LTradition has it that films in competition at the Cannes Film Festival are shrouded in a veil of mystery until their official screening… But even before the 76th…e Although the edition hasn’t started yet (it will be held on May 16), Todd Haynes is keen to talk about it May-December, his feature film, borne by Julianne Moore and Natalie Portman and crossing the influences of his idol Douglas Sirk, Ingmar Bergman and Jean-Luc Godard. “It’s a melodrama that I’m very proud of,” the filmmaker tells us. Brash, provocative, especially in relation to romantic relationships… A kind of horror melodrama! Like a combination of secure (1994) and far from paradise (2002). »
These two essential titles of his filmography (both with Julianne Moore) return to the screen on the occasion of the full retrospective subtitled “American Chimeras” that the Center Georges-Pompidou intends to dedicate to Todd Haynes until May 29th. At 62, the filmmaker, who has been based in Portland, Oregon for several decades, is living a passion. “I’ve been on the edge of my sexuality for a long time, the backgrounds arty the way I’ve evolved, the fact that I’ve settled in Portland, my references from another era… The era has changed, but I’m still the same person! I thought, and still think, that watching Douglas Sirk films is going to the source of what is the art of cinema,” he explains. More than any other genre, Haynes made melodrama his own. far from paradise the miniseries Mildred Pierce (2011) with Kate Winslet and the Splendid Carol (2015) with Cate Blanchett combine a modern look and formal splendor worthy of Hollywood’s golden age. It is good to (re)discover these works that are already classics.
Point: Will you see some of your films again in this retrospective?
Todd Haynes: I intend to see it again secure because a lot of people came back to it and told me about it during the Corona crisis… This is a story of people shutting themselves off and everyone living in a bubble. Contagion, exposure, immunity… these terms were at the heart of the film and the underlying fear it conveyed, a fear linked to the idea that we are shutting ourselves off from others. But basically we have to be together. It didn’t surprise me that there was a collective awakening at the time of George Floyd’s assassination. People needed to come together, fill the streets, unite for a basic cause.
The Center Georges-Pompidou offers film lovers the opportunity to discover your working documents…
I call them “Picture Books” and that’s what I called the short film I made (on behalf of the museum) for the retrospective. In these books, which I create for each of my scenarios, I combine all the visual influences of the current film. It’s a way to non-verbally communicate with the cameraman and synthesize my approach. For I am not there (2007), my film about Bob Dylan, literally ran into three volumes. Visually, this film was particularly complex because I chose to have Dylan played by several different actors and even one actress, Cate Blanchett, in the role of Dylan in 1966, his time not connected and electric. Bob Dylan’s identity is so complex, fragmented, diverse… It was the only narrative solution that seemed to fit me. As for it May-December, I thought of Godard. His death occurred during pre-production of the film. I especially wanted to pay tribute to him through quotes Two or three things I know about her (1967). Pour Carolan adaptation of a very autobiographical book by Patricia Highsmith, in the “image book” we find photos of Audrey Hepburn and Grace Kelly, my references for the characters played by Rooney Mara and Cate Blanchett, but also shots by Saul Leiter, the photographer of the New York in the 1950s…
In CarolCate Blanchett plays a married woman who falls in love with a young girl. The film gained cult status, but it still sparked debates about “Is a straight actress the best choice to play a lesbian?”. “. What do you think ?
This is madness! It’s staggering to me that in my early days I was an active contributor to a movement called New Queer Cinema. Identity and sexuality have always been the focus of my work. I started at a time when the backlash against gay activism was intense, sometimes violent. We saw that the homosexual body is associated with contagion, disease, a potential carrier of AIDS. I therefore felt a strong desire to act through creation, it was an urgent mission… This New Queer Cinema I attended had the greatest challenge of inviting the audience not to succumb to fear. This meant, among other things, that we didn’t try to make our differentness palatable to everyone – quite the opposite! We were ready to shake consciences and make people uncomfortable.
And today ?
Today, there is a danger that the discourse on sexual identity will become oppressive. We’re constantly being given rules to follow and not to follow… That’s too rigid a view of things. Our time erects barriers instead of tearing them down. So many films try to convey an acceptable message in terms of moral rules. But that’s not how you make art. May-December will undoubtedly shock in the context of waking culture and the post #MeToo era, as the story raises some uncomfortable questions about love life, including the age at which one is allowed to make decisions. I want my films to provoke debate and question and even disturb.
Why are you so attached to the form of melodrama?
Douglas Sirk said, in essence, the simpler the subject matter, the more the audience can identify with a film. Melodrama plunges us into the domestic sphere, and there is something deeply political about this decision: privacy affects everyone equally. Family and love relationships, disillusionment, compromises, disagreements between men and women or inequality according to social class or skin color… All this is expressed in a melodrama. We see it with Sirk, but also with Ophüls, Minnelli, Hitchcock… These are films that give space to think about the world we live in.
“Todd Haynes, American Chimeras” until May 29 – Master class on May 12 at 6:30 p.m. – www.centrepompidou.fr and in bookstores, “Todd Haynes, American Chimeras” by Judith Revaut-D’Allonnes and Amélie Galli , From the incidence editor, 384 pages, 26 euros.
