Conor Williams at the Los Angeles Review of Books:
CONOR WILLIAMS: I programmed a film series at BAM last year called First as Tragedy, Then as Farce: Anti-Fascist Comedies. On the closing night we showed a 35 mm print of Desperate Living to a sold-out crowd, and people were roaring.
JOHN WATERS: That’s great. One of my favorite films is The Battle of Algiers, and I certainly could never approach that, but this was my Battle of Algiers.
I feel like it’s one of your more underrated films.
People hated it when it came out, and then it was scarily not politically correct for a while, and now young trans kids roar at it. The movie has gone through many different phases of public reaction. I’m so pleased with Criterion, because that gives it—that’s like getting a plenary indulgence from the Pope. You can’t do anything wrong again. That’s what Criterion is like. It’s now officially good.
More here.
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