I can never get enough of director John Waters — just the sheer fact that he is responsible for making “Pink Flamingos,” one of the most tasteless movies ever created, ranks him way up in my books.
A bubble-gum-tastic interview with Vulture, has Waters dishing out some dirt about life & career — more importantly, his opining on the current state of cinema is deliciously rendered, as always..
On Isabelle Huppert:
“So, yeah, I like people doing extremes,” explained Waters. “I went to see the Isabelle Huppert play [‘The Mother’]. I love that she always does extreme things. She’s my favorite actress in the world.”
On Gaspar Noé’s “Climax”:
He continued, “That’s why I still love Lars von Trier. He has one of the best senses of humor of all film directors. My favorite is sadistic: Gaspar Noé. ‘Climax’ was my favorite movie. I loved it, loved it, loved it.”
“Climax” is the 2018 film that earned some rave reviews after its premiere at last year’s Cannes. The film tells the story of a dance troupe that celebrates at an after-party for a performance. Things descend into chaos when they begin to worry that their sangria was perhaps spiked with LSD.
“Let’s just say it’s a very altered version of ‘The Red Shoes’ as a bad acid trip,” added Waters. “Thank God I didn’t see it before I took acid. I was very startled by the movie. I thought it really delivered.”
“They make $75 million gross-out comedies that nobody thinks are that funny,” he said. “So, that’s over. You have to think of a new way. And it does involve political correctness of all the things you can and cannot do in comedy today. But I think that makes it even more of a challenge to pull it off and startle people today.”
Waters is promoting his latest novella, “Mr. Know-It-All.”