Rewatched Polyester yesterday - Hollywood could not fully tame John Waters. Like so many of his movies, not only has it stood the test of time, it's gained, matured like fine wine. Wonderfully subversive and refreshing, especially for these politically correct times where everything has become so tame and overly PC. Divine is superb, well, divine, Tab Hunter is excellent and it's nice to see the Waters gang still kicking, especially Edith Massey. Amazing to realize that in all these decades since the 60's, there's never been a successor to John Waters, and so he still reigns supreme in his filthy perverted kingdom. When I read/hear all the arguments about "diversity" in Hollywood, I think "how about diversity of sensibility and psychology and innovation". While the pundits obsess over diversity along social dimensions, I'd love some diversity in psychology so we're not suffocatingly presented with such a narrow range as we have these days. Which is why I need to re-watch John Waters movies from time to time, because it's more than just a breath of fresh air, it's like much needed oxygen in a stuffy basement - open the windows and let other voices be heard.
Polyester (1981)
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Mitch Gross
Veteran
My home town hero!
You haven’t lived until you’ve seen a John Waters movie in a packed theater in Baltimore. It’s a social experience. With Polyester, everyone has the scratch & sniff cards and smells the rose with the “scientist” in the opening. Of course those of us that know are sure not to scratch for the second event. But in a theater of 100s of people there’s no escaping the smell of Divine’s husband’s fart.
Decades ago John appeared in the legally-mandated no smoking film notice that ran before every movie at the local art house cinema, The Charles. Of course there he was smoking his own cigarette in closeup and saying to go ahead and smoke anyway as it gave ushers jobs. Then he simultaneously exhaled smoke out his mouth and sucked it up his nose with a big slurping sound. Disgusting and hysterical.
As much as we all love the dog poo moment from Female Trouble, this was always my personal favorite.
https://youtu.be/vQwPES50N0s
Found the No Smoking clip. I practically lived at The Charles as a teenager so must have seen this hundreds of times.
https://youtu.be/YnpofBtijF8
You haven’t lived until you’ve seen a John Waters movie in a packed theater in Baltimore. It’s a social experience. With Polyester, everyone has the scratch & sniff cards and smells the rose with the “scientist” in the opening. Of course those of us that know are sure not to scratch for the second event. But in a theater of 100s of people there’s no escaping the smell of Divine’s husband’s fart.
Decades ago John appeared in the legally-mandated no smoking film notice that ran before every movie at the local art house cinema, The Charles. Of course there he was smoking his own cigarette in closeup and saying to go ahead and smoke anyway as it gave ushers jobs. Then he simultaneously exhaled smoke out his mouth and sucked it up his nose with a big slurping sound. Disgusting and hysterical.
As much as we all love the dog poo moment from Female Trouble, this was always my personal favorite.
https://youtu.be/vQwPES50N0s
Found the No Smoking clip. I practically lived at The Charles as a teenager so must have seen this hundreds of times.
https://youtu.be/YnpofBtijF8
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Mitch Gross
Veteran
I love that whoever was filming him at the time couldn’t keep from cracking up. Like I said, I’ve seen this hundreds of times but it wasn’t until tonight that it wasn’t in a packed theater at The Charles. This is the first time I heard that laughter because every other time the whole theater was laughing.
homestar_kevin
Well-known member
Mitch, they still play it at the Charles quite a bit.
If you're ever in town, let me know I'll buy you a beer and Club Charles or something.
If you're ever in town, let me know I'll buy you a beer and Club Charles or something.
Mitch Gross
Veteran
Good to know!