Movie `Far From Heaven,` set to be released on May 23, is the latest work by Todd Haynes, a leading writer and director in the field of U.S. independent movies.
The movie won best picture, best director and best cinematography in the Independent Sprit Award last year and was named the best movie of the year by the New York Critics Association. And we had an interview with director Haynes, who successfully combined the experiment on a new style and weight of the subject exquisitely throughout the movie.
-`Far From Heaven` deals with homosexuality and racial discrimination in the 1950s, and some say that it is too a heavy stuff for a Hollywood movie. Did you intend to deliver a message against discriminations in the society?
˝I just wanted to depict a life of an ordinary woman. As Cathy`s (Julianne Moore) seemingly heavenly world falls apart, she goes through life-shattering emotions and face a hard decision. Her husband`s homosexuality and her love with black garner Raymond are parts of the life Cathy goes through. They are a device designed to deliver reality but not an end itself.˝
-Vivid colors and the fast movement of cameras seem to aim at dramatic effects of melodrama. Yet, characters are rather soft and gentle than passionate. Did you direct actors to create such contrast images?
˝I did not want the movie to be just emotional. I asked them to play their parts without thinking that this is a melodrama.˝
-What made you choose Julianne Moore for the leading role?
˝She does not reveal emotions even at an extreme situation. For that reason, I was thinking about her even as I wrote the scenario. I thought that she is the only one who can depict instability and sadness inside, and I was right.˝
-It seems that you are telling that a melodrama is not an old genre and its style is not old. What did you want to tell with the genre of melodramas?
˝50s` classic melodramas represented by Douglas Sirk are now as appealing as before in dealing with emotions. I thought a classic melodrama is the best fit for describing desires and pain facing a woman living in a conservative time, prejudice and a conclusion she has to reach by that time`s standards.˝
-We heard your next project would be about singer Bob Dillon?
˝The one thing we can predict about him is the fact that he is unpredictable. He is such an artist of various meanings that it is hard to define him with a word or a sentence. He is a great musician and an icon standing for agony, resistance and free sprit. I want to explore his world and who he is.˝