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Synopsis
Far
from Heaven marks the second teaming of leading lady Julianne Moore
with writer/director Todd Haynes and producer Christine Vachon,
following the trio’s collaboration on the acclaimed 1995 drama
SAFE. At the 2002 Venice International Film Festival, Far from Heaven
was honored with the Coppa Volpi Award for Best Actress (Julianne
Moore) and the Individual Contribution Award (given to cinematographer
Edward Lachman).
Far
from Heaven tells the story of a privileged housewife in 1950s America,
and is inspired by the great Hollywood dramas of that era. Haynes
lovingly depicts the gorgeous and placid surfaces of mid-century
suburban family life, even as his story breaks them open to reveal
a repressed world of limitless emotions and life-shattering desires
that cross the boundaries of racial and sexual tolerance with tragic
results.
It
is the fall of 1957. The Whitakers, the very picture of a suburban
family, make their home in Hartford, Connecticut. Their daily existences
are characterized by carefully observed family etiquette, social
events, and an overall desire to keep up with the Joneses. Cathy
Whitaker (Julianne Moore) is the homemaker, wife and mother. Frank
Whitaker (Dennis Quaid) is the breadwinner, husband and father.
They have two pre-teen children, a boy and a girl. As the story
unfolds before us, Cathy’s pristine world is transformed. Her
interactions with her gardener, Raymond Deagan (Dennis Haysbert);
her best friend, Eleanor Fine (Patricia Clarkson); and her maid,
Sybil (Viola Davis), reflect the upheavals in her life. Cathy is
faced with choices that spur gossip within the community and change
several lives forever.
A Focus
Features and Vulcan Productions presentation of a Killer Films/John
Wells/Section Eight production. A Film by Todd Haynes. Julianne
Moore, Dennis Quaid, Dennis Haysbert. Far from Heaven. Co-Starring
Patricia Clarkson, Viola Davis. Casting by Laura Rosenthal. Music
by Elmer Bernstein. Costume Designer, Sandy Powell. Edited by James
Lyons. Production Designer, Mark Friedberg. Director of Photography,
Edward Lachman, A.S.C. Co-Producers, Bradford Simpson, Declan Baldwin.
Executive Producers, John Wells, Eric Robison, John Sloss. Executive
Producers, Steven Soderbergh, George Clooney. Produced by Jody Patton.
Produced by Christine Vachon. Written and Directed by Todd Haynes.
Director’s
Statement
"Creating
a fifties-era melodrama today and playing it straight, smack in
the midst of this pumped-up, adrenaline-crazed era, might seem a
perplexing impulse. Yet the strongest melodramas are those without
apparent villains, where characters end up hurting each other unwittingly,
just by pursuing their desires. To impose upon the seeming innocence
of the 1950s themes as mutually volatile as race and sexuality is
to reveal how volatile those subjects remain today – and how
much our current climate of complacent stability has in common with
that bygone era." -- Todd Haynes
About
the Production
With
his latest film, writer/director Todd Haynes reinterprets and revisits
a great, almost forgotten Hollywood genre – the domestic melodrama.
Far from Heaven is inspired by the films of John Stahl (LEAVE HER
TO HEAVEN, MAGNIFICENT OBSESSION [1935], IMITATION OF LIFE [1934])
and, more particularly, the films of Douglas Sirk. Not unike those
classics of the genre, Haynes’ new film explores multiple layers
simultaneously.
As
with many of the masterpieces of the genre, Far from Heaven is set
in a prosperous suburbia, a world of bright bourgeois satisfaction
and Technicolor splendor that all but overpowers the lonely inner
life of its protagonists. In ALL THAT HEAVEN ALLOWS, Jane Wyman
plays a widow who falls in love with a younger man (Rock Hudson);
in THERE’S ALWAYS TOMORROW, Fred MacMurray portrays a neglected
husband who reconnects with an old flame. In these and other films,
love and other dormant emotions are ignited – only to be stamped
out by the critical moralizing of friends and family. In Far from
Heaven, the small, whispered innuendoes and self-satisfied smugness
of the community block the changes that Cathy Whitaker (Julianne
Moore) is undergoing.
"Maternal
melodramas are a tradition that inspired this film and this style
of filmmaking," comments Haynes. "They’ve been part
of American film history since it began.
"We
tried to approximate a whole look, a whole style, and a whole cinematic
language that aren’t familiar today. Styles of ’50s filmmaking
have certainly gone away: backlot Hollywood in Universal Pictures
movies, for example, the
experience
of working in a studio system with seasoned technicians working
in a factory of illusion-making that was honed and refined over
the years."
"With
Far from Heaven, the style and the content are inseparable –
as they are in most of the films I respect, where you can’t
imagine the story being told any other way. The style reflects the
emotional experience of the story. There’s a distancing effect
with the style we’re exploring – but ultimately it’s
not my goal to distance.
"I
wanted to have the emotional impact and the stylistic conventions
ultimately work as one. I think that what happens in the best melodramas
is that there is a sense in which you are observing it from afar
and you’re seeing what they’re doing…but you can’t
help getting drawn in emotionally at the same time. It’s because
these films are about subtle social dynamics, very large and very
small things that don’t really change. They’re also about
love and despair and disappointment and betrayal – the stuff
we all experience. So you can’t help but be sucked in –
and that’s my goal with Far from Heaven."
Haynes
sought to recreate the perfect, pristine look of mid-century Hollywood
studio films. He assembled a brilliant creative team that included
production designer Mark Friedberg (THE ICE STORM); cinematographer
Ed Lachman (ERIN BROCKOVICH); and Academy Award-winning costume
designer Sandy Powell (SHAKESPEARE IN LOVE), with whom Haynes had
previously collaborated on VELVET GOLDMINE. Together, the creative
team studied the movies of the period and re-created the heightened,
intensive perfection of those films’ sets, costumes, color
palettes, frame compositions, and lighting.
Haynes
states, "While the look and style of those ’50s melodramas
are anything but realistic, there’s something almost spookily
accurate about the emotional truths of those films. They are hyperreal,
that’s why we call them melodramas. Because they are about
the kinds of things that are close to our private, personal lives,
like falling out of love with somebody."
Far
from Heaven explores several social themes: racism, homosexuality,
and the role of women in families. In making a film set in the 1950s,
Haynes notes he "was very aware of the sense of superiority
that we all feel about the ’50s because in some ways the decade
has been reduced to a series of clichés around suburban,
conservative Americana. It’s shocking to think that the same
year Marilyn Monroe was at her peak, Joan Baez released her first
album and was
an
instant sensation. Those two examples of femininity that we now
put into such separate categories existed at the same time. So there
are all kinds of contradictions to the idea that the ’50s was
just one thing. It’s exciting to use some of those expectations
as a way of disarming the audience a little bit for Far from Heaven."
The
theme of maternal sacrifice is central to many of the greatest Hollywood
melodramas, from King Vidor’s STELLA DALLAS to Sirk’s
IMITATION OF LIFE (1959). In Far from Heaven, the character of Cathy,
played by Julianne Moore, shows how much women were forced to give
up to sacrifice to their family, while the men ultimately move on
in search of their happiness. Says Haynes, "Sadly, it’s
at the point where she gives it up, gives up her desires or hope
for satisfaction, that she gains her voice."
He
adds, "We’re also still struggling with racism to an incredible
degree. People are still grappling with their sexuality, even in
a world that offers positive alternatives all over the place. Racial
and sexual orientation are still ingrained as conflicts in our culture
– they’re still very pertinent."
Haynes
also sought to explore the differences between parenting today and
parenting then. He comments, "Certain aspects of contemporary
culture underscore aspects of this particular period more than others
– which is always the case when you’re in any particular
historical period looking back. In today’s culture, there is
a panic around any kind of crossing of certain lines or rules about
how children should be treated or dealt with; children have become
the central force of the family and many parents’ lives.
"In
addition to ALL THAT HEAVEN ALLOWS, Max Ophuls’ THE RECKLESS
MOMENT [recently remade as THE DEEP END] is an influence on Far
from Heaven. In the films of the ’50s, children are part of
the maternal jobs and responsibilities: the good mother is the one
who keeps them clean and quiet and in their place. You also see
this in beloved TV shows like FATHER KNOWS BEST, where it’s
the mother who is more strict and obsessed with cleanliness and
manners and all that stuff. Yet you don’t hate her; you don’t
think she’s bad or have any resentment toward her. So it’s
not meant to be a big flaw in the character of Cathy.
"In
many of Sirk’s films, it’s the children – older kids
– who are often the most extreme spokespeople for the repressions
of their culture. There’s no sentimentality
towards offspring in those films. It’s a very interesting concept:
maybe being the mother in an American household isn’t this
fully blessed existence; maybe the children aren’t the perfect
flowers of your life and the only things in the world."
Julianne
Moore, with whom Todd Haynes first collaborated on SAFE, was his
first choice for the role of Cathy, a woman who finds her entire
life shattering. Moore recalls, "Todd sent me the script in
the spring of 2000. He said, ‘This is the movie that I’ve
been working on and that I want you to do.’ It was pretty much
a final draft: with Todd, I find that everything that he wants is
evident in the script. Having worked with him before, I had insight
into what he was going for with Far from Heaven."
In
describing their working relationship, Haynes says, "We have
a kind of unspoken connection where we don’t over-discuss;
she is able to interpret my ideas. We clicked from when she read
SAFE. With Julianne, as with all the best actors, most of the director’s
work is done by simply selecting them. Every actor needs some element
of privacy about what they do, and they protect it. Julianne is
drawn to characters that are conflicted and have complexities and
are not catering to your sentiment in any overt or direct way. She
knows how to hold back and she intuitively understands that what
gives an audience the strongest experience watching a film is when
you have something to fill in yourself – where the actor doesn’t
show you every piece of it, and you put yourself in there as an
active spectator."
On
Gender
Julianne
Moore says, "The character that I play is a very traditional
’50s homemaker and I particularly wanted her to be a classic
American ideal, the women that you’ve seen in all those movies
from the ’50s. She should be this ideal – and then you
see her life deviate from that ideal pattern.
"In
this film, there are issues of bigotry and prejudice, but this is
ultimately Todd’s most feminist movie. His point is that here
might be sexual differences and cultural differences and racial
differences, but the first and most important difference is determined
at birth – whether you’re a boy or a girl. Everything
in Cathy’s life is defined by her very femaleness. As much
as the men in the film are going through all these things, they’re
the ones who manage to go on. Cathy is the one left behind, because
she is female."
Moore,
like Haynes, believes that the story in the film is not dated and
is completely relevant to our modern lives. She explains, "Although
people are kind of loath to say it, I think that there is a way
we publicly live our lives. In Far from Heaven, you see people being
forced into certain social situations and having to behave in a
particular way because of the place they’re in and the people
they’re speaking to. But then there are the private moments,
where they reveal other things. As an actor, it’s a wonderful
thing to do, to be able to do both the public and the private in
the same film."
On
Sexuality
Todd
Haynes notes, "Far from Heaven does deviate from the thematic
possibilities afforded films in the ’50s in its depiction of
homosexuality. Before the 1960s, homosexuality could only be alluded
to in American film by way of comically flamboyant or ridiculous
supporting characters or cameos."
Douglas
Sirk cast a little-known Universal contract player, Rock Hudson,
as the lead in his 1954 film MAGNIFICENT OBSESSION. The picture,
produced by the openly gay Ross Hunter, was a hit and made Hudson
a star. The actor would go on to star in four more films for the
same director and producer.
Haynes
adds, "So, homosexuality, while behind-the-scenes, was indeed
evident in the making of the films – as it was, arguably, in
the aesthetics of many directors of ‘women’s films,’
like George Cukor and Vincente Minnelli. While thematically restricted,
a gay or ‘feminine’ aesthetic was free to pervade the
profuse visual style of those films: the clothes, the colors, the
lavish décor. Far from Heaven may just be bringing into the
level of content what was always there, bristling beneath the surface."
In
Far from Heaven, Cathy’s husband Frank, played by Dennis Quaid,
is forced to finally admit to his homosexuality when his wife discovers
his feelings. Haynes comments, "At the time, homosexuality
was considered an illness. Even in the most civil and well-educated
circles, that was considered the tolerant way of looking at the
condition. Yet when I did research on homosexuality and its treatment
at that particular time, I was surprised. You think of the ’50s,
you assume shock treatment and all of these horrific, panicky things
because we think of the ’50s as so patently repressive. In
fact, there were breakthroughs in the late ’40s and in some
writings, doctors were saying
that this was not a sickness and that you really can’t change
it. So it was actually more progressive than I thought.
"But
I feel that, for someone like Frank, there are no examples around
him of any positive way to look to, to be, to live, to exist in
this moat. So the only way for him to get through the day was to
decide he was going to fix it: there must be a way to stitch it
up and let it heal, or take a medicine or whatever, and that’s
the way he approached it. But that doesn’t work, and it shouldn’t
and it can’t."
The
casting of actor Dennis Quaid, who throughout his career has so
effortlessly embodied comfortable masculinity on-screen, enhances
the role of Frank, the suburban "Pop" and husband who
can no longer hide the truth of his homosexuality from himself or
his wife.
Quaid
notes, "I’d seen a couple of Todd’s movies and found
him to be an artist, with a very interesting point of view about
life. When I read the script, my first impression was that it would
be good for me to play this character because I hadn’t done
a role like this before – and had never seen this character
situation in a film. On the exterior, it looks like Frank has the
perfect life: he has a wife and two kids and he’s a top sales
executive for Magnatech TV. But he’s very troubled and shamed
by his secret life.
"What
I appreciated about Todd’s writing and direction is that it
would have been very easy to parody these people and have a laugh,
but he doesn’t: there is an emotional integrity to it. It’s
set in the ’50s, a time when people swept things under the
carpet; behind those neat rose palaces that people lived in, all
kinds of drama went on that we never knew about. Things are more
open these days, but people still have the same emotions and feelings."
Haynes
says, "Dennis and I talked after he’d read the script.
While we spoke about the style being inseparable from the content,
one of the things that drew him to the film was the fact that he’d
never played a character like this before: a gay man, and one so
conflicted. He understood the conflict that Frank is going through
not just as an actor but as a person, because he said that he’s
had some very close friends for whom this has been the case."
Of
his on-screen same-sex kiss, Quaid remarks, "It’s all
about being a human being, it’s all about love. Like any love
scene, the hardest part was just waiting around
to do it. And once you’ve done the scene three or four times
– hey, it’s all in a day’s work."
Haynes
confirms, "There was no problem with Dennis doing that scene.
He started, in the initial takes, in a more muscular kind of way.
I said that it needed to be more simple – romantic and tender.
That is harder, and maybe more threatening, to portray. But he was
great."
On
Race
Far
from Heaven also explores the relationship between blacks and whites
in 1950s suburbia. Dennis Haysbert plays Raymond, the widower gardener
to whom Cathy is drawn. Haysbert himself was drawn to the film’s
"emotional content. In the fewest words, it’s ‘love
unrequited.’ I loved my character, I loved all the characters,
I always wanted to work with Julianne Moore, so I said, ‘Let’s
go.’" That was easier said than done, as the shooting
schedule of Far from Heaven was concurrent with the one for the
TV series "24," in which Haysbert costars. But the actor
managed to work on both projects at once, commuting between the
West and East Coasts.
In
his trips East for Far from Heaven, Haysbert found his director
to be "a man who definitely knows what he wants. At once I
felt very comfortable."
Haynes
in turn found the actor to be "this amazingly gentle and lovely
and smart and grounded man. He is all of those things that you see
in the film. Julianne so loved working with him, and between them
it worked exactly as it was conceived in the writing."
Haysbert
notes, "Raymond is a good man born at the wrong time. He and
Cathy live in a time where they just don’t fit with what people
perceive to be normal. They’re two people caught in this world
and they’re not going to be able to be together because they
have too many people close to them that will be hurt. So they sacrifice."
The
burgeoning relationship between Cathy and Raymond highlights the
taboo that was interracial dating and marriage in the ’50s,
in both the white and the black communities. Like ’50s Hollywood
melodramas, Far from Heaven is set primarily in the wealthy, white
world. Haynes notes that "there is the whole world of black
Hartford that we do not see. We see it all through the
little perfectly white happy family keyhole that is Cathy Whitaker’s
point of view. It’s like this moment in IMITATION OF LIFE that
is so beautiful: Lana Turner has spent her entire life with her
maid, Juanita Moore, and the maid is dying. She says she wants a
great funeral with all her friends there, and Lana Turner says,
‘Annie, I didn’t know that you had friends.’ And
Juanita Moore says, ‘Well, Miss Laura, you never asked.’
That tells you that this film has left something big out –
and not only has Lana Turner never shown interest in her black maid’s
life, neither have we the audience. We never asked, and we didn’t
even think about it until it was brought up in the dialogue. It
both shows you what’s not there and acknowledges that it should
have been there and we didn’t even think about it. It’s
not necessarily Lana Turner’s problem as much as it is all
of ours.
"There’s
a nod to IMITATION OF LIFE in Far from Heaven with the sequence
where Cathy is asking her maid, Sybil [Viola Davis], ‘You must
know of a good charity,’ and the NAACP comes but she doesn’t
have time for them. Even in her own good intentions, Cathy is whisking
past real people with real lives that she isn’t interacting
with in a deep way."
Mindful
of life imitating art, Haynes comments, "You know, it’s
hard to cast a strong actress like Viola Davis and put her in maid’s
clothes and have her saying, ‘Yes, Mrs. Whitaker…No, Mrs.
Whitaker.’ But we were trying to show the double standard and
partial vision of white America. Not just how it deals with race
but how that partial vision is reflected in the films that come
out of white America. Viola was smart and secure, and loved the
film’s story."
Haysbert
muses, "This is probably the film I’ve done that I’m
most proud of. It’s a very interesting period for me to portray.
It’s so uncomfortable in a lot of ways. People can’t seem
to get beyond the color of Raymond’s skin. But, in trying to
act on his sensibilities, he gets it from both sides: the people
of color as well as their white counterparts. It’s pretty balanced
among unbalanced ways of thinking."
Haynes
adds, "Raymond represents, for Cathy, a possible liberation
from her life and her fate. Raymond represents integrity but he’s
flawed too. He believes, too much, that the white world and the
black world can co-exist. He encourages his 11-year-old daughter,
Sarah, to interact with white culture and then they’re both
punished."
On
Actors
Rounding
out the principal cast is Patricia Clarkson, who plays Cathy Whitaker’s
best friend Eleanor Fine. Haynes sees both character and actress
as referencing and reinforcing "the tradition of the supporting
actress – think Eve Arden, Agnes Moorehead. Patty Clarkson
is a chameleon, she completely changes from role to role. She’s
fantastic. She reads Eleanor’s lines and you can’t imagine
anyone else performing the role.
"Patty
brings a great sense of flair and elegance to Eleanor. You look
to El as somebody who could probably handle most of the stuff that
Cathy feels too afraid to share with her through most of the film.
You watch the friendship between these two women get pushed apart."
Clarkson
comments, "Todd and I didn’t know one another, but he
knew my work and wrote me this beautiful letter. The script was
wonderful. Knowing how very specifically Todd was going to shoot
it, I thought, ‘Mmmm, this could be interesting.’ Eleanor
thinks she’s something that she isn’t and wants to be
something that she isn’t, but she clearly has a great love
and fondness for her best friend.
"Eleanor
fancies herself to be quite sophisticated. She’s married but
she doesn’t have any children. She has the more ‘freewheeling
life’ than Cathy, yet she is unfortunately still somewhat conventional
and is in fact not as open-minded as Cathy. Everybody in this film
has a secret life somewhere. You realize just how difficult it was
for people to live in this time and how trying it was for their
psyches and souls."
Moore
allows, "I did look at a few Sirk films during pre-production
– like ALL THAT HEAVEN ALLOWS, which is a major influence on
this film. But the style is embedded in my brain – I’ve
seen IMITATION OF LIFE so many times over the years. Far from Heaven
required – not realistic acting per se, but a realistic feeling
beneath. Absolutely everybody that Todd has found for this movie
has been wonderful."
Clarkson
agrees: "We had so many great people involved in this. It was
an opportunity for me to work with Julianne for the first time:
I admire her work so much. And I love Todd. He knows his film perfectly,
inside and out, and can just say the tiniest thing and it’s
exactly right and makes the difference in the
scene. He’s so enthusiastic that it makes for a great atmosphere
to work in. That’s important for an actor, to be comfortable
and to feel positive people around you in even the darkest scenes."
Quaid
adds, "I loved working with Julianne, because she and I work
a lot alike, we don’t do a lot of ‘method’ stuff.
We’re interested in getting it done. Julianne is the kind of
actress with whom you don’t see the work going on."
Haynes
laughs, "They’re actors who aren’t all ‘Don’t
talk to me!’ and ‘method.’ They’re not the least
bit indulgent."
Of
his own process, Quaid elaborates, "Basically, I’ve read
the script and have thought about it a lot. Then I like to go out
there and see what happens in the moment. There does come a time
in the shooting of a film when I feel that I know more about my
character than the director does. But I’m an actor who likes
to be directed: I like to work with very strong directors who have
definite ideas and points of view. Todd is one."
Haynes
comments, "Dennis adapted his performance to the acting style
of the time: a little more heightened, a little bit cleaner and
tidier than today’s more method-infused naturalism. He brought
that into his performance without sacrificing the emotional truth."
On
Location
Meticulously
recreating fall 1957 and winter 1958 was a challenge that would
have daunted larger and higher-profile productions than Far from
Heaven. But Todd Haynes and crew were ready. Haynes admits, "It
was hugely ambitious, and we had a very tough schedule to keep.
But we also had top-notch people across the board. It just permeated
the production.
"We
had a nicely diverse crew, too, and that made me feel good because
that isn’t always the case. So, from the start, it felt like
it was already collaborative with a lot of different points of view."
Some
of the key creative collaborators, such as production designer Mark
Friedberg and director of photography Ed Lachman, had not worked
with Haynes prior. Costume designer Sandy Powell, though, had, earning
an Academy Award nomination for her work on Haynes’ VELVET
GOLDMINE.
Friedberg,
whom Haynes describes as "a driven artist," had a mandate
to design "a movie that looked like a ’50s studio movie.
We tried to make our locations look like sets and our sets look
like locations."
Far
from Heaven was filmed not in Hartford, Connecticut but in and around
New Jersey. Bayonne’s Military Ocean Terminal offered office
and stage facilities that the production could, and did, take full
advantage of. Located just 7 miles from downtown Manhattan, the
Terminal was formerly used as the Eastern headquarters for the United
States Army. Additional filming was one on locations in New Jersey
(including Bloomfield), as well as in Manhattan.
"Todd
was well-prepared and had a clear sense of how he wanted to portray
this seemingly perfect world. We drew up a map of Hartford, and
found that we required about four different streets for ‘downtown
Hartford’," remembers Friedberg. "These were made
up of four different towns, one street for one part of town and
another street for another part of town – so that, on-screen,
someone is just turning a corner but in reality they were going
to the other side of the state.
"There’s
always a lot of work when you’re outdoors on a period film
because of the amount of real estate you have to cover. Every façade
has to be dealt with, and some have to be put up."
Haynes
adds, "It was expensive, for our budget. Any exterior stuff
is tough. Mark would say, ‘You almost pay by the square foot,’
because if you’re doing a block of storefronts, one more store
is that many more square feet of cost.
"You
know how in period films, the cars are spotlessly clean – that
drives me crazy. But in Far from Heaven, I wanted them to be spotlessly
clean because we were doing a film in homage to Hollywood filmmaking,
soundstage backlot films. So we would take these gritty streets
of New Jersey, clean them off, clean the building fronts, make the
perfect awning…The crew would crack up because I would go back
and adjust a little candy dish or move an ashtray until it was just
right…"
Friedberg
comments, "For me, this was a great thing: he understood the
difference between a warm color and a cool color, and he could speak
my language. Todd is a director who understands every job: what
a painter does, what
a carpenter does, what a sound man does. He’s like a conductor:
the words and the colors and the music will all go together to tell
this story."
For
sequences set during Cathy and Frank’s New Year’s trip
to Miami, the filmmakers got especially creative. Friedberg recalls,
"We got to create Miami with a combination of the set of a
terrace restaurant, with a Latin band on a starry New Year’s
Eve; and a matching location we found in the Rockaways, which was
an old beach club modeled after a Miami hut.
"We
had to make it seamless – like you’re in Miami, you just
went outside, this is what you’d find. The trick is for what
you do to be beautiful yet not call attention to itself, so that
you stay with what’s being told in the story. If we do a lot
of work, it will look like we didn’t do any. If we don’t
do enough work, then you will notice it and we won’t have served
the story."
The
sequence set at the Hartford Cultural Center’s modern art show
called for extra materials: the artwork. Friedberg says, "We
made all the art for that, which was pretty fun to do. Nothing was
a free-for-all. Todd was very specific about the kind of art. We
made art in the style of the various abstract painters of the early
’50s. And – not paintings, prints."
Special
sequences and scenes notwithstanding, Far from Heaven’s Whitaker
homestead was "our single biggest design challenge," states
Friedberg. "Like in a lot of these ’50s melodramas, the
house is the center of the story.
"We
decided we would build the house, although the set itself is broken
up into pieces. Originally, Todd wanted a Colonial house. As we
talked, we realized that it’s a confining architecture and
that the Whitakers are a couple at the peak of their success, so
they might have something more contemporary. Rather than go completely
modern, we mixed it up: the house has Colonial elements in a modern
setting. It’s an open floor plan, and we also had to see outside
to where Raymond works."
Inside
the house, the décor has come together through the efforts
of homemaker Cathy. Friedberg notes, "It is a reflection of
her personality, so that the story can be told. As we join the story,
Cathy is a together woman who has probably decorated the house herself
or had a hand in it. She’s not a modernist, and she’s
not an architect. She’s traditional, but with flair."
Costume
Concepts
"The
task at the beginning was the same as it as the beginning of any
movie," states costume designer Sandy Powell. "Create
the costumes for the look of the film and help create the characters
through their respective costumes."
Powell
had worked with Julianne Moore once before, costuming the actress
for her Academy Award-nominated performance in THE END OF THE AFFAIR.
"So," the designer elaborates, "I knew her body shape.
I knew her coloring – of course, I kept imagining her with
red hair, and in this movie she’s blonde…We didn’t
see the blonde wig until the last minute. I steered away from the
colors I would normally use for her."
Moore
comments, "We decided to go with the blonde wig that I wear
to play Cathy rather than my own hair color. Todd initially talked
about Cathy just having my own hair color, but I said, ‘That’s
not what you see in American film. You almost always see a blonde.’"
Patricia
Clarkson confides, "I dyed my hair for this movie. I do wear
one or two vintage pieces, but pretty much everything I wear Sandy
has designed – quite a feast for the eye. I couldn’t ever
eat a big lunch, but what the hell…The hair, the make-up, just
having gloves on – my mother is going to be so happy to see
me in this film…
"Some
of my shirts I wear as Eleanor are Lauren Bacall-esque shirts. They’re
all vibrant colors, very autumnal. The eyebrows and false eyelashes
are very ’50s. The lipstick I wear in the film is ‘Cherries
in the Snow,’ an actual shade of red from the 1950s. Revlon
still has it – not on the shelves, but make-up artists can
get it."
Moore
notes, "Sandy is tremendously talented and she always considers
both character and the overall theme of the movie. We were in a
fitting very early on, and she told me, ‘I can’t believe
it – Todd and I actually had a meeting about color!’ She,
Todd, Ed Lachman, and Mark Friedberg had gone through the movie
scene by scene and talked about the color palette in each of the
scenes, because it plays a part in the style and emotion of the
film. Various colors represent different characters, and the mood
of the film changes through light and color."
"Those
meetings, purely about color, were such a luxury," states Powell.
"I’ve never had it happen before. We were clear about
which colors were going to be in each scene. It gave us focal points."
Most
of the lead actors’ costumes were designed, and made, by Powell
and her team. Powell explains, "We did hunt for vintage clothes.
We went to shops and markets, and we rented. But on the whole, it’s
difficult to find something in perfect condition – because
it’s obviously quite a few years old by now."
The
party scene at the Whitakers’ with Cathy as hostess is, says
Powell, "an important moment in the movie, one where she has
to look a little bit more than the Miss Perfect housewife. It’s
one of the dressiest scenes overall, but Cathy has to look sexy
in a way – it’s when Frank notices other men noticing
her. The dress isn’t totally out-there sexy, but with the lace
it’s a bit more revealing than normal."
For
other sequences focusing on Cathy, Powell reveals that "the
shoes are made to match the dresses. As for the beautiful scarf
that she wears and temporarily loses, it’s silk chiffon –
it had to be able to fly off easily…"
Having
recreated outfits from the ’70s (on VELVET GOLDMINE) and the
’50s (on Far from Heaven) already for Todd Haynes – and
from even older periods for other moviemakers – Powell finds
that "each one is a learning experience. Every period you do
– and I don’t have a favorite – you learn things
you didn’t know before.
"One
of the most interesting parts of the job is when you’re working
with the actors, developing their character. Rarely do you get an
actress who says, ‘I don’t care what I wear.’ That
doesn’t usually happen."
The
Sirk Touch
Douglas
Sirk (1900-1987) was, as Todd Haynes recounts, "a German-born
intellectual who knew Brecht, and worked in European theater in
the ’20s and ’30s. He was a progressive radical by the
standards of Nazi Germany. His first wife, who he divorced, got
very closely aligned to the Nazi party. His second wife was a Jewish
woman, so they fled to America.
"In
Hollywood, in the 1950s at Universal Studios, he was hired to make
these screen versions of Ladies Home Journal sort of stories. The
films he made have become well-known, cherished, and later studied
in the ‘auteur’ traditions. They are mostly known for
their vivid use of Technicolor, but their beautiful lighting also
boldly infuses ‘film noir’ darks and shadows. The films
were stories of women in domestic settings that were also about
the repressive nature of American bourgeois culture."
Haynes
admits, "ALL THAT HEAVEN ALLOWS is probably my favorite of
his films. It was a follow-up to his first big hit, MAGNIFICENT
OBESSSION. He put together the same three lead actors – Jane
Wyman, Rock Hudson, Agnes Moorehead – for ALL THAT HEAVEN ALLOWS,
which is considerably more down-to-earth in its themes. It’s
about an older woman/younger man scandal in a small town.
"Rainer
Werner Fassbinder’s ALI – FEAR EATS THE SOUL [1974] is
a remake of that film. Fassbinder was moved by Sirk’s empathy
towards his films’ characters. Fassbinder himself was known
for being a difficult man. His treatment of his subjects in his
films is often very cruel as well. I think Fassbinder envied the
care and gentleness that he allowed his central female characters.
He said, ‘Until Sirk’s films, I’d never seen movies
where you see women thinking on screen.’
Haynes
feels that Fassbinder’s comment "is true. People might
laugh at the brazen color and Rock Hudson. But the performances
by Jane Wyman, and other actresses who played central female characters,
ground the movies and start to affect you as you watch them, despite
the melodramatic quality."
Julianne
Moore adds, "What was so magnificent about his movies was that
you’d be watching, with the camera at a remove, and you’d
find yourself inadvertently caught up in the story and truly moved
by it. That’s what I’m hoping will happen with Far from
Heaven."
Filmmaking
Partnerships Past and Present
Douglas
Sirk’s IMITATION OF LIFE (1959) was the filmmaker’s tenth
collaboration with prolific studio producer Ross Hunter. With that
film, the successful partnership reached its zenith and, as the
director left the United States, its conclusion. It was preceded
by their teamings on INTERLUDE (1957); BATTLE HYMN (1957); THERE’S
ALWAYS TOMORROW (1956); ALL THAT HEAVEN ALLOWS (1955); CAPTAIN LIGHTFOOT
(1955); TAZA, SON OF COCHISE (1954); MAGNIFICENT OBSESSION (1954);
TAKE ME TO TOWN (1953); and ALL I DESIRE (1953).
Some
four decades later, the comparable team behind Far from Heaven is
gaining ground, with almost as many projects completed: the new
film marks the fourth feature collaboration between prolific independent
producer Christine Vachon and filmmaker Todd Haynes. However, Vachon
reminds that the pair "started working together in the mid-1980s,
after I saw Todd’s short film SUPERSTAR: THE KAREN CARPENTER
STORY. Later, we did a short film called DOTTIE GETS SPANKED. It’s
been a very good relationship – creatively profitable, not
so economically profitable yet, but…"
The
producer notes that the new film has been a passion project for
the pair: "Todd started talking a couple of years ago about
doing a melodrama in the Douglas Sirk tradition, in Technicolor,
what we traditionally think of as ‘women’s pictures’:
IMITATION OF LIFE, ALL THAT HEAVEN ALLOWS, WRITTEN ON THE WIND…They
were these incredible candy-boxed movies – yet they were able
to deal with issues of race and class in ways that were incredibly
subversive for the time and are in fact still somewhat subversive."
Vachon
reveals, "My favorite thing about working with Todd is that
there’s very little tension between us. People who don’t
know better like to describe a producer/director relationship as
one that’s inherently combative. In my experience, a great
producer/director relationship is about one enabling the other.
We trust each other to such a degree that we don’t need to
have those arguments. Not that we don’t disagree sometimes,
but there’s a shorthand in the way we’re able to relate
to each other that’s quite fun."
Vachon
also relished reteaming with Far from Heaven leading lady Julianne
Moore: "When I worked with Julianne the first time, on SAFE,
she was at the beginning of what was clearly going to be a stellar
film career, but wasn’t yet. Now it is, and it’s great
to be able to work with her again."
The
Far from Heaven Effect
Dennis
Haysbert comments, "What I would hope for is that when people
watch Far from Heaven, they’ll look back over their lives and
see opportunities they’ve missed and say, ‘I’m never
going to let this happen again. The next time I find love, no matter
who it is, no matter what color or size or religion or whatever,
I’m going to go for it.’ If someone can walk out of the
theater with that in mind, then we will have succeeded."
Dennis
Quaid says, "I hope people see themselves when they see Far
from Heaven, and can relate to it."
Patricia
Clarkson adds, "People will recognize it as being like one
of those great old beautiful ’50s movies, but then will see
what we all knew existed in private lives that Todd has brought
to the surface. People will be drawn in and moved."
Julianne
Moore concurs, stating, "I hope that audiences get caught up
in Far from Heaven emotionally."
Christine
Vachon says, "I think you’d be hard-pressed to find a
Todd Haynes film that didn’t make people argue and chat, and
Far From Heaven will too. It’s an incredibly moving story."
When
asked how he hopes audiences will respond to the film, Todd Haynes
answers, "With tears, tears of recognition – where the
heightened stylistic experience only clarifies how much, in this
all-too-human story, we recognize ourselves."
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