Multiple Maniacs (1971)

It's hard to believe that it is now 35 years since director John Waters unleashed his own anarchic brand of sleaze upon the world in this his first film.  Shot in unglorious black and white in his home town of Baltimore with a cast made up of his equally outcast friends (now unfortunately mostly gone through drugs, AIDS, and natural causes), this is hardly great movie-making and feels largely like a home movie gone bad, but I'm sure Waters and his mates had a ball making it.  This film introduced the world to the 300-pound-plus transvestite Divine, literally a larger than life actor, and you ain't seen nothing yet until you see her/him being raped by a twenty-foot lobster!  Divine's presence was crucial in most of the director's mid-period movies and his death, when he was on the verge of succeeding as a straight actor, saddened many film buffs.  Waters has said that this is his favourite amongst his movies, but I suspect this is only because it reminds him of happier times and of friends now no longer available.