John Waters
By IFQ Critic Todd Konrad
Represented at the 2007 Cannes Film Market by Cinemavault Releasing, This Filthy World is a live recording of Waters’ one-man show that he has consistently performed for the past 40 years, examining both his career and influences. Waters divulged to us both the show’s and film’s origins, his thoughts on independent film in general and why movie trailers are not as good as they used to be.
IFQ: What was the initial impetus behind the one-man act that you’ve been doing that eventually led to the filming of This Filthy World?
John Waters: Well, it was probably 40 years ago. I started when Divine and I used to go to colleges to show our movies, which was really only the main place where people saw my early movies like Mondo Trasho and Multiple Maniacs, either colleges or church basements that we would rent because the censor board wouldn’t bust a church. So we didn’t have any way to promote it, so basically I would come out kind of dressed up as a hippie pimp and talk about nudist camp movies and ludicrous film theories and then introduce, “Ladies and gentlemen, the most beautiful woman in the world…” and then Divine would come out, dressed as Divine, pushing a shopping cart, throwing dead mackerels into the audience, kind of like the act she did in Female Trouble and she would fake rip a phone book in half and then a policeman would come on stage who was usually whatever hippie we met in that town. And we traveled with a stolen police costume and a shorthaired wig and this person would then pretend to be a cop and come onstage and arrest Divine. Divine would then strangle him to death and then the movie would start. So that’s how it started and I guess it has been tinkered with and developed over the next 40 years and that’s pretty much what This Filthy World is. It’s my vaudeville act.
IFQ: What were the specific events that led to the act being recorded for a feature film?
JW: Well, I’d done it for so many years. I’ve done it at colleges. I’ve done it at punk rock clubs. I’ve done it in nightclubs. I’ve done it in comedy clubs. I did it at Oxford University. I opened for William Burroughs’ spoken act. I’ve done it in many different places so eventually I kept thinking, “I’d like to get this once recorded.” So Netflix, at the time, was starting to produce movies. They were so successful that they wanted to make movies so Jeff Garlin, who is also a CAA client, had directed some other one-man shows and I really liked him and he liked me and I didn’t know him so in the best Hollywood sense we were packaged. So they came to see me do it at the Warhol Museum when I was doing it there in Pittsburgh and then it happened from there. And Jeff wanted to make it like it was you in the audience; he didn’t want to open it up. He wanted to make it like really you were just there seeing the show in the audience, which I think he did a good job of.
IFQ: Are there any specific stories or revelations within the act that consistently shock or offend the audiences? Any show stoppers in there?
JW: Well, they’ve changed over the years so I don’t think I could tell the eating shit story from Pink Flamingos one more time. So I talk about limits; I talk about other people’s limits. Yes, I think my Michael Jackson story, my story about blossoms, there are peaks of the stories in This Filthy World that certainly seem to be consistent wherever I do the show.
IFQ: What is your opinion of the state of independent film in general, as it exists today, both in terms of the kinds of films being released as well as the business end in regards to how things were when you began?
JW: Well, I think it’s a scary time. I really loved Quentin Tarantino’s movie Grindhouse, which I thought was a really great movie, and the fact that young people didn’t go to see it really scared me because I thought it was a brilliant film. I’m not so sure people are as willing to take chances as they used to be. What is an independent film anymore? I mean now the studios are involved too, so I’d guess you’d say it was under a certain budget. The good thing about independent film is that studios are looking for it now; ever since Blair Witch, people are looking for the next weirdo movie that a kid made that’s going to make a fortune. The hard thing is that even hit movies only play three weeks in a theater now. So you have no time for word of mouth. If you don’t sell out that first Friday night your film opens, by Monday they’ve already planned to replace it. So it’s really, really hard to have a hit in the marketplace. If you look at it, there was really only one big independent movie last year which was Little Miss Sunshine and thank God for it because we need big hits like that every once in a while to continue to get people to invest in these films. And the fact is yes, DVD and video and worldwide, those markets are still there but they want home runs. They’re not interested in modest hits anymore.
IFQ: Are there any artists or filmmakers today, both established and upcoming, whose work excites you?
JW: Well Todd Solondz makes, I think, my favorite movies. I love Todd Haynes’ movies; I think that movie Tarnation was the best underground movie and one that should give young people great confidence and hope with its success. I like foreign films, Francois Ozon. I go to see movies all the time. I saw a movie called Wild Tigers I Have Known recently, a low budget movie that Gus Van Sant executive-produced – that was good. I still go to movie theaters and I see them the first week. I don’t watch videos or DVDs, so basically I’m for the movie-going experience still and I go sometimes three or four times a week. But I don’t go see movies I know I’ll hate and I think that most trailers today make you think, “Oh thank God I don’t have to see that one.” I think trailers, when I was young, made you want to see the movies; trailers today make you not want to see the movie.
IFQ: Well there is truth to that. A lot of them do tend to look exactly the same.
JW: Well, they tell you the whole plot in order in three minutes so they told you the whole movie before you see it.
IFQ: Given the respected body of work you’ve already produced, are there any projects or ideas that you’re either currently working on or interested in tackling?
JW: Well yeah, I’m trying to make this movie that’s a terribly wonderful Christmas adventure called Fruitcake. It’s completely written. It’s done. It’s ready to go. I couldn’t get the financing by the winter months I needed for the shoot, so I had to put it off for this coming winter. It’s never easy to get a film made. It’s always hard; I think every movie is hard to get made. So you know, I’ve been doing this for 40 years, people just assume that they’re lined up saying, “Oh John, what do you want to do next here?” Every time I’ve gotten them made, but every time it’s a little bit of a struggle and I guess it should be. Or else everybody in the world would be making movies and we wouldn’t have anybody working in stores (laughs) or working in offices. Everyone would be a film director.