John Waters Reflects on 60-Year Career as Criterion Revives 2 Films

Q: What societal taboo does John Waters believe remains too shocking for cinema today, even after his 60-year career?

John Waters pointed to the Israel situation as the kind of subject he considers too fraught to tackle comedically or provocatively on screen today. In the additional reported material, Waters said, “I’m certainly not going to go into Israel and that whole situation. It’d be a lose-lose for me to even try.” That appears to be the clearest example he gave of a contemporary taboo he believes is effectively off-limits, even after a career built on testing boundaries. That answer also fits with his broader comment that there are a few subjects he knows to avoid, despite having “walked the edge” for 60 years. While the main interview excerpt does not specify the taboo, the supplemental reporting identifies Israel as the issue he singled out.

3 articles · Updated · The Guardian · Jul 16

80-year-old John Waters says his only PG-rated film, 1988’s “Hairspray,” initially terrified him because he feared his transgressive fan base would reject it.
Criterion has now reissued “Hairspray” and 1977’s “Desperate Living” on Blu-ray, prompting Waters to contrast the former’s mainstream breakthrough with what he calls his “angriest” and “ugliest” movie.
Waters, who has not directed since 2004’s “A Dirty Shame,” said a planned adaptation of “Liarmouth” with Aubrey Plaza failed to secure funding and no new film is in the pipeline.
His interview tied the films’ grotesque humor to politics and principle, arguing that anger can be useful but change comes through comedy, with both movies resisting racism, fascism and tyranny.
Nearly 38 years after Divine’s death at 42, Waters said the star still shapes drag culture, calling Divine “punk before there was such a thing.”