Three out-there filmmakers are getting out of the directors chair and into the hot seat next month.
Werner Herzog (Flickr user “erinc salor”) John Waters (David Shankbone), Darren Aronofsky (Dkandell)
John Waters in conversation with Dennis Dermody and J Hoberman
Sept. 5 and 11, Walter Reade Theater, 165 West 65 Street
After regaling us with his Christmas list, the filmmaker who shocked/delighted the world with the poo-eating in Pink Flamingos is having a retrospective at Lincoln Center that will include a rare scratch-n-sniff screening of Polyester. The whole shebang kicks off Sept. 5 with a screening of Female Trouble, followed by a conversation between Waters and film critic J Hoberman.
Then, on Sept. 11, Waters and his ol’ pal, Paper critic Dennis Dermody, will chat after a screening of Mondo Trasho, the 1969 feature that introduced the one and only Divine to the world. (By the way, the great I Am Divine has now hit Netflix, as has the Waters doc This Filthy World). If you weren’t one of the randoms Waters chatted up during his recent hitchhiking stint, this is probably the closest you’ll get to picking his twisted brain.
Werner Herzog in conversation with Paul Holdengräber
Sept. 4 at 8 p.m., Peter Jay Sharp Building, BAM Howard Gilman Opera House, 30 Lafayette Avenue, Brooklyn
His leading man, Klaus Kinski, was recently honored (sort of) by Anthology Film Archives, so it’s only fair that Werner Herzog gets his moment in the spotlight. The German provocateur behind Even Dwarves Started Small and Fitzcarraldo — who has been enjoying a mainstream renaissance with documentaries like Grizzly Man, Cave of Forgotten Dreams and Encounters at the End of the World — will be talking to the New York Public Library’s director of public programs. Here’s hoping he expresses his opinions about the “artsy fartsy.”
Darren Aronofsky in conversation with Lynne Tillman
Sept. 30 at 7:00 p.m., the New Museum Theater, 235 Bowery
The New Museum announced today that the director of Requiem for a Dream, The Wrestler, and Black Swan (and, er, Noah) will be the featured speaker in this year’s installment of its Visionaries series, which has previously brought luminaries like chef Alice Waters and Mad Men creator Matthew Weiner to the stage. The East Villager will be chatting with novelist and art writer Lynne Tillman. Presale tickets ($20) go on sale to New Museum members August 20, and $25 general admission tix will go on sale August 27. Warning: anyone who yells out “Ass to ass!” will be ejected from the theater.
