John Waters. © Nathan Kirkman.
Alaska: What is the boundary in the film work of John Waters?
Mario: Boundaries are needed in the daily life of any human being who has some common sense. It is what I call common sense and not loosing it, and that is what rules your life. In the case of cinema, I consider that it is necessary and welcomed that all types of boundaries are broken. And Waters is unique. He dares to overstep the bounds and become the most politically incorrect person I know. He goes beyond any social, cultural, political and right-minded boundary.
Alaska: Waters pushes you to the limit in each one of his works, not only as filmmaker but also as an artist in an art gallery. Do you remember that sculpture he made of Jackie Kennedy dressed up as Divine and holding a gun? That way of breaking down boundaries, of spinning contemporary icons, not only the individual ones but also the sacred concepts, is like art with capital A. Or denigrated concepts like fame. The Warholian idea is taken to the limit by Waters. Divine in her character in Female Trouble is happy to be an assassin and die in the electric chair, as that moment represents the pinnacle of fame.
Mario: I love that my beloved Waters critiques fiercely the hippies of the 60s in Female Trouble and that the great Divine treated herself to killing her own daughter because she had become a Hare Krishna. The limits beyond the standard family are present in his movies as well. Do you remember Cry Baby, with Iggy Pop as the father and his children as young gang members? And Katherine Turner as a criminal in Serial Mom working between the most beautiful and apparently quite houses of Baltimore? Waters is a genius, so much so that he even dares to portray the law of gravity when actor David Hasselhoff shits in an airplane and the turd lands intact on top of the head of a person thousands of meters below.
Alaska: That’s right, John Waters takes everything to the limit of the most coarse evacuation, but he makes you feel comfortable and happy that it exists. That’s how art should be, always.
John Waters. © Nathan Kirkman.