In this weekâs episode of The Close-Up, the Film Societyâs new weekly Podcast series, filmmaker, author, and âPope of Trashâ John Waters discusses his career in an interview with the Film Societyâs Deputy Director Eugene Hernandez, as well as in conversation with film critic J. Hoberman following a screening of Pink Flamingos.
Watersâs filmography (of âpoor tasteâ) was recently showcased in the Film Societyâs Fifty Years of John Waters: How Much Can You Take? retrospective, which featured all of the filmmaker's work, including rare prints of his early films directly from Watersâs own attic.
John Waters and his fellow Dreamlanders crew made a career out of blurring the line between high and low culture, which started from shooting 8mm films with high-school buddies and eventually led him to enter the Hollywood system to direct such hits as Hairspray and Cry-Baby. âPink Flamingos will be in the first paragraph of my obituary, no matter what else. I always say if I discover the cure of cancer tomorrow, Pink Flamingos will come ahead of that,â says Waters.
âEach one of my movies is a genre. I mean, Pink Flamingos was a midnight movie, Female Trouble was a crime biography, Hairspray a dance movie, Cry-Baby a musical, Serial Mom a true-crime one, A Dirty Shame a sexplitation movie.â
In both of this episodeâs discussions, Waters talks about his early influences (from Fellini and Buñuel to Russ Meyer) and his accounts of how he began his career as a young boy from Baltimore. âI think Bergman is the one because he had vomit before anyone. Heâs the puke king. He always had vomit in his movies and I love Bergman. I took Divine [to see his films], he hated them. âCanât we see an Elizabeth Taylor movie?â I would take Divine on LSD to see Bergman movies. We saw Hour of the Wolf on acid together.â
Download and subscribe to The Close-Up to hear Watersâs many stories about Divine and the Dreamlanders crew, his inspirations, and more:
âA motto I tell all young filmmakers is âa no is free,ââ states Waters. âShow business is rejection, just keep asking for what you want. It doesnât cost you anything if people say no. One day, somebody will say yes.â
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