HEAVENLY HAYNES

Openly gay director Todd Haynes goes ber-Sirk

by Blase DiStefano

Todd Haynes is the director and writer of Far from Heaven, a new film that is set in the 1950s and stars Julianne Moore, Dennis Quaid, and Dennis Haysbert. Moore's character and the centerpiece of the film, Cathy Whitaker, is surrounded by her husband Frank (Dennis Quaid), who is struggling with his homosexuality, and her black gardener Raymond Deagan (Dennis Haysbert), whom she leans on for support after walking in on her husband with another man. Influenced by Douglas Sirk, director of '50s films like All That Heaven Allows, Written on the Wind, and Imitation of Life, Haynes not only mimics '50s films down to the last detail, he also covers homosexuality and race relations in a way that wasn't possible in an era where bigotry was more acceptable.

OutSmart: When I interviewed you for Velvet Goldmine [1996], you said you had no plans for another film at that time and that you were keeping it completely open. So when did the idea for Far From Heaven actually seep into your mind?

Todd Haynes: It was after a kind of failed attempt at a very happy break, a happy vacation from my career which I tried to take, and my moving into a new apartment, a more expensive and smaller apartment [in New York]. And it was all fine-I just wasn't feeling the kind of change that I was hoping to feel from what had been very strenuous and exhausting production experiences. Finally, I was like, Okay, I guess it's time to maybe think about writing this melodrama idea that's floating around in my head. • It took me to Portland, Oregon, where I initially went just to write this script. My sister lives there. And strangely enough, I found the changes in my life that I had been looking for up there. It was a very different place to be. It just felt like it had a lot more space for me to be other things than just a filmmaker guy. And I love the people I met, I love the climate, and I stayed and eventually bought a house in that year [2000]. • So the writing of the script ultimately kind of created this needed change in my life. It was good.

It shows in the movie. I felt like I was transported to the '50s. The titles, the colors, the script, even the little nuances that the actors gave out.

What was so weird and great about that is that I think that's really true. We were really pretty unrelenting about not just setting the film then but using the exact film language from that time. The thing that I just never would have expected, at least to this degree, is the kind of critical reaction so far that demonstrates that people, despite all of that, get completely drawn into it at a very emotional level. That was definitely my goal-that wasn't an accident-but you just never know how much that will work. And I realized how dangerously we were going in the other direction.

Though things have changed dramatically since the 1950s...

Yes and no.

Yeah. Do you feel that Dennis Quaid's character could still exist today?

Oh, absolutely. It's sad but true. You wonder how conservative the '50s really were in comparison. But I hear far too often from people about marriages like this today, even in big cities where one thinks there are plenty of positive role models for different kinds of lifestyles. The fear of being different is really deep.

Very deep. Also, black and white relationships are still pretty close to the way the relationship between Julianne Moore and Dennis Haysbert was portrayed in the film.

It depends on where you are, but absolutely, I think there are many places in the country where this would not be unusual at all. Especially in the way that blacks and whites tend to agree about that. And I think that even the status of women, although there's been enormous changes on the surface of things, still ... [coughs] Excuse me. I'm a little hungover. We had our premiere last night.

How did it go?

It was fun.

I want to get back to the "status of women" thing, but where was the premiere?

The party was at 21 Club, which is a classic '50s establishment. I had never been there before, and I had lived [in New York] for 15 years. But it was great. It was perfect. It was a packed party with just a lot of incredibly sweet people telling me how much they loved the movie and just a lot of excitement in the room.

Was the party after the film?

Yes, we had a real premiere at the Beekman Theater, I think ... I can't remember what theater it was. It was sort of a blur, but it was great. Also, it looked beautiful and sounded beautiful. It was a really nice theater to show it in. People were really thrilled. A lot of sniffling by the end, which I like.

Okay, back to . . .

Our attempt to get this financed wasn't a problem based on the script, surprisingly. People didn't seem too scared of this kind of style, but they were scared of the simple fact that it's a film about a woman, and that's all. Or basically that's the focus, and if it didn't happen to be Julia Roberts playing that role in 2002, beyond a certain monetary commitment to this film, it would be considered a tremendous risk. And that in and of itself is indicative of how male dominated the industry is. And I think a lot more so actually these days. And how much is geared to male viewers.

Young male viewers.

Exactly.

The costumes were designed by Sandy Powell, who also did Velvet Goldmine. She is apparently a goddess.

She is a genius goddess. Yes, she's a diva.

So you and Sandy and others got together and discussed the colors and the way...

Yes, we did, with the director of photography Ed Lachman and the production designer Mark Friedberg, all of whom did such beautiful work on the movie. But the leading theme of the design of the film in every way was color, and so it led our aesthetic discussion throughout the pre-production process.

Okay, I know you're pressed for time, but I wanted to ask you a couple of stupid questions. If you were stranded on a desert island and you could only have one movie with you...

I hate these questions. They are just so hard. The greatest thing about movies is there are so many different kinds. It's like food-you want to taste all these different flavors.

How about we get real specific: How about a Douglas Sirk movie?

Yes. That is good. That's appropriate for this. I guess it would be All That Heaven Allows. I feel like I've watched it and studied it so much now, it doesn't have that freshness for me. With some time passing, looking at it again I'll feel everything I always felt about that movie. Written on the Wind is just a masterpiece. It's a perfect film. Imitation of Life is probably the one that really makes me weep. It's an incredible movie, and All That Heaven Allows is a little quieter in its scenes and just beautifully constructed filmmaking, gorgeous work.

This should be a little bit easier, I think. You're still on that island and you can have only one person with you. This can't be a friend or a lover or a relative. So you can't say Julianne Moore, for instance, because she's actually a friend of yours.

Someone living?

They can be dead. Of course, they won't be dead when they're on the island with you.

[Laughs] If you want to be with a great mind, I think I'd pick Freud. He would be so fascinating. I would love to hear Freud talk. He's also a beautiful writer, he's a very easy and enveloping person to read and a lovely writer, and I'd bet he be a wonderful conversationalist.

He would have to be. Do you have anything you want to add at all? I know you're hungover, but...

Yes, I do, but I don't think I have time to add anything of real substance. But I know Dorothy Malone [who won a best supporting Oscar for Written on the Wind] lives in Dallas. I hope she gets to see the movie.

FAR FROM HEAVEN

Review by Tim Brookover

HEAVEN SENT

Todd Haynes's remarkable Far From Heaven echoes two aspects of American movie history. The first is, of course, the work of director Douglas Sirk, who married a sharp look at domestic life and meticulous Technicolor craftsmanship to pierce '50s hypocrisy. The second: the great movies of the '70s, a moment when complexity in stories and characters were still valued in Hollywood. By consciously embracing the former, Haynes compares favorably with the latter.

Haynes even encourages his actors to perform in a Sirkian style, a brittle artificiality that deepens as the movie progresses. As a prosperous Connecticut housewife confronted by matters of sexuality, race, and class she never expected, Julianne Moore reveals the transformation from a spouse and mother whose life is all beautiful surface to a woman confronting a confusing new world. Dennis Quaid, always a charismatic but underrated actor, brings a potent restraint to his portrayal of the husband struggling with nascent gay urges. (Yes, dear readers, Quaid looks splendid, and the still-solid abs get a cameo.) As the black gardener, father, and businessman befriended by Moore's character, Dennis Haysbert subverts the stock figure of the understanding other with smoldering masculinity.

Haynes's screenplay marvels with understatement, which gives intense moments an almost savage power. The climactic confrontation between wife and husband, in particular, builds to a shattering shard of dialogue that tears into both characters. At such instants, Haynes uses a frank perspective not possible for Sirk while pointing out that the attitudes that burden his characters have not entirely improved.