John Waters is giving Pink Flamingos the sequel/remake that no one in their right mind ever thought to ask for. The hook this time around isn’t over the top shock and a piece of dog poo, but instead belongs to the innocence of childhood.
Waters is showing the 74-minute “remake” table read on a loop at Marianne Boesky Gallery in New York from January 9th until Valentine’s Day and he did it all with a group of kid actors. From The New York Times:
The “Kiddie Flamingos” cast members — all of whom are far too young to watch the film they’re remaking — wear candy-colored wigs, cat-eye glasses and at least one pencil-thin mustache (drawn on, of course) to evoke their characters in a table reading of the new script. “I’ve always said that if you took out the sex and the violence, that it is a children’s story because it’s the battle of the gross-out, and that’s what most kids’ books are now,” Mr. Waters, above, said in a phone interview on Sunday.
So this is Pink Flamingos without the rough edges. With the pure garbage that happily filled the screen all those years ago, chewing dog feces and inhabiting the edge of life’s toilet bowl (the saltiest part). What is there to expect?:
To make the piece kid-friendly, Mr. Waters said he eliminated all obscenities and altered the script so that it told the same story, only in a more age-appropriate way. For example, instead of impregnating hitchhikers and selling their babies, the children steal talking baby dolls from wealthy families.
Oh well that’s practically the same thing these days. Some rich people treat their kids like baby dolls, so it works out. Don’t believe me? Ask Blanket Jackson what’s up.
(Via New York Times / The AV Club / Art News)
