Barenholtz: I did get
some interviews set up.

The older people,
they didn't understand it.

They couldn't
relate to it.

People
couldn't even quite

Talk about
what they were seeing

And what was going on
in the plot always.

(Crying)

Hoberman: I mean, this
didn't seem to be, you know,

The kind of movie
that you would want to take drugs to see.

The one thing
I could never do

Is explain what...
People asked me,

"What"...
And I still can't...

"What is Eraserhead about?"

David came up with

"A dream of dark
and troubling things,"

And I said I liked
the sound of it.

Rosenbaum: There were never
a lot of people there.

There was a kind of
a vague togetherness,

But it wasn't
anything like

When you're all
watching a horror movie

And shrieking together.

It was people
feeling more alone,

And it's just that you
all knew you were alone with this experience.

And it was about a very
solitary character, too, after all.

(Static noise,
distant music)

Lynch:
Several people have said

If they had got a new boyfriend
or a new girlfriend,

They'd take them,
first off, to Eraserhead,

And depending
on their reaction,

They stay with them
or not.

(Static noise,
organ music playing)

Rosenbaum:
Some of the images

That are very important
in Eraserhead

Are not simply the ones

That you're seeing
on the screen,

But the ones
you're producing yourself

Because of the very
suggestive soundtrack.

(Strange,
reverberant noises)

Lynch: The sounds...

You've got a trillion
unending possibilities,

But only certain things
are gonna marry to the picture

And make that world bigger.

You start,
or you hear something,

And you know exactly
where that's gonna go.

That's gonna go there,
this is gonna go here, that leads to this.

And then you
experiment some more.

(Strange,
reverberant noises)

It's a lot like music,

And it's a little bit
like painting,

But it's based on the mood
the idea gives you.

Barenholtz:
Wherever it played,

We tried to discourage
pregnant women from seeing it,

Because it certainly deals

With almost every
pregnant woman's fear.

There's a baby.

It's at the hospital.
Mom!

And you're the father.

But that's impossible.

(Stammering)
It's only...

Mother, they're still
not sure it is a baby.

It's premature,
but there's a baby.

People would never
talk about the baby.

I haven't talked to any
about the baby.

(Machinery rumbling)
(Baby cries)

Lynch: It's
part of the idea.

(Loud thud)

Woman: I can't stand it!
I'm going home.

Lynch: It needed
to be a certain way...

What are you
talking about?

Woman: I can't even sleep!
I'm losing my mind.

Lynch: And you
can feel those things.

You're on vacation now!

Barenholtz: Very few people
wanted to review it

Or even go to see it.

Word of mouth on that
was not that positive.

All midnight movies
had humor...

In some way...
Involved in them.

People laughed
in every midnight movie.

Do I just, uh...

Just cut them up
like regular chickens?

Sure, just cut 'em up
like regular chickens.

Rosenbaum: I think
the kind of humor

Was when he won me over.

(Gurgling noises)

I remember there being
a very negative review

In Variety,

Which appeared when it
showed at film-ex.

The consensus
of most reviews

Was that
this is unpleasant.

When I was promoting
Female Trouble,

And Eraserhead
had just come out,

And so I was, like,
every night in every interview

Just talking
about Eraserhead.

Lynch:
He said, publicly,

"Go see this film,
Eraserhead."

And I was, oh, thankful,
and proud to be with him,

Because it
was such a great movie.

It gave it some sort
of stamp of approval.

It was a two-year grind.

It was actually
very, very slow,

But I felt that...
That it was worth it,

And I felt it was
a very important film

For its time.

In 17 cities,

Eraserhead
was on the marquee,

Sometimes
as long as four years.

It only ran
one night a week,

Maybe two nights a week,

But there it was
on the marquee.

It was all Ben
that made this thing happen.

What made Ben Barenholtz
so important

Was that he was willing
to keep a film playing

Even if people
didn't come.

People would discover it
at a certain point.

You never
come around anymore.

(Wind roars, rustling)

Barenholtz: You feel like
you've done something...

Like taken a film
that nobody has seen,

Nobody's heard of,

Nobody... you know,
and it's so different,

And trying
to make something with that...

Ben Barenholtz
had a film called Asparagus,

Which was this incredible
animated short, very sexual.

Barenholtz: I combined
Asparagus with Eraserhead.

Asparagus
is a little erotic trip,

But it's a trip.

Lynch: What's so beautiful
to me about film

Is... it's going
into another world.

Every element
is critical,

So it's not working until
the final thing... it pops.

I loved living
in the world of Eraserhead.

♪ In heaven ♪

♪ Everything is fine ♪

♪ In heaven... ♪

Hoberman: Eraserhead,
which is the last

Of the great
midnight movies...

You've really come
to the end of the line.

♪ In heaven... ♪

What all of the classic
midnight movies have in common

Is that they were made
outside the system.

And not even
on the fringe of the system...

These movies...
Some of them

Were made by hand
over a period of years,

Dependent on very
single-minded individuals

Who were strong enough

To will these things
into existence.

They appealed very strongly
to a small number of filmgoers,

And not at all
to most filmgoers.

The content
is transgressive in some way...

Either sexually,
or in terms of violence,

Or in terms of style,

Or in terms of difficulty.

Waters: It just
broke some ground

As far as
what barriers were

About taste
and about humor

And about censorship.

The classic midnight movies

All come
from a different place.

There's a vast difference

Between
what Jodorowsky was doing...

Reminiscent
of surrealist films

And European art films,

But also, with aspects
of spaghetti Western...

And what
John Waters was doing,

Which was really right
out of underground movies.

The Harder They Come,
which was relatively slick.

Rocky Horror Picture Show
was a commercial movie,

And provided
a formative experience

For tens of thousands
of American kids.

And Eraserhead
didn't look like anything

That anybody
had ever done.

They were pothead movies

That shared
a group madness at midnight

That became a cult...
Almost like a religion.

(Cheering)

You pick up on
their passion...

From Jodorowsky's passion
to John Waters'

To David lynch.

They're all
very, very passionate

And very unique people.

That's the secret of the success

Of some of these films.

There's a focus and an intention

And it doesn't lie to you.

I didn't make this picture
for an audience.

In the beginning,
I made this picture for me.

The experience
is making the film

And living in that world.

They showed the way

To generations
of filmmakers,

Saying, "these things
are possible."

(Laughs)

I mean, you can't do it.

You can't do it yourself.

They communicated so directly

To the particular audience
that they found.

The audience is... is king.

To make you feel good
about going to the theater,

About going to the movies.

Oh!

Waters: Midnight movies
loosened up everything else.

And then, everything changed.

Hoberman: Midnight movies'
sensibility was mainstreamed

After the '70s.

Jaws is
a re-commercialization

Of Night Of The Living Dead.

It turned it
into a terrifying experience.

(Shrieking on screen)

(Crowd screams)

Star Wars is the greatest
cult film of all time.

That's one sense
in which midnight movies

Were supplanted.

The filmmakers who were
involved with midnight movies

Just themselves
became more mainstream.

Barenholtz: David got
to direct Elephant Man.

It was possible
to make these big budget,

Big cult movies.

The definition
of the mainstream shifted.

As soon as video
came out, it was over.

You had your own
midnight movie in your house

Where you could smoke pot,
you could have sex,

You could do everything

That people did
at midnight movies.

You can do it in the privacy
of your own home.

I can't think of anything
less interesting

Than seeing Rocky Horror
by yourself.

A midnight movie is almost
extinct, to me, today.

The death
of the midnight film

Is a sad thing.

Ebert: The whole sensibility
of midnight movies

Gradually moved
to the mainstream

Until today... we live
totally in an age of irony,

Almost to the point

Where it's impossible
to be ironic,

Because everything is ironic.

Waters: At that time,

Being known
as the filthiest person alive

Sounded like something
no one would want.

Today, it sounds
like a punk rock group.

It sounds like a rap group.

I mean, everybody would want
to be called "filthball."

You could be a star
and be called that.

Hoberman:
Who would have thought

That 30 years
after Pink Flamingos,

John Waters
would have a Broadway musical?

I made bad taste
one percent more respectable,

And that was what I was
put on this earth to do,

And I have done that.

If I die tomorrow,

I've done what I was
put on this earth to do.

I don't think I've changed.

I think my humor is the same.

I think the American public
has changed.

Boom!

I was a kind of genius.

Who is this guy, David lynch?

If I was gonna make a movie,
I was gonna be Bergman.

Yeah, I made it
for a tropical audience.

I love havin'
the celluloid around my neck.

Nobody really
wanted to grow up.

Forgot to tell you
that part.

All jokes are sick now.

What you said
is very beautiful.

There's no such thing
as a healthy joke.

Name one. I never heard it.

Bake a fucking good cake.

I've never been interested
in anything but realism

On the screen.

Film courses were just...

Sit down and
watch Potemkin, and let's talk.

Well, I gotta say
something good about John Waters.

I was on the Howdy Doody show,
in the peanut gallery.

No puedo matara mi maestro.
Cannot do. (Muttering)

Movies win Oscars that have
that kind of humor in it.

I explain in English
very well, there?

After a film is done,
that is the nightmare, to me.

All I could say was,
"don't dream it... be it."