Polyester

For his first studio picture, filth maestro Waters took advantage of his biggest budget yet to allow his muse Divine to sink his teeth into a role unlike any he had played before: Baltimore housewife Francine Fishpaw, a heroine worthy of a Douglas Sirk melodrama. Blessed with a keen sense of smell and cursed with a philandering pornographer husband (David Samson, caught in flagrante with secretary Mink Stole), a parasitic mother (Joni Ruth White), and a pair of delinquent children (Mary Garlington and Ken King), the long-suffering Francine turns to  best friend Cuddles (Waters stalwart Edith Massey) and then the bottle as her life falls apart—until deliverance appears in the form of a hunk named Todd Tomorrow (vintage heartthrob Tab Hunter). Enhanced with Odorama™ technology that enables you to scratch and sniff along with Francine (“Smelling is believing,” boasted the posters), POLYESTER is one of Waters’ most hilarious inventions, replete with stomach-churning smells, sadistic nuns, AA meetings, and foot stomping galore.

Screening as part of our new midnight series Sicks by John Waters

Previously screened in September of 2019 with in person introductions by John Waters