John Waters on Lana Del Rey: “She’s very David Lynch to me”
Few directors have garnered such a dedicated cult following as John Waters, whose transgressive, camp movies have simultaneously delighted and repulsed audiences for decades. While Waters achieved mainstream success with his 1980s comedy Hairspray, he made waves in the independent scene during the late 1960s and 1970s with movies such as Female Trouble and Pink Flamingos.
The latter remains Waters’ most controversial works and one of the most contentious films ever made. Pink Flamingos includes everything from graphic nudity and sex (unsimulated) to the consumption of real dog shit. Starring Waters’ muse Divine, the film was banned in many countries and deemed obscene, although it gained a reputation as an underground sensation.
Waters’ love for music infiltrates his movies, whether that be through a soundtrack full of obscure hits or musicians such as Debbie Harry and Sonny Bono starring in them. The American director has extensive musical knowledge, citing everyone from The Chipmunks to King Krule as part of his collection. You must expect the unexpected from Waters, and his book Mr Know It All reveals his love for ‘50s “teenage-tragedy” tunes and “great ‘bad’ recordings” – he harnesses taste that knows no bounds.
However, something that is perhaps unsurprising is Waters’ love for Lana Del Rey. The singer, who emerged in 2011 with her hit single ‘Video Games’, is one of the biggest names in modern music. When Del Rey first rose to prominence, she was often criticised for glamourising toxic relationships and dying young. Yet, Del Rey’s early penchant for melodrama, turning events from her life into something wholly cinematic, is perfectly suited to Waters’ tastes.
In an interview with Rolling Stone in 2014, Waters revealed that he had been listening to Ultraviolence a lot, stating, “She had the best celebrity quote ever when she said, ‘I wish I was dead already.’ I just love that quote. So great.” Waters continued to expand on his love for the singer: “Everyone makes fun of her, but that first album [Born to Die] was on the Billboard chart for three years, longer than a Kid Rock album. She infuriates people, but I think she’s in on it.”
Waters also compared the singer to one of his filmmaking contemporaries, David Lynch. Both filmmakers met at the end of the 1970s when Lynch’s Eraserhead became a popular midnight movie, around the same time Waters’ work could also be showing after dark. To Waters, Del Rey is “very David Lynch to me”, adding: “I really want her to hook up with David Lynch because he produces great albums these days.”
Del Rey covered ‘Blue Velvet’ by Bobby Vinton, the song that gave Lynch the name for his classic 1986 movie, on her 2012 EP Paradise. It’s not hard to draw parallels between many of Lynch’s complex female characters and the experiences Del Rey outlines in her earlier work. Lynch has also acknowledged his respect for the singer in the past: “Lana Del Rey, she’s got some fantastic charisma and — this is a very interesting thing — it’s like she’s born out of another time… She’s got something that’s very appealing to people. And I didn’t know that she was influenced by me!”
Waters’ suggestion that Lynch and Del Rey should pair up for an album sounds like a fantastic idea, and we can only hope that the two collaborate in the future.
