Todd Haynes | |
|---|---|
 Haynes in 2023 | |
| Born | (1961-01-02)January 2, 1961 (age 64) Los Angeles, California, U.S. |
| Education | Brown University (BA) Bard College (MFA) |
| Occupation | Filmmaker |
| Years active | 1985–present |
Todd Haynes (/heɪnz/; born January 2, 1961) 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 lesbian-centric roles.
Haynes first gained public attention with his controversial short filmSuperstar: The Karen Carpenter Story (1987), which chronicles singerKaren Carpenter's life and death using Barbie dolls as actors.[a]Superstar became acult classic.[1][2] His feature directorial debut,Poison (1991), a provocative exploration ofAIDS-era perceptions and subversions, established him as a figure of a new transgressive cinema.Poison won theSundance Film Festival's Grand Jury Prize.
Haynes received further acclaim for his second feature film,Safe (1995), a symbolic portrait of a housewife who developsmultiple chemical sensitivity.Safe was later voted the best film of the 1990s byThe Village Voice Film Poll. His next feature,Velvet Goldmine (1998), is a tribute to the 1970sglam rock era. The film received the Special Jury Prize for Best Artistic Contribution at the1998 Cannes Film Festival.
Haynes gained acclaim and a measure of mainstream success withFar from Heaven (2002), receiving his firstAcademy Award nomination forBest Original Screenplay. He continued to direct critically lauded films such asI'm Not There (2007),Carol (2015),Wonderstruck (2017),Dark Waters (2019), andMay December (2023), as well as the documentary filmThe Velvet Underground (2021). Haynes also directed and co-wrote theHBO mini-seriesMildred Pierce (2011), for which he received threePrimetime Emmy Award nominations.
Haynes was born January 2, 1961, inLos Angeles, and grew up in the city'sEncino neighborhood.[3][4] His father, Allen E. Haynes, was a cosmetics importer, and his mother, Sherry Lynne (née Semler), studied acting. Haynes is Jewish on his mother's side.[5][6] His younger sister is Gwynneth Haynes of the bandSophe Lux.[7]
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 andsemiotics atBrown University, where he directed his first short filmAssassins: A Film Concerning Rimbaud (1985), inspired by the French poetArthur Rimbaud (a personality Haynes would later reference in his filmI'm Not There). At Brown, he metChristine Vachon, who would go on to produce all of his feature films. After graduating from Brown, Haynes moved toNew York City and became involved in the independent film scene, launching Apparatus Productions, a non-profit organization for the support of independent film.[1]
According toCinematic/Sexual: An Interview with Todd Haynes, in response to whether his academic background affected his film-making practice, Haynes stated that his high school teacher taught him a valuable lesson: "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."[8]
In 1987, while an MFA student atBard College, Haynes made a short,Superstar: The Karen Carpenter Story, which chronicles the life of American pop singerKaren Carpenter, using Barbie dolls as actors.[1] The film presents Carpenter's struggle with anorexia and bulimia, featuring several close-ups ofIpecac (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.
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 brotherRichard 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 andin the closet. Carpenter won his lawsuit, andSuperstar was removed from public distribution; to date, it may not be viewed publicly.[1] Bootlegged versions of the film are still circulated, and the film is sporadically made available on YouTube.[9][10]
Haynes's 1991 feature film debut,Poison, garnered him further acclaim and controversy.[1] Drawing on the writings of gay writerJean Genet, the film is a triptych ofqueer-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 ofsado-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 producerChristine Vachon.
Poison was partially funded with a grant from theNational Endowment for the Arts (NEA),[1] "at a time when the agency was under attack from conservative groups for using public funds to support sexually explicit works".[11] This, along with the film's sexual themes, was a source of controversy.[11][1] The film subsequently became the center of a public attack byReverend Donald Wildmon, head of theAmerican Family Association, who criticized the NEA for fundingPoison and other works by gay and lesbian artists and filmmakers. Wildmon, who had not viewed the film before making his comments publicly,[12] condemned the film's "explicit porno scenes of homosexuals involved in anal sex", despite no such scenes appearing in the film.[13]Poison went on to win the 1991Sundance Film Festival's Grand Jury Prize, establishing Haynes as an emerging talent and the voice of a new transgressive generation.[1][14][15] The film writerB. Ruby Rich citedPoison as one of the defining films of the emergingNew Queer Cinema movement, with its focus on maverick sexuality as an anti-establishment social force.[16][17]
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 onPBS.[1]
.jpg)
Haynes's second feature film,Safe (1995), was a critically acclaimed portrait of Carol White, a San Fernando Valley housewife (played byJulianne Moore) who develops violent allergies to her middle-class suburban existence.[1] After a series of extreme allergic reactions and hospitalization, Carol diagnoses herself with acute environmental illness, and moves to aNew Age commune in theNew Mexico desert run by anHIV 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 debilitatingself-help culture that encourages patients to take sole responsibility for their illness and recovery.[18] 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.[1][19]Safe was critically acclaimed, giving Moore her first leading role in a feature film, and gave Haynes a measure of mainstream critical recognition.[1] It was voted the best film of the 1990s by the Village Voice's Critic Poll.[20] The film historianDavid Thomson later described it as "one of the most arresting, original and accomplished films of the 1990s".[21]
Haynes took a radical shift in direction for his next feature,Velvet Goldmine (1998), starringChristian Bale,Ewan McGregor,Jonathan Rhys-Meyers andToni Collette. The film's title takes its name fromDavid Bowie's song "Velvet Goldmine".[22] 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 rockersDavid Bowie,Iggy Pop andLou Reed. Starting withOscar 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-wearingandrogyne with an alter ego, "Maxwell Demon", who resembles Bowie in hisZiggy Stardust incarnation, and Curt Wild (McGregor), an Iggy Pop-style rocker. The narrative playfully rewrites glam rock myths which in some cases sail close to the truth. 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 enforcedelectric 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 fromSuperstar)[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, such asBrian Eno andRoxy Music, and glam-rock inspired music written by contemporary rock bands for the film, includingShudder to Think.[23]Velvet Goldmine premiered in main competition at the1998 Cannes Film Festival, winning a special jury award for Best Artistic Contribution.[24] Despite the initial critical praise, the film received mixed reviews from critics.[citation needed] Costume designerSandy Powell received anAcademy Award nomination for her costume design and won the Oscar in the same year for her work onShakespeare In Love.[25]
Haynes achieved his greatest critical and commercial success to date withFar from Heaven (2002), a 1950s-set drama inspired by the films ofDouglas 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 stylizedmise-en-scene, colors, costumes, cinematography and lighting of Sirkianmelodrama. Cathy and Raymond's relationship resemblesJane Wyman andRock Hudson's inter-class love affair inAll That Heaven Allows, and Cathy's relationship with Sybil, her African-American housekeeper (Viola Davis) recallsLana Turner andJuanita Moore's friendship inImitation 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 asMildred Pierce.
Far from Heaven debuted at theVenice Film Festival to widespread critical acclaim and garnered a slew of film awards, including theVolpi Cup for Moore, and four Academy Award nominations: lead actress for Moore, Haynes's original screenplay,Elmer Bernstein's score, andEdward 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.[1]
In another radical shift in direction, Haynes's next filmI'm Not There (2007) returned to the mythology of popular music, portraying the life and legend ofBob Dylan through seven fictional characters played by six actors:Richard Gere,Cate Blanchett,Marcus Carl Franklin,Heath Ledger,Ben Whishaw andChristian 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.[26]I'm Not There premiered at theVenice Film Festival to critical acclaim, where Haynes won theGrand Jury Prize and Blanchett won the Volpi Cup, eventually receiving an Academy Award nomination forBest Supporting Actress.[27][28]
Haynes's next project wasMildred Pierce, a five-hour miniseries forHBO based on the novel byJames M. Cain and the 1945 film starringJoan Crawford. The series starredKate Winslet in the title role and featuredGuy Pearce,Evan Rachel Wood,Melissa Leo,James LeGros andHope Davis. Filming was completed in mid-2010 and the series began airing on HBO on 27 March 2011. It received 21Primetime Emmy Award nominations, winning five, and Winslet won aGolden Globe Award for her performance.[29][30]
Haynes's sixth feature film,Carol, is an adaptation of the 1952 novelThe Price of Salt byPatricia Highsmith. The cast featuresCate Blanchett,Rooney Mara,Sarah Paulson andKyle Chandler. The film premiered in competition at the2015 Cannes Film Festival, where it won theQueer Palm and a shared Best Actress prize for Mara.[31][32]Carol received critical acclaim[33] and was nominated for 6 Academy Awards, 5 Golden Globe Awards, 9BAFTA Awards, and 6Independent Spirit Awards.[34][35][36][37] Geoffrey McNab ofThe Independent praised the film praising Haynes writing "In sly and subversive fashion, Haynes is laying bare the tensions in a society that refuses to acknowledge "difference" of any sort". McNabb added, "They are both helped that in Todd Haynes, they have a director who is sensitive to every last nuance in their performances".[38]
On October 20, 2017, Haynes'sWonderstruck was released, having premiered at the 2017 Cannes Film Festival on May 18, 2017. The film is an adaptation ofBrian Selznick's children's bookof the same name.Wonderstruck starsJulianne Moore and is produced by Haynes's collaboratorChristine Vachon andAmazon Studios, which is also distributing the film.[39][40] 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."[41] The film received mixed reviews but earned praise forEdward Lachman'sblack-and-whitecinematography.
Haynes directed a film titledDark Waters forParticipant Media.[42][43] The film is based onNathaniel Rich'sNew York Times Magazine article “The Lawyer Who Became DuPont's Worst Nightmare,” which is about corporate defense attorneyRobert Bilott and his environmental lawsuit against the American conglomerateDuPont.[44]Mark Ruffalo andAnne Hathaway star,[45] and principal photography began in January 2019, inCincinnati.[46] The film was released on November 22, 2019.[47]
Haynes's premiered his first documentary feature,The Velvet Underground, at theCannes Film Festival on July 7, 2021, and it went on to be released on October 15, 2021, in theaters and onApple TV+, to critical acclaim. The film rejects documentary biopic tropes, evoking a place and time through extensive use of montage. “What montage can do is always more sophisticated than we give it credit for,” Haynes says. “I wanted the audience to fill in the holes themselves and make their own discoveries and feel like these ideas are alive again, because they’re coming through you, and they’re not just being told to us like in a lecture.”[48] Haynes was nominated for theCritics' Choice Documentary Award for Best First Documentary Feature.[49]
Haynes's latest film,May December, reunites him with frequent collaborator Julianne Moore and co-starsNatalie Portman andCharles Melton. The film, loosely based aroundMary Kay Letourneau, revolves around a married couple whose relationship is put through a test after an actress arrives to do research for a film about their past. The script was written bySamy Burch, with a story by Burch andAlex Mechanik.[50][51] The film was shot in Savannah, Georgia, and wrapped filming in December 2022.[52] The film received positive reviews[53] with Peter Debruge ofVariety writing, "Todd Haynes unpacks America’s obsession with scandal and the impossibility of ever truly knowing what motivates others in this layered look at the actor’s process."[54] The film went on to receive nominations for fourGolden Globe Awards includingBest Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy.[55] Haynes himself was nominated for theIndependent Spirit Award for Best Director.[56]
In 2023, Todd Haynes was given a Moving Image Award by theMuseum of the Moving Image (MOMI) in New York City. MOMI also curated a retrospective of his work, and published a book,Todd Haynes: Rapturous Process.[57]
Haynes said in September 2023 that he has been working on a sexually explicit film about a "love story between two men set in the 1930's", starringJoaquin Phoenix.[58] The project was cancelled shortly before production began when Phoenix abruptly quit.[59] In August 2025, it was reported that the project is being revived withPedro Pascal in the lead role instead.[60] The film, now titledDe Noche, is scheduled to begin shooting inGuadalajara,Mexico in 2026.
In 2015 he was reported to be developing a TV series based on the 2012 documentaryThe Source Family forHBO.[39][61]
Haynes is set to direct aPeggy Lee biopic, titledFever, based on a screenplay originally drafted byNora Ephron before her death in 2012, starringMichelle Williams in the title role afterReese Witherspoon backed out of the role to produce instead.Billie Eilish is in early talks to executive produce. The primary screenwriter is nowDoug Wright.[62]
Haynes is reportedly set to direct the HBO seriesTrust, based on Hernan Diaz'snovel of the same name, withKate Winslet as the lead after working together onMildred Pierce.[63][64]
AllMovie writes that "Haynes is known for making provocative films that subvert narrative structure and resound with transgressive, complexeroticism. ... Although he doesn't characterize himself as a gay filmmaker who makes gay films … Haynes' name has become synonymous with theNew Queer Cinema movement and its work to both explore and redefine the contours of queer culture in America and beyond."[65]
Haynes's work is preoccupied withpostmodernist ideas of identity and sexuality as socially constructed concepts and personal identity as a fluid and changeable state. His protagonists are invariably social outsiders whose "subversive" identity and sexuality put them at odds with the received norms of their society. In the Haynes universe, sexuality (especially "deviant" or unconventional sexuality) is a subversive and dangerous force that disrupts social norms and is often repressed brutally by dominant power structures. Haynes presents artists as the ultimate subversive force since they must necessarily stand outside of societal norms, with an artist's creative output representing the greatest opportunity for personal and social freedom. Many of his films are unconventional portraits of popular artists and musicians (Karen Carpenter inSuperstar,David Bowie inVelvet Goldmine andBob Dylan inI'm Not There).[citation needed]
Haynes's films often feature formal cinematic or narrative devices that challenge received notions of identity and sexuality and remind the audience of the artificiality of film as a medium. Examples include usingBarbie dolls instead of actors inSuperstar or having multiple actors portray the protagonist inI'm Not There. Stylistically, Haynes favors formalism over naturalism, often appropriating and reinventing cinematic styles, including the documentary form inPoison,Velvet Goldmine andI'm Not There, the reinvention of theDouglas Sirkmelodrama inFar from Heaven and extensive referencing of 1960s art cinema inI'm Not There.[citation needed]
Haynes is gay,[66][67][68] and identifies asirreligious.[69] After living in New York City for more than a decade, Haynes moved toPortland, Oregon, in 2002.[4][70] He has been in a relationship with Bryan O'Keefe, an archival producer, since 2002.[71]
An edited book of personal interviews was published in 2014, titledTodd Haynes: Interviews.[72]
| Year | Title | Director | Writer | Producer | Actor | Role |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1978 | The Suicide | Yes | Yes | No | No | |
| 1985 | Assassins: A Film Concerning Rimbaud | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Himself |
| 1987 | Superstar: The Karen Carpenter Story | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Todd Donovan, Disc Jockey |
| 1989 | La Divina | No | No | Yes | No | |
| He Was Once | No | No | Yes | Yes | Randy |
| Year | Title | Director | Writer | Producer |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1991 | Poison | Yes | Yes | No |
| 1995 | Safe | Yes | Yes | No |
| 1998 | Velvet Goldmine | Yes | Yes | No |
| 2002 | Far from Heaven | Yes | Yes | No |
| 2007 | I'm Not There | Yes | Yes | No |
| 2015 | Carol | Yes | No | No |
| 2017 | Wonderstruck | Yes | No | No |
| 2019 | Dark Waters | Yes | No | No |
| 2021 | The Velvet Underground | Yes | No | Yes |
| 2023 | May December | Yes | No | No |
Executive producer
| Year | Title | Director | Writer | Executive Producer | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1993 | Dottie Gets Spanked | Yes | Yes | No | TV short |
| 2011 | Mildred Pierce | Yes | Yes | Yes | Miniseries[73] |
| 2013 | Enlightened | Yes | No | No | Episode: "All I Ever Wanted" |
| Six by Sondheim | Yes | No | No | Segment: "I'm Still Here" |
| Year | Title | Subject |
|---|---|---|
| 2008 | "Share the Good"[74] | Heineken Premium Light |
| Year | Title | Academy Awards | BAFTA Awards | Golden Globe Awards | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nominations | Wins | Nominations | Wins | Nominations | Wins | ||
| 1998 | Velvet Goldmine | 1 | 2 | 1 | |||
| 2002 | Far from Heaven | 4 | 4 | ||||
| 2007 | I'm Not There | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | ||
| 2015 | Carol | 6 | 9 | 5 | |||
| 2023 | May December | 1 | 4 | ||||
| Total | 13 | 0 | 12 | 1 | 14 | 1 | |
Directed Academy Award performances
| Year | Performer | Film | Result | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Academy Award for Best Actress | |||||||
| 2003 | Julianne Moore | Far from Heaven | Nominated | ||||
| 2016 | Cate Blanchett | Carol | Nominated | ||||
| Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress | |||||||
| 2008 | Cate Blanchett | I'm Not There | Nominated | ||||
| 2016 | Rooney Mara | Carol | Nominated | ||||
filmmaker Todd Haynes in 1961 (age 58)
I asked Todd why he, a gay male director, so often privileged the disempowered woman as the main character in his films, from his Barbie Doll Karen Carpenter to the paranoid allergic housewife in Safe.
