The Best Old Movies on a Big Screen This Week: NYC Repertory Cinema Picks, October 13-20
Polyester (1981)
Directed by John Waters
Only Waters would think to combine campy melodrama with huckster gimmickry. That said, he’s also the only one to incorporate foot fetishism, glue sniffing, smut peddling, abortions, and (be still, your hearts) former teen heartthrob Tab Hunter. Presented in glorious Odorama, Polyester marks when, as the Prince of Puke himself posits, “Hollywood and my underground met for the first time”—when his greatest commercial successes, which would ultimately jeopardize his standing as a trash-monger, were still ahead. His eminent muse Divine returns as Francine, a housewife whose delinquent children and pornographer husband only make her suffering more unbearable. It’s the Sirk film from Hell, ushered in by Dead Boy wonder Stiv Bators and egg-obsessed Dreamlander Edith Massey. Max Kyburz (October 19, 7:30pm at Film Forum; introduced by Tab Hunter and presented in Odorama)