Todd Haynes on Blu-ray

[Dailyan]

Originally Posted by James Luckard

Wow, it looks super pretty:

I was in Maine once as a kid, for a week or two, but didn't get there.

I only went up there for the first time myself back in 2019 I live quite a distance from the coast:

[Show spoiler]

Back on the subject of Haynes I haven't really dipped my toes into his work yet (I keep putting off "Far From Heaven" every time it's in a Kino sale) but I think I'll remedy that with "Safe" from the Criterion B&N sale.

[James Luckard]

Originally Posted by Dailyan

Back on the subject of Haynes I haven't really dipped my toes into his work yet (I keep putting off "Far From Heaven" every time it's in a Kino sale) but I think I'll remedy that with "Safe" from the Criterion B&N sale.

Great photos!

I don't know that I would start with Safe. It's brilliant, but it's not as approachable or as illustrative of his overall style as his period melodramas. I'd recommend starting with Far from Heaven, Mildred Pierce, or my favorite film of his, Carol.

[Gacivory]

Originally Posted by James Luckard

Great photos!

I don't know that I would start with Safe. It's brilliant, but it's not as approachable or as illustrative of his overall style as his period melodramas. I'd recommend starting with Far from Heaven, Mildred Pierce, or my favorite film of his, Carol.

I’d swap out Mildred Pierce for I’m Not There. Mildred Pierce doesn’t work for me, unfortunately.

[James Luckard]

Originally Posted by Gacivory

I’d swap out Mildred Pierce for I’m Not There. Mildred Pierce doesn’t work for me, unfortunately.

Personally, I wouldn't start with I'm Not There.

I'm a Haynes completist, and I couldn't get all the way through I'm Not There, even though I tried multiple times. It's the one film of his I couldn't finish

It's SUPER weird. It's kind of like Velvet Goldmine on steroids. Velvet Goldmine is a fictionalized biopic of David Bowie. Because they couldn't get the rights to his songs, all the songs are homages to his real ones, as I understand it. It's not my favorite Haynes film, but it's easy to follow, because it uses the structure of Citizen Kane, which it very clearly nods to, and is so vibrant and fun that I still enjoyed it.

I'm Not There feels SUPER cerebral, to me. It has about half a dozen different actors (of every race, age and gender) playing Bob Dylan, at various points in his life, like THE GLORIAS or PALINDROMES. However, it's also a heavily fictionalized version of Dylan's life. Unfortunately, at least for me, it felt like you needed to know Dylan's actual life story in pretty great detail to understand all the sequences that were clearly riffing on events in his life. I didn't know much anything about Dylan going in, so none of the movie made any sense to me, and I gave up halfway through, utterly frustrated.

[Gacivory]

Originally Posted by James Luckard

Personally, I wouldn't start with I'm Not There.

I'm a Haynes completist, and I couldn't get all the way through I'm Not There, even though I tried multiple times. It's the one film of his I couldn't finish

It's SUPER weird. It's kind of like Velvet Goldmine on steroids. Velvet Goldmine is a fictionalized biopic of David Bowie. Because they couldn't get the rights to his songs, all the songs are homages to his real ones, as I understand it. It's not my favorite Haynes film, but it's easy to follow, because it uses the structure of Citizen Kane, which it very clearly nods to, and is so vibrant and fun that I still enjoyed it.

I'm Not There feels SUPER cerebral, to me. It has about half a dozen different actors (of every race, age and gender) playing Bob Dylan, at various points in his life, like THE GLORIAS or PALINDROMES. However, it's also a heavily fictionalized version of Dylan's life. Unfortunately, at least for me, it felt like you needed to know Dylan's actual life story in pretty great detail to understand all the sequences that were clearly riffing on events in his life. I didn't know much anything about Dylan going in, so none of the movie made any sense to me, and I gave up halfway through, utterly frustrated.

I’m not there got me into Dylan. It worked for me for how different and weird it was. It’s a biopic of him and his music, like Naked Lunch. It’s a biopic but also of his work. Velvet Goldmine is a loose biopic of Bowie, Lou Reed, and Iggy Pop, with a dash of Kurt Cobain. They couldn’t get the rights to Bowie music, but in doing so it became way more of a love letter to Glam Rock and punk. This purity in out of the mainstream and what selling out means.

I had so much trouble finishing Mildred Pierce. I love melodrama, but it felt so boring to me. I think that I’m not a fan of Kate Winslet so that made it harder. I think an almost 6 hour miniseries isn’t always the best thing to recommend to someone as a way to get into a filmography.

[James Luckard]

Originally Posted by Gacivory

I had so much trouble finishing Mildred Pierce. I love melodrama, but it felt so boring to me. I think that I’m not a fan of Kate Winslet so that made it harder. I think an almost 6 hour miniseries isn’t always the best thing to recommend to someone as a way to get into a filmography.

Ha, fair point about the length, but I found it gripping and fun, and I love Winslet.

It's also probably the easiest one for many people to access. Even though it's OOP on BD, it's streaming on HBOMax, which every subscriber of HBO gets for free.

[Tommy0807]

Originally Posted by James Luckard

Personally, I wouldn't start with I'm Not There.

I'm a Haynes completist, and I couldn't get all the way through I'm Not There, even though I tried multiple times. It's the one film of his I couldn't finish

It's SUPER weird. It's kind of like Velvet Goldmine on steroids. Velvet Goldmine is a fictionalized biopic of David Bowie. Because they couldn't get the rights to his songs, all the songs are homages to his real ones, as I understand it. It's not my favorite Haynes film, but it's easy to follow, because it uses the structure of Citizen Kane, which it very clearly nods to, and is so vibrant and fun that I still enjoyed it.

I'm Not There feels SUPER cerebral, to me. It has about half a dozen different actors (of every race, age and gender) playing Bob Dylan, at various points in his life, like THE GLORIAS or PALINDROMES. However, it's also a heavily fictionalized version of Dylan's life. Unfortunately, at least for me, it felt like you needed to know Dylan's actual life story in pretty great detail to understand all the sequences that were clearly riffing on events in his life. I didn't know much anything about Dylan going in, so none of the movie made any sense to me, and I gave up halfway through, utterly frustrated.

I'm Not There was the first of Haynes' films that I really loved when I first saw it. I found it very compelling.

I had seen Poison and The Karen Carpenter Story and could appreciate them, but they didn't blow me away. I saw Far from Heaven when it was first released, and I liked it well enough, but have never felt the need to revisit it. I have since seen and loved Carol--and I agree with you that it's my favorite of his films. I recently watched Safe and I liked it very much. I finally watched Velvet Goldmine and it left me cold. I haven't seen Mildred Pierce.