After an unusually long layoff due to busy summer schedules, The Conversations is back at The House Next Door! In this edition, Ed Howard and I go film by film through the career of Todd Haynes. This is our first director overview since Quentin Tarantino about this time last year. We were due. Though we couldn't cover every feature of Haynes' oeuvre, we did discuss Superstar: The Karen Carpenter Story (1988), Poison (1991), Dottie Gets Spanked (1993), Safe (1995), Velvet Goldmine (1998), Far From Heaven (2002) and I'm Not There (2007). As usual, it ain't short. So bookmark it, take your time, and join the conversation with your comments.
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1 comment:
Oh, screw. I can't log in at Slant. But I wanted to say that, Ed and Jason, you have written a masterful analysis of Far From Heaven. You clearly delineate what makes this one of the best films of that year. I love the power of the film's use of color and its themes and how it evokes the painful side of a seemingly idyllic era. Well said here, Ed - It's as though Ricky had called Lucy a bitch, or the Beav flipped off June, or a character in a Rockwell painting had, well, wandered into a moodily lit back-alley gay bar, as Frank does at one point.
There are so many powerful, memorable scenes in this film that I don't see it as being as subtle as you're saying it is. I suppose it's somewhat contrived as a metaphor - but I love the shot of all the white children vacating the pool when the black child enters. You can almost see the spreading contamination that they imagine.
Dennis Quaid is amazing.
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