The John Waters movie Andy Warhol recommended to Federico Fellini
Filmmakers don’t come much more different than John Waters and Federico Fellini, but thanks to an assist from Andy Warhol to round out one of the unlikeliest trios imaginable, the legendary Italian auteur is confirmed to have seen at least one film made by the ‘Pope of Trash’.
It’s well known that Waters has always been a huge fan of Fellini’s, with the seminal 8½ not only one of the greatest movies ever made but a transformative experience for the ‘Prince of Puke’ that he naturally watched for the first time while completely out of his mind on psychedelics.
Fellini helped push the medium forward by combining grounded and naturalistic drama with regular flights of fancy, curating and honing a style that was distinctly his own but nonetheless imitated by aspiring auteurs the world over for generations to come.
Blurring the lines between fact and fiction, Fellini’s filmography was largely defined by its singular explorations of the human condition, relying on his tried and trusted motifs of memory, dream, desire, and fantasy. In a way, then, Waters has more than a thing or two in common with the iconic auteur.
The ‘Duke of Dirt’ certainly pushed the boundaries of celluloid, albeit in his own way. There was nothing off-limits where Waters was concerned, and he became a defining cult icon for refusing to take anything off the table. If he wanted to get weird, he was going to get as weird as humanly possible, and it ended up winning him a legion of adoring supporters along the way.
The transgressive and provocative maverick gained early notoriety with 1972’s Pink Flamingos, arguably his most famous work. Part of that fame is admittedly down to the sheer entertainment value and high camp seeping out of every frame, but there’s also a heavy layer of infamy to colour its reputation.
It remains up for debate whether or not Fellini enjoyed watching Divine eat a freshly-laid dog turd, but what can’t be argued is that he definitely watched it happen. Waters and Warhol were familiar with each other as acquaintances who travelled in many of the same circles, which made the artist and occasional filmmaker the facilitator.
Not only did Warhol play host to a showing of the film, but he informed one of the medium’s greatest-ever directors that it was well worth checking out. “He had a screening of Pink Flamingos,” Waters said to Rolling Stone of the ongoing support he was receiving. “He recommended it to Fellini.”
Sadly, there’s no record of Fellini’s reaction to the one-of-a-kind cult classic, but even the prospect of him sitting through it from beginning to end is more than enough to make it a truly fascinating slice of history.
