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Following the unrepentant outrageousness of Pink Flamingos and Female Trouble, director John Waters brought his notorious trash trilogy to a fittingly twisted close with this antifascist fairy tale. After hysterical housewife Peggy Gravel (Mink Stole) murders her husband with the help of her fed-up housekeeper (Jean Hill), the newfound “sisters in crime” escape to the bizarro shantytown of Mortville, a depraved penal colony presided over by a despotic queen (Edith Massey) whose tyranny pushes her subjects to shocking revolt. Deviant cops, death by dog food, DIY surgery—Waters unleashes all this and more in an at once relentlessly warped and oddly moral vision of queer rebellion. DIRECTOR-APPROVED BLU-RAY SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES New 4K digital restoration, supervised and approved by director John Waters, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack Audio commentary featuring Waters and actor Liz Renay Optional dubbed Italian track New conversation between Waters and film programmer Cristina Cacioppo Back to Mortville, a tour of the film’s main Baltimore location, led by Waters New interview with actors Susan Lowe, Mary Vivian Pearce, and Mink Stole Interview with production designer Vincent Peranio Trailer English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing PLUS: An essay by critic Grace Byron Top Similar From the Brand Questions Reviews Desperate Living (The Criterion Collection) [Blu-ray] Desperate Living (The Criterion Collection) [Blu-ray]

Description

Following the unrepentant outrageousness of Pink Flamingos and Female Trouble, director John Waters brought his notorious trash trilogy to a fittingly twisted close with this antifascist fairy tale. After hysterical housewife Peggy Gravel (Mink Stole) murders her husband with the help of her fed-up housekeeper (Jean Hill), the newfound “sisters in crime” escape to the bizarro shantytown of Mortville, a depraved penal colony presided over by a despotic queen (Edith Massey) whose tyranny pushes her subjects to shocking revolt. Deviant cops, death by dog food, DIY surgery—Waters unleashes all this and more in an at once relentlessly warped and oddly moral vision of queer rebellion. DIRECTOR-APPROVED 4K UHD + BLU-RAY SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES New 4K digital restoration, supervised and approved by director John Waters, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack One 4K UHD disc of the film presented in HDR and one Blu-ray with the film and special features Audio commentary featuring Waters and actor Liz Renay Optional dubbed Italian track New conversation between Waters and film programmer Cristina Cacioppo Back to Mortville, a tour of the film’s main Baltimore location, led by Waters New interview with actors Susan Lowe, Mary Vivian Pearce, and Mink Stole Interview with production designer Vincent Peranio Trailer English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing PLUS: An essay by critic Grace Byron Top Similar From the Brand Questions Reviews Desperate Living (The Criterion Collection) [4K UHD] Desperate Living (The Criterion Collection) [4K UHD]

Description

Glamour has never been more grotesque than in Female Trouble, which injects the Hollywood melodrama with anarchic decadence. Divine, director John Waters’ larger-than-life muse, engulfs the screen with charisma as Dawn Davenport—who progresses from a teenage nightmare hell-bent on getting cha-cha heels for Christmas to a fame monster whose egomaniacal impulses land her in the electric chair—in the ultimate expression of the film’s lurid mantra, “Crime is beauty.” Shot in Baltimore on 16 mm, with a cast drawn from Waters’ beloved troupe of regulars, the Dreamlanders (including Mink Stole, David Lochary, Mary Vivian Pearce, Edith Massey, and Cookie Mueller), this film, the director’s favorite of his work with Divine, comes to life through the tinsel-toned vision of production designer Vincent Peranio and costume designer/makeup artist Van Smith. An endlessly quotable fan favorite, Female Trouble offers up perverse pleasures that never fail to satisfy. DIRECTOR-APPROVED BLU-RAY SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES • New 4K digital restoration, supervised by director John Waters, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack • Audio commentary from 2004 featuring Waters • New conversation between Waters and critic Michael Musto • New and archival interviews with cast and crew members Mink Stole, Pat Moran, Vincent Peranio, Susan Lowe, Mary Vivian Pearce, and more • Deleted scenes and alternate takes • Rare on-set footage • More! • PLUS: An essay by film critic Ed Halter

Description

For his first studio picture, filth maestro John 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, a parasitic mother, and a pair of delinquent children, the long-suffering Francine turns to the bottle as her life falls apart—until deliverance appears in the form of a hunk named Todd Tomorrow (vintage heartthrob Tab Hunter). One of Waters’ most hilarious inventions, Polyester is replete with stomach-churning smells, sadistic nuns, AA meetings, and foot stomping galore. DIRECTOR-APPROVED BLU-RAY SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES New, restored 4K digital transfer, supervised by director John Waters, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack Audio commentary featuring Waters from the 1993 Criterion laserdisc release of the film New conversation between Waters and critic Michael Musto New program featuring interviews with Waters collaborators Tab Hunter, Dennis Dermody, Pat Moran, Vincent Peranio, Mink Stole, Mary Garlington, and Greer Yeaton Interviews from 1993 with crew members Moran, Peranio, and Van Smith Archival interviews with Waters, Moran, and actors Divine and Edith Massey, featuring footage from the making of the film Twenty minutes of deleted scenes and alternate takes Trailer English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing PLUS: An essay by film scholar Elena Gorfinkel and a foldout poster of the cover