Cecil B. Demented
Encyclopedia
Cecil B. Demented is a 2000 black comedy
Black comedy
A black comedy, or dark comedy, is a comic work that employs black humor or gallows humor. The definition of black humor is problematic; it has been argued that it corresponds to the earlier concept of gallows humor; and that, as humor has been defined since Freud as a comedic act that anesthetizes...

 film written and directed by John Waters
John Waters (filmmaker)
John Samuel Waters, Jr. is an American filmmaker, actor, stand-up comedian, writer, journalist, visual artist, and art collector, who rose to fame in the early 1970s for his transgressive cult films...

. The film stars Melanie Griffith
Melanie Griffith
Melanie Richards Griffith is an American actress. She is an Academy Award nominee and Golden Globe winner for her performance in the 1988 film Working Girl...

 as a snobby A-list
A-list
A-list is a term that alludes to major movie stars, or the most bankable in the Hollywood film industry.The A-list is part of a larger guide called The Hot List that has become an industry-standard guide in Hollywood...

 Hollywood actress who is kidnapped by a band of terrorist
Terrorism
Terrorism is the systematic use of terror, especially as a means of coercion. In the international community, however, terrorism has no universally agreed, legally binding, criminal law definition...

 filmmakers who force her to star in their underground film
Underground film
An underground film is a film that is out of the mainstream either in its style, genre, or financing.-Definition and history:The first use of the term "underground film" occurs in a 1957 essay by American film critic Manny Farber, "Underground Films." Farber uses it to refer to the work of...

. Stephen Dorff
Stephen Dorff
Stephen Dorff is an American actor, best known for portraying Stuart Sutcliffe in Backbeat, Johnny Marco in Somewhere, and for his roles in Blade and Cecil B. DeMented.-Early life:...

 stars as the titular character and leader of the group, with Alicia Witt
Alicia Witt
Alicia Roanne Witt is an American film, stage, television actress and singer.-Early life:Witt was born in Worcester, Massachusetts. Her mother, Diane , is a junior high school reading teacher, and her father, Robert Witt, is a science teacher and photographer. She has a brother, Ian...

, Adrian Grenier
Adrian Grenier
Adrian Grenier is an American actor, musician and director. He is best known for his lead role on the HBO original series, Entourage, as Vincent Chase.-Early life:...

, Mike Shannon
Michael Shannon (actor)
Michael Corbett Shannon is an American stage, film, and television actor. He was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role in Revolutionary Road...

, and Maggie Gyllenhaal
Maggie Gyllenhaal
Margaret Ruth "Maggie" Gyllenhaal born November 16, 1977) is an American actress. She is the daughter of director Stephen Gyllenhaal and screenwriter Naomi Foner Gyllenhaal and the older sister of actor Jake Gyllenhaal. She made her screen debut when she began to appear in her father's films...

 co-starring as the rest of his gang of filmmakers. Each of the filmmakers in the film bear tattoos of various underground directors' names, including Sam Peckinpah
Sam Peckinpah
David Samuel "Sam" Peckinpah was an American filmmaker and screenwriter who achieved prominence following the release of the Western epic The Wild Bunch...

, David Lynch
David Lynch
David Keith Lynch is an American filmmaker, television director, visual artist, musician and occasional actor. Known for his surrealist films, he has developed his own unique cinematic style, which has been dubbed "Lynchian", and which is characterized by its dream imagery and meticulous sound...

, Otto Preminger
Otto Preminger
Otto Ludwig Preminger was an Austro–Hungarian-American theatre and film director.After moving from the theatre to Hollywood, he directed over 35 feature films in a five-decade career. He rose to prominence for stylish film noir mysteries such as Laura and Fallen Angel...

, Herschell Gordon Lewis
Herschell Gordon Lewis
Herschell Gordon Lewis is an American filmmaker, best known for creating the "splatter film" subgenre of horror...

, Spike Lee
Spike Lee
Shelton Jackson "Spike" Lee is an American film director, producer, writer, and actor. His production company, 40 Acres & A Mule Filmworks, has produced over 35 films since 1983....

, Rainer Werner Fassbinder
Rainer Werner Fassbinder
Rainer Werner Maria Fassbinder was a German movie director, screenwriter and actor. He is considered one of the most important representatives of the New German Cinema.He maintained a frenetic pace in film-making...

, Pedro Almodóvar
Pedro Almodóvar
Pedro Almodóvar Caballero is a Spanish film director, screenwriter and producer.Almodóvar is arguably the most successful and internationally known Spanish filmmaker of his generation. His films, marked by complex narratives, employ the codes of melodrama and use elements of pop culture, popular...

, and Andy Warhol
Andy Warhol
Andrew Warhola , known as Andy Warhol, was an American painter, printmaker, and filmmaker who was a leading figure in the visual art movement known as pop art...

.

The title of the film (also the name of Dorff's character) is referential to legendary director Cecil B. DeMille
Cecil B. DeMille
Cecil Blount DeMille was an American film director and Academy Award-winning film producer in both silent and sound films. He was renowned for the flamboyance and showmanship of his movies...

. The film is loosely based on the 1974 kidnapping of Patricia Hearst and, like all of Waters' films, was shot in Baltimore, Maryland; Hearst herself has a cameo role
Cameo appearance
A cameo role or cameo appearance is a brief appearance of a known person in a work of the performing arts, such as plays, films, video games and television...

 in the film. The film was given a limited release
Limited release
Limited release is a term in the American motion picture industry for a motion picture that is playing in a select few theaters across the country ....

 in North American cinemas on August 11, 2000. It was released to home media through Artisan
Artisan Entertainment
Artisan Entertainment Inc. was a privately held independent American movie studio until it was purchased by a Canadian studio, Lionsgate, in 2003. At the time of its acquisition, Artisan had a library of thousands of films developed through acquisition, original production, and production and...

, and later, Lionsgate Home Entertainment
Lionsgate Home Entertainment
Lionsgate Home Entertainment is the home video and DVD distribution arm of Lions Gate Entertainment and most former Artisan Entertainment releases. Its library of more than 8000 films owes some of its size to output deals with other studios...

 in the United States.

For her role as Honey Whitlock, Griffith was nominated for Worst Actress at the 2000 Golden Raspberry Awards
Golden Raspberry Awards
A Golden Raspberry Award, or Razzie for short, is an award presented in recognition of the worst in movies. Founded by American copywriter and publicist John J.B. Wilson in 1981, the annual Razzie Awards ceremony in Los Angeles precedes the corresponding Academy Awards ceremony by one day...

. Despite the lukewarm response from critics, the film has attained something of a cult status in later years.

Plot

Honey Whitlock (Melanie Griffith
Melanie Griffith
Melanie Richards Griffith is an American actress. She is an Academy Award nominee and Golden Globe winner for her performance in the 1988 film Working Girl...

) is a Hollywood A-list
A-list
A-list is a term that alludes to major movie stars, or the most bankable in the Hollywood film industry.The A-list is part of a larger guide called The Hot List that has become an industry-standard guide in Hollywood...

 actress whose public persona is that of a sweet and considerate woman, but who, in reality, is demanding and mean. She regularly uses profane language and makes unreasonable demands. While in Baltimore to attend a premiere, Honey is kidnapped by the manic film director, Cecil B. Demented (Stephen Dorff
Stephen Dorff
Stephen Dorff is an American actor, best known for portraying Stuart Sutcliffe in Backbeat, Johnny Marco in Somewhere, and for his roles in Blade and Cecil B. DeMented.-Early life:...

), and his band of misfit, Andy Warhol
Andy Warhol
Andrew Warhola , known as Andy Warhol, was an American painter, printmaker, and filmmaker who was a leading figure in the visual art movement known as pop art...

-worshiping artists who have branded themselves "kamikaze
Kamikaze
The were suicide attacks by military aviators from the Empire of Japan against Allied naval vessels in the closing stages of the Pacific campaign of World War II, designed to destroy as many warships as possible....

 filmmakers", going by the group name "SprocketHoles". Each of the SprocketHoles having infiltrated the staff of the theatre where the premiere is to take place and they subsequently kidnap Honey as she concludes her remarks on stages. In the ensuing mayhem, the group escapes.

Honey is then taken to an abandoned movie theatre where she's kept captive. Honey is then introduced to Cecil's crew of outlandish followers; all of whom have the names of famous film makers tattooed on themselves as well as their own uniquely outlandish quirks. Cecil explains that he wants to make his masterpiece film and needs Honey to star as the lead. Honey first resists and shoots scenes with no emotion, but when Cecil demands better results; Honey gives an over the top performance in the movie's opening scene which pleases him. Apart from the first scene, Cecil, Honey, and the crew run around the city, filming scenes at real (unapproved) locations, often involving innocent bystanders in the process.

The group's first location is a luncheon being hosted by the Baltimore Film Commission. The group crashes the event. Cecil orders Honey to jump off the roof of a nearby building, which she does without safety measures. A gunfight ensues between Cecil's crew and the police. As gunfire is exchanged; Rodney; the hair dresser is killed and Cecil is wounded. Honey uses the opportunity to turn herself into the authorities and they take her away in a police car, but she is rescued soon after.

As Honey seems to become more comfortable with her situation; possibily developing Stockholm Syndrome, she watches a television special
Television special
A television special is a television program which interrupts or temporarily replaces programming normally scheduled for a given time slot. Sometimes, however, the term is given to a telecast of a theatrical film, such as The Wizard of Oz or The Ten Commandments, which is not part of a regular...

 discussing her disappearance. Persons who knew her, including her ex-husband (Eric Roberts
Eric Roberts
Eric Anthony Roberts is an American actor. His career began with King of the Gypsies , earning a Golden Globe nomination for best actor debut. He starred as the protagonist in the 1980 dramatisation of Willa Cather's 1905 short story, Paul's Case...

), are interviewed and come clean about how mean-spirited she truly was. Honey now realizes that her desire to escape would only lead her back to Hollywood, where she is hated for being rude. She, at first, resists the idea of joining Cecil's followers, but changes her mind and declares herself "Demented forever", burning a brand into her arm and officially joining the motley crew.

After these events, the crew invades the set of the Forrest Gump sequel being filmed in Baltmore; at Honey's suggestion. When the crew arrives; they subdue and replace many of the film's crew. A gunfight breaks out between Cecil's friends and teamsters who have gotten free. Members of Cecil's crew are ethier killed or wounded. The surviving Sprocketholes and Honey flee to a nearby pornographic theatre and seek refuge inside. The audience helps Cecil escape.

At their last location, Cecil is shooting the final scene at a local drive-in while law enforcement are alerted. Cecil and the crew take over the projection room and he proceeds to excite the crowd into a frenzy. He asks Honey to light her hair on fire for the final shot (which she does). With the film finished, the Sprocketholes start having sex in public before the authorities steop in. Cecil sets himself completely ablaze as police arrive to give Honey a chance to run away. In the ensuing chaos, some crew members escape with the raw film footage while others are shot. Honey is taken into custody and is taken aback from the new affection and devotion people have for her as she goes into the police van.

Cast

  • Melanie Griffith
    Melanie Griffith
    Melanie Richards Griffith is an American actress. She is an Academy Award nominee and Golden Globe winner for her performance in the 1988 film Working Girl...

     as Honey Whitlock
  • Stephen Dorff
    Stephen Dorff
    Stephen Dorff is an American actor, best known for portraying Stuart Sutcliffe in Backbeat, Johnny Marco in Somewhere, and for his roles in Blade and Cecil B. DeMented.-Early life:...

     as Sinclair/Cecil B. Demented, the director (Otto Preminger
    Otto Preminger
    Otto Ludwig Preminger was an Austro–Hungarian-American theatre and film director.After moving from the theatre to Hollywood, he directed over 35 feature films in a five-decade career. He rose to prominence for stylish film noir mysteries such as Laura and Fallen Angel...

    )*
  • Alicia Witt
    Alicia Witt
    Alicia Roanne Witt is an American film, stage, television actress and singer.-Early life:Witt was born in Worcester, Massachusetts. Her mother, Diane , is a junior high school reading teacher, and her father, Robert Witt, is a science teacher and photographer. She has a brother, Ian...

     as Cherish, the actress (Andy Warhol
    Andy Warhol
    Andrew Warhola , known as Andy Warhol, was an American painter, printmaker, and filmmaker who was a leading figure in the visual art movement known as pop art...

    )*
  • Adrian Grenier
    Adrian Grenier
    Adrian Grenier is an American actor, musician and director. He is best known for his lead role on the HBO original series, Entourage, as Vincent Chase.-Early life:...

     as Lyle, the actor (Herschell Gordon Lewis
    Herschell Gordon Lewis
    Herschell Gordon Lewis is an American filmmaker, best known for creating the "splatter film" subgenre of horror...

    )*
  • Mink Stole
    Mink Stole
    Nancy Paine Stoll better known by the stage name Mink Stole, is an American actress from Baltimore, Maryland. She began her career working for director John Waters, having appeared in all of his feature films to date...

     as Mrs. Sylvia Mallory
  • Ricki Lake
    Ricki Lake
    Ricki Pamela Lake is an American actress, producer, and television host. She is best known for her starring role as Tracy Turnblad in the original Hairspray, her ground-breaking documentary film The Business of Being Born, and her talk show which was broadcasted internationally from...

     as Libby, Honey's publicist
  • Larry Gilliard, Jr. as Lewis, the art director (David Lynch
    David Lynch
    David Keith Lynch is an American filmmaker, television director, visual artist, musician and occasional actor. Known for his surrealist films, he has developed his own unique cinematic style, which has been dubbed "Lynchian", and which is characterized by its dream imagery and meticulous sound...

    )*
  • Maggie Gyllenhaal
    Maggie Gyllenhaal
    Margaret Ruth "Maggie" Gyllenhaal born November 16, 1977) is an American actress. She is the daughter of director Stephen Gyllenhaal and screenwriter Naomi Foner Gyllenhaal and the older sister of actor Jake Gyllenhaal. She made her screen debut when she began to appear in her father's films...

     as Raven, the makeup artist (Kenneth Anger
    Kenneth Anger
    Kenneth Anger is an American underground experimental filmmaker, occasional actor and author...

    )*
  • Jack Noseworthy as Rodney, the hair stylist (Pedro Almodóvar
    Pedro Almodóvar
    Pedro Almodóvar Caballero is a Spanish film director, screenwriter and producer.Almodóvar is arguably the most successful and internationally known Spanish filmmaker of his generation. His films, marked by complex narratives, employ the codes of melodrama and use elements of pop culture, popular...

    )*
  • Mike Shannon
    Michael Shannon (actor)
    Michael Corbett Shannon is an American stage, film, and television actor. He was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role in Revolutionary Road...

     as Petie, the driver (Rainer Werner Fassbinder
    Rainer Werner Fassbinder
    Rainer Werner Maria Fassbinder was a German movie director, screenwriter and actor. He is considered one of the most important representatives of the New German Cinema.He maintained a frenetic pace in film-making...

    )*
  • Eric Barry as Fidget, the costume designer (William Castle
    William Castle
    William Castle was an American film director, producer, screenwriter, and actor. Castle was known for directing films with many gimmicks which were ambitiously promoted, despite being reasonably low budget B-movies....

    )*
  • Zenzele Uzoma as Chardonnay, the sound artist (Spike Lee
    Spike Lee
    Shelton Jackson "Spike" Lee is an American film director, producer, writer, and actor. His production company, 40 Acres & A Mule Filmworks, has produced over 35 films since 1983....

    )*
  • Erika Lynn Rupli as Pam, the cinematographer (Sam Peckinpah
    Sam Peckinpah
    David Samuel "Sam" Peckinpah was an American filmmaker and screenwriter who achieved prominence following the release of the Western epic The Wild Bunch...

    )*
  • Harriet Dodge as Dinah, the producer (Sam Fuller)*
  • Patricia Hearst as Fidget's mom
  • Channing Wilroy
    Channing Wilroy
    Channing Wilroy is an American film actor who has appeared in seven films by John Waters. His first film role was the character Channing, the manservant in the film Pink Flamingos...

     as Shop steward
  • Kevin Nealon
    Kevin Nealon
    Kevin Nealon is an American actor and comedian, best known as a cast member on Saturday Night Live from 1986 to 1995, acting in several of the Happy Madison films, for playing Doug Wilson on the Showtime series Weeds, and providing the voice of the title character, Glenn Martin on Glenn Martin,...

     as Himself
  • Roseanne Barr
    Roseanne Barr
    Roseanne Cherrie Barr is an American actress, comedian, writer, television producer and director. Barr began her career in stand-up comedy at clubs before gaining fame for her role in the sitcom Roseanne. The show was a hit and lasted nine seasons, from 1988 to 1997...

     as Herself
  • Jeffrey Wei as William the heart patient
  • Rosemary Knower and Doug Roberts as Sinclair/Cecil's mom and dad
  • Eric Roberts
    Eric Roberts
    Eric Anthony Roberts is an American actor. His career began with King of the Gypsies , earning a Golden Globe nomination for best actor debut. He starred as the protagonist in the 1980 dramatisation of Willa Cather's 1905 short story, Paul's Case...

     as Honey's ex-husband
  • John Waters
    John Waters (filmmaker)
    John Samuel Waters, Jr. is an American filmmaker, actor, stand-up comedian, writer, journalist, visual artist, and art collector, who rose to fame in the early 1970s for his transgressive cult films...

     (uncredited) as Reporter


*Denote the director's name tattooed on the characters.

Reception

Roger Ebert
Roger Ebert
Roger Joseph Ebert is an American film critic and screenwriter. He is the first film critic to win a Pulitzer Prize for Criticism.Ebert is known for his film review column and for the television programs Sneak Previews, At the Movies with Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert, and Siskel and Ebert and The...

 gave the film 1.5 stars out of four, remarking that it was like "a home movie [with] a bunch of kids goofing off", while others such as Peter Travers
Peter Travers
Peter Travers is an American film critic, who has written for, in turn, People and Rolling Stone. Travers also hosts a celebrity interview show called Popcorn on ABC News Now and ABCNews.com.-Career:...

 of Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone is a US-based magazine devoted to music, liberal politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J...

 said "DeMented is Waters the way we like him -- spiked with laughs and served with a twist".

The review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is a website devoted to reviews, information, and news of films—widely known as a film review aggregator. Its name derives from the cliché of audiences throwing tomatoes and other vegetables at a poor stage performance...

 reported that 51% of critics gave Cecil B. Demented positive reviews, based on 78 reviews; the consensus states "The idea behind John Waters' latest has much potential, but the movie ends up being too sloppy and underdeveloped in terms of script and direction. Also, by today's standards, it fails to shock." Metacritic
Metacritic
Metacritic.com is a website that collates reviews of music albums, games, movies, TV shows and DVDs. For each product, a numerical score from each review is obtained and the total is averaged. An excerpt of each review is provided along with a hyperlink to the source. Three colour codes of Green,...

 reported the film had an average score of 57 out of 100, based on 32 reviews.

The film was screened out of competition at the 2000 Cannes Film Festival
2000 Cannes Film Festival
The 2000 Cannes Film Festival started on May 14 and ran until May 25. The Palme d'Or went to the Danish film Dancer in the Dark by Lars von Trier.-Jury:* Luc Besson, President * Jonathan Demme * Nicole Garcia...

.

Soundtrack

The soundtrack was released August 8, 2000 by RCA Records
RCA Records
RCA Records is one of the flagship labels of Sony Music Entertainment. The RCA initials stand for Radio Corporation of America , which was the parent corporation from 1929 to 1985 and a partner from 1985 to 1986.RCA's Canadian unit is Sony's oldest label...

.
  1. "Opening Credit Theme" - Moby
  2. "Nice Tranquil Thumbs in Mouth" - The Locust
    The Locust
    The Locust is a musical group from San Diego, California, United States known for their unique mix of grindcore speed and aggression, mathcore complexity, and new wave weirdness.- Style :...

  3. "Bankable Bitch" - DJ Class and Teflon the Bull
  4. "Upstart" - Meatjack
  5. "Everyday" - Substance D
    Substance D
    Substance D is a drum and bass compilation album mixed by Dieselboy. The first disc is mixed and the second disc is unmixed. The CD art was designed by Akira Takahashi...

  6. "No Budget" - DJ Class and Mayo
  7. "Broadway Brouhaha"
  8. "Loopy" - XXXBombshell
  9. "An Extra Piece of Dead Meat" - The Locust
  10. "Demented Forever" - Karen McMillan
  11. "Seduction" - The Sex-o-Rama Band
  12. "Ciao!" - Liberace
    Liberace
    Wladziu Valentino Liberace , best known simply as Liberace, was a famous American pianist and vocalist.In a career that spanned four decades of concerts, recordings, motion pictures, television and endorsements, Liberace became world-renowned...

  13. "Cow" - Jerome Dillon
    Jerome Dillon
    Jerome Dillon is a professional musician, best known for his tenure as drummer with industrial rock group Nine Inch Nails from 1999-2005. After his departure, his own project, Nearly, released its debut album reminder in December 2005, along with a cd maxi-single for the song Straight to...

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