Poppers Pig

The (not) poppers pig over at out.com

Rear Projection

Busy bee John Waters has just opened a new exhibition of his hilarious work at the Gagosian Gallery in Los Angeles.



Brilliantly titled Rear Projection, John gathers another wild mix of his screen-shot collages and distortions (Children who smoke) and all new, giant pop-art sculptures of Ike Turner playing with a Tina marionette, leaking poppers-bottles (which he admits using not for sex but on rollercoasters only!) and ridiculously expensive Hollywood cosmetic.



Once more, Waters fiendishly turns his obsessions into an entertaining and acidic show of satire, art and consumerism that caters to film freaks, pop-art fans and hillbillies alike.



More pictures and details. ahd check out the private Tour below! It´s almost like being there...

Boom!

I was finally able to watch "Boom!", one of the most notorious, critically and financially failed flops in celluloid history.


Like similar car-crash films such as "Showgirls" it is actually not a bad movie. It just totally mis-judged and missed its potential audience (by miles!).

Thanks to John Waters´ frantic eulogies "Boom!" has become a classic of "failed art" and is treasured by lovers of "bad" cinema. Much has been written about its camp value which it delivers in spades!


The opening sequence sets the tone: Liz writhes in pain during a massage. She throws glasses back at her slave-like servants (yes, one is a midget) while pressing her swollen, diamond-clad fingers onto several intercom devices.
"Pain! Injection!!" are her first words and we know we are in for a wild ride after the camera zooms in on one of her famous Krupps-diamond.
Jennifer Saunders must have seen this over and over to model the character of Edina Monsoon from "Absolutely Fabulous" after Liz´s über-bitch performance.


I really didn´t know what to expect of "Boom!" and so I was totally surprised to see a film that looks like it came straight out of J.G. Ballard´s "The Thousand Dreams of Stella Vista" short-story anthology.

All the characters and images that live in Ballard´s imaginary "Vermillion Sands" desert-resort become flesh in "Boom!": The mysterious, tragic woman who wears the most bizarre outfits, who is permanently surrounded by ticking telex-machines and who relies on a system of "elaborate" intercom devices to communicate with her small world of dependent servants.

The drifting man who follows his obsessions, who becomes a part of this secluded world only to play his role in a play that unfolds with nightmare-logic consequence.


All of this takes place in a setting that is one of the most beautifully shot film-sets ever. The house, that combines the best (or worst) of Dali, Pierre Cardin and the Flitstones, is perched on-top of a rugged cliff in Sicily is the true star of the film.
The angles and rooms serve as a fractal mirror of the characters who live and act in seperate universes, even if they all appear in the same frame.


Ballard himself said that "Pandora and the flying Dutchman" (1953), starring Ava Gardner, influenced his vision of Vermillion Sands. "Boom!" was made in 1968, at a time when many of the "Stellavista"-stories had already been written. Although I doubt that director Joseph Losey and production Designer Richard Macdonald modelled "Boom!" after Ballards ideas.

Still, the similarities between the Sissy Goforth of the movie with all the female characters who inhabit Vermillion Sands are uncanny.


I have captured about 90 stills from the not-so-great-copy I obtained of the film. Despite of the slightly murky quality I made sure to capture the most embarrassing moments in all their intoxicated beauty.
Click on any pic for bigger boom!


"Pain!!! INJECTION!!!"



Easter Island?





The arrival of the witch


Crustation


"... i was the guest artist at a relief-thing for victims of a Tycoon or Typhoon, or something."





"Blackie! DICTATION!!! Meaning of life!"






cough, cough, cough, etc.

The John Waters Advent Calendar

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Artistically Incorrect

John Waters "Baby Michael Jackson"

Even in his early auto-biography "Shock Value" and in the later anthology "Crackpot", John Waters surprised with many creative job-ideas to fill the gaps between his films. However, being a conventional artist, was something he might have planned or giggled about with his friends only in private.

John Waters "Jackie and Andy" 1998 (click to make very big)

Staying true to his obsessions, Waters popped his favourite films into the video-recorder and snapped some pictures off the screen. He then assembled the captures to fit his favourite themes. As in his story "Guilty Pleasures", Waters lets his inner film-buff shine through.

John Waters "Movie Star Junkie" Edited by StellaVista

His later work would include sculptures, puppets and installations. The acidic pairing of pop-art myths and sarcastic humour is certainly on the edge of what many would consider "art", and I´d guess that Waters would be the first to agree.

The Laumeier Sculpture Park Gallery in St. Louis will host an exhibition of Waters extensive work, titled "Artistically Incorrect: The Photographs and Sculptures of John Waters", from october 11 through january 11.

Dorney Park 40, 20, 2 years ago

Former traditional American amusement park "Dorney Park" is nicely shown in this 1968 scene from "Where Angels Go, Trouble Follows"

The Pennsylvanian Park opened in 1864, over a hundred years before this footage was taken.

Exactly twenty years later, John Waters used the park as background for his original version of "Hairspray". Titled "Tilted Acres" for the movie, they rebuild the big clown-face and tried to conjure a certain sixties feeling. Waters definately saw the above film.

Instead of funseeking nuns, Waters gave us Debbie Harry and Sonny Bono as a racist white-trash couple, the late Divine in one of his rare male roles and a Bergmann-esque vomit-scene in a kiddie-carroussel.
See it somewhere in this clip - which actually reminded me how good the first "Hairspray" really is!


Another twenty years later and Dorney Park is owned by corporate-chain "Cedar Fair". The park is not a gem but there are still many of the classic old rides left (The Whip, Monster, etc.) This is how it looks today.

Bollwerk

One of the most hated, currently (still) working directors is fellow German self-made-man Dr. Uwe Boll.
(pictured on the left. copyright: Kinostar)

However, Boll is a good business man and found a way to cash in on a stupid german tax-gap which is thankfully now closed. It was this tax-law which allowed him to finance his films outside of Germany without fearing to pay the losses out of his own pocket. His idea to purchase small money film-rights for video games was not stupid either.

Boll is often compared to the other "worst director of all times", Ed Wood. I think this is a lazy comparison in the same way as I think that the label that is attached to Wood is just lazily repeated, unreflected lore.

I do think that both directors are/were totally oblivious to the reception of their work. While Wood´s enthusiasm made him blind to the fact that his films were not up to par with others, Boll seems to be unaware of decent films, let alone art in the first place. It is as if the whole concept of good film making has passed him by.

Another thing Boll has learned from his fellow "bad directors" is the gift of self promotion. For good or bad, he found a way to link his name and face to his notoriety. So when he was recently asked about the online petition to stop him from filmmaking by Fearnet.com he upped the ante by explaining that he would consider it a deal after one million signatures (the current count was 18.000).

Wouldn´t it be a better idea if people decided to stop seeing his films instead of signing useless online-petitions?

The air might get thin for Dr. Boll anyway after his latest onslought of cinematic garbage is only considered a hit in the third-world.

But speaking of the third-world: John Waters once claimed that his films, which once were considered as absolute garbage, didn´t have budgets that would feed entire countries.
Boll boasts about his big budgets when he is asked about the difference between his films and the TROMA productions.

Does he really not get it? I guess the petition is not such a ridiculous idea after all.
Sign here.