Manson Girl Leslie Van Houten and John Waters: An Unlikely Friendship
Waters has written extensively about his relationship with Van Houten, who was 19 at the time of the Manson murders, and has campaigned for her release
Leslie Van Houten, the youngest member of Charles Manson’s cult, has been granted parole and could be released from prison if she is allowed to do so by California Gov. Jerry Brown. One of the people hoping for that release is famed transgressive filmmaker John Waters, who formed an unlikely friendship with Van Houten more than 30 years ago.
In 2009, Waters wrote a five-part essay series titled “Leslie Van Houten: A Friendship,” in which he discussed at length how he met and bonded with the former death row inmate and why he believes she should be set free.
“She looks back from prison on her involvement in the La Bianca murders (the night after the Tate massacre) in utter horror, shame, and guilt and takes full responsibility for her part in the crimes,” Waters wrote. “I think it’s time to parole her.”
Waters wrote about how he had been fascinated with the Manson murders and subsequent trial for years. He even dedicated his most famous film, “Pink Flamingoes,” to the women in the Manson family, though he says he’s come to regret how he referred to the murders in a “jokey, smart-ass way…without the slightest feeling for the victims’ families or the lives of the brainwashed Manson killer kids who were also victims in this sad and terrible case.”
Then, in 1985, Rolling Stone asked Waters to interview Manson in prison. But Waters was more interested in Van Houten, believing that had she not encountered Manson, she could have “ended up making movies with us instead of running with the killer dune-buggy crowd.” Van Houten was at first very guarded when responding to Waters, but eventually she warmed up to him and invited him to visit her in prison.
Waters wrote that he’s visited Van Houten in jail every year since, and laments that her reputation has only worsened as the Manson murders have become ingrained in pop culture as one of the most macabre true stories of the 20th century. Waters said that he wonders if Van Houten will ever be able to fully recover despite her remorse.
“Can you ever recover from being called ‘a human mutant” or a “monster’ by the government, especially when you know that they were right at one time in your life?” Waters asks. “How do you begin to deal with the pain of the victims’ relatives when the world has turned your former image into a Halloween costume? With patience. God knows, Leslie Van Houten has patience.”
Over the next five months, California state officials will review the parole grant. If the decision stands, it will be sent to Gov. Brown for approval. Brown denied Van Houten parolein the in 2016,citing the “shocking nature of the crimes” Van Houten committed.
Representatives for Waters did not immediately respond to TheWrap’s request for comment.
12 Hottest TIFF Movies for Sale, From 'Hostiles' to Tonya Harding Drama (Photos)
Though it's not as robust as the annual Sundance Film Festival market or populous as Cannes' Marche du Film, TIFF is a pedigreed springboard for solid indies. Here are this year's hottest films for sale.
"I, Tonya" [UTA / CAA / Miramax] Arguably the hottest title for sale at TIFF 2017, producer-star dynamo Margot Robbie offers up a drama about U.S. Olympic figure skater Tonya Harding and her notorious involvement in the beating of teammate Nancy Kerrigan before the 1994 Olympics. Buyers are dying to see this one.
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"The Children Act" [CAA / FilmNation] Richard Eyre’s drama has an attractive cast in the firebrand Emma Thompson (who wouldn’t buy this movie simply for the joy of watching her promote it?) and Stanley Tucci, reunited after the recent box office smash “Beauty and the Beast.” The film is an adaptation of Ian McEwan’s same-named novel, about a British judge asked to intervene when a minor refuses a blood transfusion over his religious beliefs.
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"The Cured" [WME] High-brow horror is hard to do, but a category critics and select audiences adore for delivering chills without the tackier conventions of the genre. “The Cured” would certainly check that box, thanks to a clever and unsettling premise: A portion of the population became zombies but were cured. They suffer extreme judgment in a recovering society for, well, eating other people.
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"Hostiles" [CAA / WME] Christian Bale reunites with his "Out of the Furnace" director Scott Cooper for this gritty Western -- already putting Bale in the Oscar conversation after an earlier festival debut. Rosamund Pike, Ben Foster and Jesse Plemmons co-star.
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"Submergence" [UTA] Perhaps the dreamiest trio at TIFF, auteur Wim Wenders will offer up a romance between Alicia Vikander and James McAvoy. The former plays a deep-sea researcher, the latter a water engineer, attempting to connect across continents and oceans while a civil war rages.
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"Mom and Dad" [CAA / XYZ] Giving a fabulous middle finger to helicopter parents, Nicolas Cage and Selma Blair star in writer-director Brian Taylor's super-dark comedy about a 24-hour hysteria that sees parents attempt violence against their own children.
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"Papillon" [CAA] Charlie Hunnam and Rami Malek star in a remake of the 1973 thriller that starred Steve McQueen and Dustin Hoffman -- where two men plot an escape from a prison island.
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"Three Christs" [CAA / Highland Film Group] Jon Avnet sets about the ambitious task of creating both a black comedy and a film that gets mental illness right. Richard Gere stars as a doctor treating three paranoid schizophrenics (Peter Dinklage, Walton Goggins, Bradley Whitford) who all believe they are Jesus Christ.
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"My Days of Mercy" [UTA / WME] This politically charged gay love story pits Kate Mara and Ellen Page against each other on two sides of a capital punishment debate. It also brings them together romantically. Trivia: The official TIFF festival guide labels Page a "powerhouse Canadian," which just makes us smile.
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"Eating Animals" [CAA] Natalie Portman produces this well-received doc about the horrors of meat consumption based on a memoir by Jonathan Safran Foer.
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"Marrowbone" [CAA / Lionsgate] Screenwriter Sergio G. Sánchez makes his directorial debut in a buzzy, supernatural thriller about four children orphaned by the loss of their mother. The lost brood take refuge in an abandoned house only to find sinister forces lurking there.
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"Woman Walks Ahead" [CAA] Jessica Chastain and Michael Greyeyes lead this substantive drama about New York artist Catherine Weldon, who became the trusted confidante of legendary Sioux chief Sitting Bull.
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Toronto film market has awards bait, high-brow horror and sweaty Charlie Hunnam
Though it's not as robust as the annual Sundance Film Festival market or populous as Cannes' Marche du Film, TIFF is a pedigreed springboard for solid indies. Here are this year's hottest films for sale.