John Waters on Why He Pays to See David Cronenberg Movies

I’m with John. He pays to see Cronenberg movies for the same reason I buy my friends’ books when they come out. Because that’s how you show your support. Waters says go see the movie Friday night and pay. While I was in Provincetown, I bought a copy of Waters’ Carsick and am happy to report that not only did I support the local bookstore (which, OK, smelled heavily of cat pee), but I used my credit card to help put that book on the NYT bestseller list in my small way. And, then, when I opened the book and read his fantasy of getting picked up by a manly dude and invited to ride shotgun at a demolition derby, I was truly amazed that John had done it again: taken me to a place I’d never been before with a guide I trusted to both make me laugh and gross me out.

Here’s his introduction of David Cronenberg at the Provincetown Film Festival:

“David Cronenberg has been honored in this country, in Canada, and all over the world, yet Martin Scorsese commented that he was scared to actually meet him. I was drunk the first time I met him. It was at William Burroughs 70th birthday at The Limelight about 30 years ago. And God knows I have been his fan forever, and I have paid, even, to see every one of his movies. I go see them on the first Friday night when it counts….

“Some say he’s created his own genre, and the word Cronenberg-esque needs no explanation. I think he argues that, and truthfully, because some of his films are so different from the others, so maybe Cronenberg-esque just means great, which I think it does….”