Divine was always going to make a good subject for a documentary. His story has got everything necessary – the highs, the lows, the famous friends, the love of cake. A true cult figure, Divine made films, performed disco, was painted by David Hockney and embraced the 1960s counter-culture.
I am Divine is directed by Jeffrey Schwarz and looks at Divine’s wild life in a very conservative stills-footage-talking-heads manner. After a raucous start at the premiere of John Waters movie Hairspray the film settles into a typical chronological documentary format. However the subject is anything but typical and the vintage footage and talking heads bring out the craziness of Divine’s life.
Born in Baltimore in 1945 Harris Glenn Milstead endured an unhappy childhood of extreme bullying. He stayed at home and rarely went out, until he discovered the local underground gay scene, with the help of neighbour John Waters. After years of not fitting in he had found a group of people who accepted him.
Loving the glamour of dressing up and putting on a show Milstead dressed as Elizabeth Taylor at local drag clubs and entered drag competitions. John Waters says that Divine was ‘breaking the rules of drag’. I hadn’t realised there were any rules of drag, but his change was to include humour and wear clothes that exaggerated his large body shape and messed with the drag world’s current notions of beauty,
Waters noticed the underlying anger in his friend and cast him as the female Divine in one of his early forays into film. The persona stuck, as did the name. Milstead had found a cypher through which he could behave provocatively. The outfits and careful makeup provided a barrier behind which he could more easily face the world.
Unfortunately as is often the case, the very thing that brought success became a heavy weight. Milstead wanted to be a serious actor, taking male roles, but the public wanted to see Divine. The film makes clear that though Divine was successful he did not find peace or happiness and was searching to be accepted for who he really was.
Never a transvestite, Milstead only wore female clothes whilst performing and saw it entirely as a job. He speaks of how he had ambivalent feelings towards Waters. Grateful for the fame he brought him, but sometimes blaming him for the being stuck with having to play a persona.
In the end he was suffering a different version of his childhood experiences. Then he had had to try and play straight. Later he had found success by exaggerating the very characteristics that had got him beaten up. Now he was stuck with them, forced to continually play another act.
The film has some interviews with Divine himself, but mostly uses old friends and colleagues, including Rikki Lake and of course John Waters, to tell the story of his life. The staid biopic manner of the film won’t pull in new fans for Divine’s career, but it will flesh out his story for those who are already Divine devotees.
In cinemas tomorrow, 18th July 2014
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