Release
As with Waters' previous films, the premiere was held in the auditorium of the University of Baltimore. There was a brief controversy when lesbian groups attacked the film for its depiction of lesbianism, and for taking the title of a defunct pro-lesbian magazine. New Line Cinema blew the film up from 16mm to 35mm and opened it at midnight in Manhattan, though the original poster (featuring a cooked rat on a plate) was rejected by The New York Times to run, forcing a new poster to be created three days before the opening. The new poster featured Liz Renay in a screaming pose, fashioned from a production still.
Critics from Good Housekeeping walked out of the film after ten minutes. Otherwise, Playboy enjoyed the film, stating it had to be "seen to be believed". David Chute of The Boston Phoenix said of the film: "In Desperate Living, Waters comes close to creating a work of true trash art." The film currently holds a 70% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
Read more about this topic: Desperate Living
Famous quotes containing the word release:
“The steel decks rock with the lightning shock, and shake with the
great recoil,
And the sea grows red with the blood of the dead and reaches for his spoil—
But not till the foe has gone below or turns his prow and runs,
Shall the voice of peace bring sweet release to the men behind the
guns!”
—John Jerome Rooney (1866–1934)
“As nature requires whirlwinds and cyclones to release its excessive force in a violent revolt against its own existence, so the spirit requires a demonic human being from time to time whose excessive strength rebels against the community of thought and the monotony of morality ... only by looking at those beyond its limits does humanity come to know its own utmost limits.”
—Stefan Zweig (18811942)
“The shallow consider liberty a release from all law, from every constraint. The wise man sees in it, on the contrary, the potent Law of Laws.”
—Walt Whitman (1819–1892)