Todd Haynes

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Todd Haynes

Haynes at the 2009 Tribeca Film Festival

Born January 2, 1961 (age 62)

Los Angeles, California, U.S.

Alma mater Brown University (BA)

Bard College (MFA)

Occupation Filmmaker

Years active 1985–present

Todd Haynes (/heɪnz/; born January 2, 1961)[1] is an American film director,

screenwriter, and producer. His films span four decades with themes examining the
personalities of well-known musicians, dysfunctional and dystopian societies, and
blurred gender roles.
Haynes first gained public attention with his controversial short film Superstar: The
Karen Carpenter Story (1987), which chronicles singer Karen Carpenter's life and
death, using Barbie dolls as actors.[a] Superstar became a cult classic.[2][3] Haynes's
feature directorial debut, Poison (1991), a provocative exploration of AIDS-
era queer perceptions and subversions, established him as a figure of a new
transgressive cinema. Poison won the Sundance Film Festival's Grand Jury Prize and is
regarded as a seminal work of New Queer Cinema.
Haynes received further acclaim for his second feature film, Safe (1995), a symbolic
portrait of a housewife who develops multiple chemical sensitivity. Safe was later voted
the best film of the 1990s by The Village Voice Film Poll. His next feature, Velvet
Goldmine (1998), is a tribute to the 1970s glam rock era. The film received the Special
Jury Prize for Best Artistic Contribution at the 1998 Cannes Film Festival.
Haynes gained acclaim and a measure of mainstream success with Far from
Heaven (2002) earning his first Academy Award nomination for Best Original
Screenplay. He continued to direct critically lauded films such as I'm Not
There (2007), Carol (2015), Wonderstruck (2017) and Dark Waters (2019). He directed
his first feature length documentary, The Velvet Underground (2021). Haynes directed
and co-wrote the HBO mini-series Mildred Pierce (2011) for which he was nominated for
three Primetime Emmy Awards.

Early life[edit]
Haynes was born January 2, 1961, in Los Angeles, and grew up in nearby Encino. His
father, Allen E. Haynes, was a cosmetics importer, and his mother, Sherry Lynne (née
Semler), studied acting (and makes a brief appearance in I'm Not There). Haynes
is Jewish on his mother's side.[4][5] His younger sister is Gwynneth Haynes of the
band Sophe Lux.[6]
Haynes developed an interest in film at an early age, and produced a short film, The
Suicide (1978), while still in high school. He studied art and semiotics at Brown
University, where he directed his first short film Assassins: A Film Concerning
Rimbaud (1985), inspired by the French poet Arthur Rimbaud (a personality Haynes
would later reference in his film I'm Not There). At Brown, he met Christine Vachon, who
would go on to produce all of his feature films. After graduating from Brown, Haynes
moved to New York City and became involved in the independent film scene, launching
Apparatus Productions, a non-profit organization for the support of independent film. [2]
According to Cinematic/Sexual: An Interview with Todd Haynes, Haynes responded to
Justin Wyatt's question, asking whether his academic background affected his film-
making practice. Haynes replied saying his high school teacher taught him a valuable
lesson that, "Reality can't be a criterion for judging the success or failure of a film, or its
effect on you. It was a simple, but eye-opening, way of approaching film." [7] This shaped
Haynes's future and style within his professional career.
Career[edit]
1987–1993: Superstar, Poison, Dottie Gets Spanked[edit]
In 1987, while an MFA student at Bard College, Haynes made a short, Superstar: The
Karen Carpenter Story, which chronicles the life of American pop singer Karen
Carpenter, using Barbie dolls as actors.[2] The film presents Carpenter's struggle with
anorexia and bulimia, featuring several close-ups of Ipecac (the nonprescription drug
Carpenter was reputed to have used to make herself vomit during her illness).
Carpenter's chronic weight loss was portrayed by using a "Karen" Barbie doll with the
face and body whittled away with a knife, leaving the doll looking skeletonized. The film
is also notable for staged dream sequences in which Karen, in a state of deteriorating
mental health, imagines being spanked by her father. [citation needed]
Superstar featured extensive use of Carpenter songs, showcasing Haynes's love of
popular music (which would be a recurring feature of later films). Haynes failed to obtain
proper licensing to use the music, prompting a lawsuit from Karen's brother Richard for
copyright infringement. Carpenter was reportedly also offended by Haynes's unflattering
portrayal of him as a narcissistic bully, along with several broadly dropped suggestions
that he was gay and in the closet. Carpenter won his lawsuit, and Superstar was
removed from public distribution; to date, it may not be viewed publicly. [2] Bootlegged
versions of the film are still circulated, and the film is sporadically made available
on YouTube.[8][9]
Haynes's 1991 feature film debut, Poison, garnered him further acclaim and
controversy.[2] Drawing on the writings of gay writer Jean Genet, the film is a triptych
of queer-themed narratives, each adopting a different cinematic genre: vox-pop
documentary ("Hero"), 50s sci-fi horror ("Horror") and gay prisoner romantic drama
("Homo"). The film explores traditional perceptions of homosexuality as an unnatural
and deviant force, and presents Genet's vision of sado-masochistic gay relations as a
subversion of heterosexual norms, culminating with a marriage ceremony between two
gay male convicts. Poison marked Haynes's first collaboration with his longtime
producer Christine Vachon.
Poison was partially funded with a grant from the National Endowment for the
Arts (NEA),[2] "at a time when the agency was under attack from conservative groups for
using public funds to support sexually explicit works". [10] This, along with the film's sexual
themes, was a source of controversy.[10][2] The film subsequently became the center of a
public attack by Reverend Donald Wildmon, head of the American Family Association,
who criticized the NEA for funding Poison and other works by gay and lesbian artists
and filmmakers. Wildmon, who had not viewed the film before making his comments
publicly, condemned the film's "explicit porno scenes of homosexuals involved in anal
sex", despite no such scenes appearing in the film. [11] Poison went on to win the
1991 Sundance Film Festival's Grand Jury Prize, establishing Haynes as an emerging
talent and the voice of a new transgressive generation. [2][12][13] The film writer B. Ruby
Rich cited Poison as one of the defining films of the emerging New Queer
Cinema movement, with its focus on maverick sexuality as an anti-establishment social
force.[14][15]
Haynes's next short film, Dottie Gets Spanked (1993), explored the experiences of a
quiet and gentle six-year-old boy in the early 1960s who has various indirect encounters
with spanking, most significantly involving his idol, a TV sitcom star named Dottie. The
film was aired on PBS.[2]
1995–1998: Safe, Velvet Goldmine[edit]
Haynes's second feature film, Safe (1995), was a critically acclaimed portrait of Carol
White, a San Fernando Valley housewife (played by Julianne Moore) who develops
violent allergies to her middle-class suburban existence. [2] After a series of extreme
allergic reactions and hospitalization, Carol diagnoses herself with acute environmental
illness, and moves to a New Age commune in the New Mexico desert run by an HIV
positive "guru" who preaches both that the real world is toxic and unsafe for Carol, and
that she is responsible for her illness and recovery. The film ends with Carol retreating
to her antiseptic, prison-like "safe room", looking at herself in the mirror and whispering
"I love you" to her reflection.
The film is notable for its critical (though not entirely unsympathetic) treatment of its
main character. Julie Grossman argues in her article "The Trouble With Carol" that
Haynes concludes the film as a challenge to traditional Hollywood film narratives of the
heroine taking charge of her life, and that Haynes sets Carol up as the victim both of a
repressive male-dominated society, and also of an equally debilitating self-help culture
that encourages patients to take sole responsibility for their illness and recovery.
[16]
 Carol's illness, although unidentified, has been read as an analogy for the AIDS crisis
of the mid-1980s, as a similarly uncomfortable and largely unspoken "threat" in 1980s
Reaganist America.[2][17] Safe was critically acclaimed, giving Moore her first leading role
in a feature film, and gave Haynes a measure of mainstream critical recognition. [2] It was
voted the best film of the 1990s by the Village Voice's Critic Poll. [18]
Haynes took a radical shift in direction for his next feature, Velvet Goldmine (1998),
starring Christian Bale, Ewan McGregor, Jonathan Rhys-Meyers and Toni Collette.
Filmed and set mostly in England, the film was an intentionally chaotic tribute to the
1970s glam rock era, drawing heavily on the rock histories and mythologies of glam
rockers David Bowie, Iggy Pop and Lou Reed. Starting with Oscar Wilde as the spiritual
godfather of glam rock, the film revels in the gender and identity experimentation and
fashionable bisexuality of the era, and acknowledges the transformative power of glam
rock as an escape and a form of self-expression for gay teenagers. [citation needed]
The film follows the character of Arthur (Bale) an English journalist once enraptured by
glam rock as a 1970s teenager, who returns a decade later to hunt down his former
heroes: Brian Slade (Rhys Meyers), a feather boa-wearing androgyne with an alter ego,
"Maxwell Demon", who resembles Bowie in his Ziggy Stardust incarnation, and Curt
Wild (McGregor), an Iggy Pop-style rocker. The narrative playfully rewrites glam rock
myths which in some cases sail unnervingly close to the truth. [citation needed] Slade flirts with
bisexuality and decadence before staging his own death in a live performance and
disappearing from the scene, echoing Bowie's own disavowal of glam rock in the late
1970s and his subsequent re-creation as an avowedly heterosexual pop star. The film
features a love affair between Slade and Wild's characters, recalling rumors about
Bowie and Reed's supposed sexual relationship. Curt Wild's character has a flashback
to enforced electric shock treatment as a teenager to attempt to cure his homosexuality,
echoing Reed's teenage experiences as a victim of the homophobic medical profession.
Haynes was keen to use original music from the glam rock period, and (learning his
lesson from Superstar)[citation needed] approached David Bowie before making the film for
permission to use his music in the soundtrack. Bowie declined, leaving Haynes to use a
combination of original songs from other artists and glam-rock inspired music written by
contemporary rock bands for the film, including Suede.[citation needed] Velvet
Goldmine premiered in main competition at the 1998 Cannes Film Festival, winning a
special jury award for Best Artistic Contribution.[19] Despite the initial critical praise, the
film received mixed reviews from critics.[citation needed] Costume designer Sandy
Powell received an Academy Award nomination for her costume design and won the
Oscar in the same year for her work on Shakespeare In Love.[20]
2002–2014: Far from Heaven, I'm Not There, Mildred Pierce[edit]
Haynes achieved his greatest critical and commercial success to date with Far from
Heaven (2002), a 1950s-set drama inspired by the films of Douglas Sirk about a
Connecticut housewife Cathy Whittaker (Julianne Moore) who discovers that her
husband (Dennis Quaid) is secretly gay, and subsequently falls in love with Raymond,
her African-American gardener (Dennis Haysbert). The film works as a mostly
reverential and unironic tribute to Sirk's filmmaking, lovingly re-creating the
stylized mise-en-scene, colors, costumes, cinematography and lighting of
Sirkian melodrama. Cathy and Raymond's relationship resembles Jane
Wyman and Rock Hudson's inter-class love affair in All That Heaven Allows, and
Cathy's relationship with Sybil, her African-American housekeeper (Viola Davis)
recalls Lana Turner and Juanita Moore's friendship in Imitation of Life. While staying
within the cinematic language of the period, Haynes updates the sexual and racial
politics, showing scenarios (an inter-racial love affair and gay relationships) that would
not have been permissible in Sirk's era. Haynes also resists a Sirkian happy ending,
allowing the film to finish on a melancholy note closer in tone to the "weepy"
melodramas of the 1940s and 1950s cinema such as Mildred Pierce.

Todd Haynes and actors of his 2007 film, I'm Not There, posing at the 64th Venice Film Festival in 2007

Far from Heaven debuted at the Venice Film Festival to widespread critical acclaim and
garnered a slew of film awards, including the Volpi Cup for Moore, and four Academy
Award nominations: lead actress for Moore, Haynes's original screenplay, Elmer
Bernstein's score, and Edward Lachman's cinematography. Far from Heaven lost in all
four categories, but the film's success was hailed as a breakthrough for independent
film achieving mainstream recognition and brought Haynes to the attention of a wider
mainstream audience.[2]
In another radical shift in direction, Haynes's next film I'm Not There (2007) returned to
the mythology of popular music, portraying the life and legend of Bob Dylan through
seven fictional characters played by six actors: Richard Gere, Cate Blanchett, Marcus
Carl Franklin, Heath Ledger, Ben Whishaw and Christian Bale. Haynes obtained
Dylan's approval to proceed with the film, and the rights to use his music in the
soundtrack, after presenting a one-page summary of the film's concept to Jeff Rosen,
Dylan's long-time manager.[21] I'm Not There premiered at the Venice Film Festival to
critical acclaim, where Haynes won the Grand Jury Prize and Blanchett won the Volpi
Cup, eventually receiving an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress.[22]
[23]

Haynes's next project was Mildred Pierce, a five-hour miniseries for HBO based on the

novel by James M. Cain and the 1945 film starring Joan Crawford. The series
starred Kate Winslet in the title role and featured Guy Pearce, Evan Rachel
Wood, Melissa Leo, James LeGros and Hope Davis. Filming was completed in mid-
2010 and the series began airing on HBO on 27 March 2011. It received 21 Primetime
Emmy Award nominations, winning five, and Winslet won a Golden Globe Award for her
performance.[24][25]
2015–2019: Carol, Wonderstruck, Dark Waters[edit]
Haynes's sixth feature film, Carol, is an adaptation of the 1952 novel The Price of
Salt by Patricia Highsmith. The cast features Cate Blanchett, Rooney Mara, Sarah
Paulson and Kyle Chandler. The film premiered in competition at the 2015 Cannes Film
Festival, where it won the Queer Palm and a shared Best Actress prize for Mara.[26]
[27]
 Carol received critical acclaim[28] and was nominated for six Academy Awards, five
Golden Globe Awards, nine BAFTA Awards, and six Independent Spirit Awards.[29][30][31][32]
On October 20, 2017, Haynes's Wonderstruck was released, having premiered at the
2017 Cannes Film Festival on May 18, 2017. The film is an adaptation of Brian
Selznick's children's book of the same name. Wonderstruck stars Julianne Moore and is
produced by Haynes's collaborator Christine Vachon and Amazon Studios, which is
also distributing the film.[33][34] The movie describes two deaf children, one in 1927 and the
other in 1977, who embark on separate quests to find themselves. When asked why
he'd made a children's movie, in his October 15, 2017, NPR interview, Haynes
explained, "I felt like it spoke to something indomitable about the nature of kids and the
ability for kids to be confronted with challenges and the unknown and to keep muscling
through those challenges."[35]
Haynes directed a film titled Dark Waters for Participant Media.[36][37] The film is based
on Nathaniel Rich's New York Times Magazine article “The Lawyer Who Became
DuPont's Worst Nightmare,” which is about corporate defense attorney Robert Bilott and
his environmental lawsuit against the American conglomerate DuPont.[38] Mark
Ruffalo and Anne Hathaway star,[39] and principal photography began in January 2019,
in Cincinnati.[40] The film was released on November 22, 2019. [41]