Polyester (film)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Polyester | |
|---|---|
| Directed by | John Waters |
| Starring | Divine Tab Hunter Edith Massey Mink Stole |
| Release date(s) | 1981 |
| Country |  USA |
| Language | English |
| IMDb profile | |
Polyester is a 1981 John Waters film starring Divine, Tab Hunter, Edith Massey, and Mink Stole. It was filmed in Waters' native Baltimore, Maryland, and features a gimmick called "Odorama", whereby viewers could smell what they saw on screen through "scratch and sniff" cards.
The film is a satire of suburban life, involving alcoholism, the religious right, adultery, foot fetishism, abortion, and divorce.
Contents |
[edit] Plot
Polyester tells the story of housewife, Francine Fishpaw (Divine), whose life is crumbling around her in her upper middle class suburban Baltimore home. Her husband, Elmer (David Samson) is an unappreciative lout who is the owner of the Charles Art Theatre, an X-rated movie house. Lulu (Mary Garlington) and Dexter (Ken King) are Francine and Elmer's terroristic children. The slatternly Lulu turns tricks down at the golf course and dates bad-boy Bobo Belsinger (Stiv Bators). Dexter, a substance-abusing hooligan with a foot fetish, is the "Baltimore Foot Stomper", a local serial-stalker who stamps on women's feet for his own pleasure at the local Shopping Mall. Also adding to Francine's troubles is her snobby, cocaine snorting mother, LaRue (White), who robs Francine blind and only cares about her "valuable shopping time".
Francine discovers that her husband is having an affair with his secretary, Sandra Sullivan (Stole), and later confronts them at a hotel, where Elmer asks Francine for a divorce. Promptly after, Francine falls face first into a bout of alcoholism. Lulu becomes pregnant with Bobo's child and the mother-to-be plans on an abortion. Dexter is finally arrested at a supermarket for stamping feet. Francine can only find solace in her best friend, Cuddles (Massey), an independently wealthy, care-free woman with a simple, caring outlook on life.
After a disastrous evening in which Lulu tries to commit suicide by sticking her head in the oven, Francine's life begins to change: Dexter is released from jail, completely rehabilitated. Lulu suffers a miscarriage from her suicide attempt and sees the error of her ways, turning from a high school harlot to an artistic flower child. A beacon of light in the form of lounge-suit wearing Todd Tomorrow (Hunter) arrives, lifting her spirits. Soon, Todd proposes marriage to an elated Francine who agrees. However, the plot begins to twist as it conspires that Todd is acquainted with Francine's mother, LaRue, in more than friendly terms.
Francine soon finds out that LaRue and Todd are plotting to get Francine's divorce settlement ($2,000 a month for alimony and the house completely mortgaged). Meanwhile, Elmer and Sandra break into the house in order to kill Francine, but are felled by Dexter and Lulu (Dexter steps on Sandra's foot, causing her to accidentally shoot the gun; the subsequent bullet kills Elmer; Lulu uses her macramé to strangle Sandra. Cuddles and her new beau Heintz show up at the right moment, running over LaRue and Todd with their limousine. As the film ends, all seems well for Francine and her children, and Cuddles and Heintz.
[edit] Dreamlanders
Waters' usual troupe of actors, the Dreamlanders, tend to play a minor role in this film when compared to Waters' previous film, Desperate Living which starred a majority of the Dreamlanders in major roles. Only two, Divine and Edith Massey get top billing in Polyester.
Dreamlander perennials Mink Stole, Mary Vivian Pearce, Cookie Mueller, Sharon Niesp, Marina Melin, Susan Lowe, Jean Hill, along with others were each given small roles. The parts are still imperative to the plot, but do not hold as much standing as their earlier roles.
Polyester was also the first of Waters' movies to become somewhat mainstream, even garnering an R rating as his previous films were all unrated or rated X. The role of Francine was Divine's first "straight" role when compared to the other characters in the film; Francine was the one with whom the audience could most closely relate. Additionally, the setting of the film was in the middle class suburbs of Baltimore instead of in the slums and bohemian neighborhoods of Baltimore and people at the fringes of society (as was the case with Waters' earlier films).
[edit] “Women’s Pictures”
Polyester was meant as a send-up of “women’s pictures,” an exploitative genre of film that was popular from the 1950s-60s and typically featured bored, unfulfilled, or otherwise troubled women, usually middle-aged housewives, finding release or escape through the arrival of a handsome man. “Women’s pictures” were typically hackneyed B-movies, but Waters specifically styled Polyester after the work of genuinely talented director Douglas Sirk, making use of similar lighting and editing techniques, even using authentic equipment from Sirk's movie-making era.
[edit] Odorama
Smells, especially Francine's particularly keen sense of smell, play an important role in the film. To highlight this as a gimmick, Waters designed Odorama, a "scratch and sniff" technique inspired by the work of William Castle and the 1960 film Scent of Mystery that featured a device called smell-o-vision. Special cards with spots, numbered 1 through 10, were distributed to audience members before the show, in the manner of 3D glasses. When a number flashed on the screen, the viewers were supposed to smell the appropriate spot. The smells included the scent of flowers, pizza, glue, grass, and feces.
Some video versions of the film edit out when the numbers came on screen, the version used was one created by Lorimar Telepictures, which was shown on cable TV in America.
In 1999, the Independent Film Channel released reproduction odorama cards for John Waters film festivals. IFC, since then, has thrown away 100,000 reproduction odorama cards.
In the commentary track on the film's 2004 DVD release, Waters cynically explained his delight at having the film's audiences actually "pay to smell shit".
[edit] Response
Polyester received some good reviews from the mainstream press. Said Janet Maslin of the New York Times:
| “ | Ordinarily, Mr. Waters is not everyone's cup of tea - but Polyester, which opens today at 4he National and other theaters, is not Mr. Waters's ordinary movie. It's a very funny one, with a hip, stylized humor that extends beyond the usual limitations of his outlook. This time, the comic vision is so controlled and steady that Mr. Waters need not rely so heavily on the grotesque touches that make his other films such perennial favorites on the weekend Midnight Movie circuit. Here's one that can just as well be shown in the daytime. | ” |
[edit] Trivia
- This was the last of Waters' movies that Edith Massey appeared in. She died in 1984.
- Samples from the movie were used in the song "Frontier Psychiatrist" by The Avalanches. It is one of their most popular songs.
- Cookie Mueller, author and frequent subject of photographer Nan Goldin, appears in the film as one of the victims of the foot stomper.
[edit] External links
- Polyester at the Internet Movie Database
