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Todd Haynes (1961 - )
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 Velvet
Goldmine by
Todd Haynes (1998)
Arguably the most talented of the so-called
“New Queer Cinema” filmmakers, Haynes stumbles a bit in this
emotionally cold but musically exciting and visually
hallucinogenic story set in London’s glitter rock world of the
early 1970s. Unable to get the story or music rights to David
Bowie’s meteoric rise to rock stardom, Haynes instead offers a
tale and soundtrack suspiciously similar to Bowie’s Ziggy
Stardust incarnation with a little bit of Iggy Pop thrown in as
well. Rhys-Meyers is a sweet young man who transforms himself into
glam rock superstar Brian Slade. He marries an intense American (Collette)
but falls in love with fellow rocker Curt Wild (a wonderfully
swaggering McGregor). At the height of his fame, he fakes his
death. Now ten years later, a former fan/now reporter (Bale) sets
out to uncover the truth and reasons for his self-destruction.
Structured in the style of Citizen Kane, the story is
familiar to all: An innocent with talent and ambition rises to the
top of their world, only to see it crash down under the weight of
drugs, sex and/or greed. What makes the film memorable are the
loud fashions, some good acting, high-energy music and intensely
druggy images.
 Safe
by
Todd Haynes (1995)
Restrained but emotionally involving, this is a
harrowing tale of a woman who physically suffers at the hands of
"progress." The deceptively simple story follows Carol
White (the remarkable Moore), an out-of-touch, Stepford Wife-like
Southern California housewife who, despite being buffeted by a
wealth of material comforts and a loving husband, finds her body
slowly ravaged by allergic reactions to everyday chemicals,
fragrances and fumes. This transforms her seemingly protected
upper-middle-class existence into a terror of everyday life. Her
doctors cannot find anything physically wrong with her, so Carol
sets off to New Mexico for answers and a cure at a New Age-style
spa/convalescence resort. With a bold yet austere visual style,
Haynes chillingly explores suburban complacency and existential
alienation and its ensuing lack of self-worth. Ultimately, Safe
is anything but and is thought-provoking and quietly disturbing.
 Poison
by
Todd Haynes (1991)
Winner of the Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance
Film Festival, this amazingly self-assured first feature by
director Haynes proved to be quite a controversial work upon its
release. Interweaving three seemingly unconnected stories, each
with its own individual filmmaking style, this low-budget
independent effort will mesmerize many, perplex others and disgust
more than a few. Hero, the first tale, told in a
semidocumentary form, recounts a young boy's killing of his
abusive father and his miraculous flight away. Horror,
filmed in a '50s sci-fi horror flick manner, follows the tragedy
that strikes a scientist after he successfully isolates the human
sex drive in liquid form. The final tale, adapted from the
writings of Jean Genet, is Homo, an intensely sensual and
lyrical story of obsessive, unrequited love set in a prison. Poison
is a wholly original, provocative, unsettling and intelligent film
that is a must-see for adventurous videophiles. We sell the
longest and most erotic version.
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By Keith Phipps, The Onion
Introduction:
After co-founding the non-profit Apparatus
Productions in 1985 to support new filmmakers, Todd Haynes made
one of the most talked-about, least seen films of the '80s. Using
Barbie dolls, Superstar: The Karen Carpenter Story recounts
the life of the light-rock musician. A court order from Richard
Carpenter has kept the movie out of circulation, but that didn't
stop Haynes from making news. His 1991 film Poison, based
on three stories by Jean Genet, served as one of the focal points
of the debate over the National Endowment for the Arts, outraging
conservatives with its explicit gay content. What they overlooked,
naturally, was the fact that Poison signaled the coming of
age of one of the decade's most compelling directors. Divided into
three stories--"Hero," "Horror," and
"Homo"--told in wildly divergent styles, Poison
demonstrated Haynes' multi-faceted directorial skills and
spearheaded the important, if ill-defined, New Queer Cinema
movement. Safe, starring Julianne Moore, followed four
years later. In it, Moore plays a privileged California housewife
who develops "environmental illness," making her highly
allergic to the everyday toxins of modern society. Her condition
ultimately takes her to a New Age-like retreat, separating her
from her home, friends, and family. A memorable and disturbing
film, Safe touches on many of the central issues of
contemporary consumer culture, its profound ambiguity making it
that much more powerful. The sterility of Safe is far
removed from the environment of Haynes' latest film, the
semi-fictional glam-rock spectacle Velvet Goldmine. Goldmine
follows the efforts of a journalist (Christian Bale) in a
dystopian version of the year 1984 to track down the whereabouts
of the David Bowie-like rock star he idolized during the
early-'70s glam era. Haynes recently spoke to The Onion...
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Interview with Todd Haynes by Aaron Krach, iPOP
Magazine, 1989
Todd Haynes is the golden child of independent
cinema. Actors yearn to work with him. Critics fawn over him.
Collaborators work with him again and again. Even people who were
perplexed by his films are hard pressed to actually criticize
them. Now comes "Velvet Goldmine," a lush,
complex, erotic and musically charged expose of Glam Rock and it's
repercussions. Critics are praising the film as bold and original.
Festivals clamored for the privilege of screening the movie.
Cannes gave it a special award. But all along the way, Todd Haynes
is still the most ordinary, brilliant guy.
iPOP was lucky enough to catch up with the man
and the myth in between trips to the Edinburgh and New York Film
Festivals...
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Todd Haynes and fellow gay miners Christine
Vachon and Michael Stipe dig into the glitter-rock riches of the
Velvet Goldmine.
Interview by Blase DiStefano, OutSmart
Magazine, November 1998
Excerpt:
Todd Haynes, wearing blue jeans and a blue-jean
jacket, walks down the long staircase to the lobby of the
Houstonian Hotel. My first impression is of a young, attractive,
light-haired man; as he approaches me with his wide smile, my
impression changes to a young, attractive, light-haired man who
needs the care of a hairdresser. OK, so he's doing one interview
after another and he's a little stressed, and maybe he just
washed his hair and didn't have time to dry it...
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Larry Gross talks with Safe's Todd Haynes, from Filmmaker
Magazine, Summer 1995 VOL. 3, #4
Excerpt:
Safe is a political
film that almost never directly mentions political issues, a
horror film without any monsters, special effects, or killings,
and a relationship film without any regular psychological
inflection. It is on the surface an utterly traditional narrative
film, but one which is also secretly a work of difficult
abstractness. Working with a bigger budget and trying to reach a
larger audience, Haynes has wound up making his most demanding and
elaborate film yet...
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