Latest news with #ToddHaynes
Gizmodo
14 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Gizmodo
30 Years Later, the Terrors of ‘Safe' Are Just as Alarming
Todd Haynes' exploration of ecological and existential horrors features a stellar early-career performance by Julianne Moore. The eco-horror genre can often take a high-energy, high-action approach. We've seen animals and/or insects transformed by an environmental shift that makes them want to attack every human in their midst. We've seen nature twisted into spawning vicious monsters both giant and microscopic. We've also seen the weather go haywire and spiral into an ice age in act three after ripping Los Angeles with tornados in act one. But not every eco-horror film speaks in such a loud voice. In 2011, Jeff Nichols' Take Shelter explored the fragmenting domestic life of a construction worker whose apocalyptic visions soon become an obsession; as he prepares for doom, his increasingly exasperated loved ones assume he's completely nuts. In 2021, Ben Wheatley's In the Earth investigated a story obliquely about the covid-19 pandemic, set in a forest where the plants have launched an offensive against all human invaders. Even earlier, Todd Haynes' Safe—released in theaters 30 years ago this month after debuting at the 1995 Sundance Film Festival—dug into maybe the eeriest sort of eco-horror of all. You can't see it, hear it, or even feel it, unless you're Safe's main character: Carol White, a housewife played by then-emerging star Julianne Moore. Safe takes place in 1987 in the suburbs of Los Angeles, where Carol, clad in pastels and pearls, spends her days running errands, ordering her housekeeper around, and attending aerobics classes. It's a comfortable yet dull life; what passes for drama is a new couch being delivered in the wrong color, or a friend suggesting they try out a faddish all-fruit diet. Carol doesn't smoke or drink—she describes herself as a 'milkaholic'—and her personality is quite passive. She doesn't seem to have much of an interior life. Her lack of expressiveness matches perfectly with the style Haynes uses to tell his story: it's very reserved, almost to the point of feeling airless and sterile. We're peering in on Carol almost like she's a figure in a diorama that tells her story. But if Carol seems like someone who must have a rebellion bubbling within, Safe–released at the height of the AIDS epidemic, a crisis it references both overtly and symbolically—turns that idea on its head. While in some senses it is a feminist comment on how stifling gender roles can be, Safe is also a movie about a woman whose body begins to break down in response to her otherwise unremarkable environment, imperiling both her physical and mental health. If you watch Safe already knowing where Carol is headed, it's easy to pick out the clues. The first thing we hear from her is a sneeze—a gentle harbinger of the coughing fits, vomiting, nosebleeds, hyperventilation, skin eruptions, and seizures that eventually come along. Her McMansion existence, untaxing as it seems, is full of toxic triggers and pollutants: wall-to-wall carpet that's constantly being vacuumed, kitchen cabinets that must be re-varnished, car exhaust from LA's perpetual traffic jams, planes flying overhead, humming appliances, phones ringing, TVs and radios blaring, and looming electrical towers. We see Carol visit the dry cleaner on multiple occasions, including a disastrous attempt to pick up clothes while the place is being fumigated, and at one point she decides to add a perm and a manicure to her beauty salon routine. But everyone else in her life who dwells in this San Fernando Valley bubble is seemingly fine. It's just Carol who starts having violent reactions, and the initial response—particularly from her husband, who's continuously disbelieving though he does become somewhat more supportive—is that it's all in her head. She's just 'overexerted.' 'A little run down.' 'I really don't see anything wrong with you,' her regular physician scolds, while advising her to stay off dairy and forget the fruit diet, too. A litany of allergy tests prove inconclusive. A psychiatrist, perched behind a massive desk, looks at her quizzically, asking 'What's going on in you?' As Carol downshifts from delicate to fragile to frail, her illness becomes her entire identity, and she finally finds—not answers, but a community of people suffering from similar symptoms. (She finds them through a flyer posted on her health club's bulletin board that very pointedly asks: 'Are you allergic to the 20th century?') Treatment requires moving to a communal-living retreat in the desert, which takes Carol away from a life it seems she'll hardly miss, despite at least one emotional outburst as she's settling in. Exactly how Carol has fallen victim to this debilitating condition is something we never learn. The way Haynes frames her weakening existence is extremely effective, implying that it's an ambient ailment that could seep into anyone, anywhere, even in cushy surroundings. Safe is also remarkable in the way that it takes Carol's illness very seriously—the audience believes her, even if other characters don't—while also satirizing a New Age industry eagerly profiting off its patients. Carol and her fellow residents are wealthy enough to pay out of pocket for residential treatment, but naive enough not to question why the program's founder lives in a mansion that looms over the property. The most chilling part of Safe, though, is its ambiguous ending. Even amid her new home's isolated location, where everyone observes rules about chemicals, eats organic food, and undergoes regular therapy, Carol doesn't recover. Eventually she moves from a rustic cabin to an igloo-like structure that completely encloses a 'safe room,' free from contaminants as long as Carol is the only one who goes inside. Even then, and despite continuing to insist that she's feeling so much better, Carol is clearly deteriorating. Steadily. As Safe concludes, the audience is openly invited to wonder if she will ever get better—and if the choice she's made, to live in isolation in a place completely structured around environmental illness, was even worth it. After 30 years, the answers still don't come easily. Most haunting of all, environmental illnesses still lurk among us—as quietly insidious, inviting of skepticism, and enigmatic as ever.
South China Morning Post
25-02-2025
- Entertainment
- South China Morning Post
Berlin 2025: 10 of the festival's best films, from The Light to Dreams and Islands
Right from the off, there was heavy snow on the streets and a chill wind blowing through the 75th Berlin International Film Festival. Advertisement Politics has often dominated this particular cinematic gathering, and this year was no different. On the opening night, jury head Todd Haynes bashed US President Donlad Trump and honorary Golden Bear winner Tilda Swinton warned that 'the inhumane is being perpetrated on our watch'. The spectre of global conflict also loomed large in the selection of films by artistic director Tricia Tuttle. While the jury's choice of Norwegian film Dreams (Sex Love) as the Golden Bear winner was not politically motivated, the Berlinale reminded us that festivals are prime platforms to inspire debate. Producers Yngve Saether (left) and Hege Hauff Hvattum and director and screenwriter Dag Johan Haugerud (centre) with the Golden Bear for best film for Dreams (Sex Love) at the Berlin film festival. Photo: AFP Here are 10 of the best films screened at this year's festival. 1. Queerpanorama
Washington Post
23-02-2025
- Entertainment
- Washington Post
Norwegian drama 'Dreams (Sex Love)' takes top prize at the Berlin Film Festival
BERLIN — A Norwegian film about love, desire and self-discovery won top honors at the 75th Berlin International Film Festival on Saturday. A jury headed by American director Todd Haynes awarded the Golden Bear trophy to 'Dreams (Sex Love)' by director Dag Johan Haugerud . Haynes called it a 'meditation on love' that 'cuts you to the quick with its keen intelligence.'
Yahoo
22-02-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Golden Bear to be awarded at Berlin Film Festival
The Berlin International Film Festival, or Berlinale, reaches its high point on Saturday evening when the winning films are announced. A total of 19 films are in the running for the top prize, the Golden Bear, which is awarded to the best film in the competition. Several Silver Bears are also awarded, for example for best director and best acting performance. This year US director Todd Haynes heads the international jury. This year's 75th edition of the Berlinale is scheduled to end on Sunday. Last year, the looted art documentary "Dahomey" by Mati Diop won the Golden Bear.
Yahoo
22-02-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Norwegian drama 'Dreams (Sex Love)' takes top prize at the Berlin Film Festival
BERLIN (AP) — A Norwegian film about love, desire and self-discovery won top honors at the 75th Berlin International Film Festival on Saturday. A jury headed by American director Todd Haynes awarded the Golden Bear trophy to 'Dreams (Sex Love)' by director Dag Johan Haugerud. Haynes called it a 'meditation on love' that 'cuts you to the quick with its keen intelligence.' The film focuses on a teenager played by Ella Øverbyer, infatuated with her female French teacher, and the reactions of her mother and grandmother when they discover her private writings. It's the third part of a trilogy Haugerud has completed in the past year. 'Sex' premiered at Berlin in 2024, and 'Love' was screened at the 2024 Venice Film Festival. See for yourself — The Yodel is the go-to source for daily news, entertainment and feel-good stories. By signing up, you agree to our Terms and Privacy Policy. The runner-up Silver Bear prize went to Brazilian director Gabriel Mascaro's dystopian drama 'The Blue Trail.' Argentine director Ivan Fund's rural saga 'The Message' won the third-place Jury Prize. The best director prize went to Huo Meng for 'Living the Land,' set in fast-changing 1990s China. Rose Byrne was named best performer for her role as an overwhelmed mother in the Mary Bronstein-directed 'If I had Legs, I'd Kick You.' Andrew Scott won the supporting performer trophy for playing composer Richard Rodgers in Richard Linklater's 'Blue Moon.' The climax of the festival known as the Berlinale came on the eve of Germany's parliamentary elections after a campaign dominated by migration and the economy. The national election is being held seven months early, after Chancellor Olaf Scholz's governing coalition collapsed in a dispute about how to revitalize the country's economy. Efforts to curb migration have emerged as a central issue in the campaign — along with the question of how to handle the challenge from the far-right Alternative for Germany, which appears to be on course for its strongest national election result yet.
