59. Mostra Internazionale d’Arte Cinematografica – Official
Competition
Far from
Heaven
A film written and directed by
Todd Haynes
With
Julianne Moore
Denis Quaid
Running Time: 107 minutes
VERLEIH
MONOPOLE PATHE FILMS
Neugasse 6, Postfach, 8005 Zürich
Tel. 01 277 70 83 Fax 01 277 70 89
miriam.nussbaumer@pathefilms.ch
www.farfromheavenmovie.com
Far from Heaven
Table of Contents
Synopsis
page 3
Director’s Statement
page 4
About the Production
page 4
On Gender
page 7
On Sexuality
page 7
On Race
page 9
On Actors
page 11
On Location
page 13
Costume Concepts
page 15
The Sirk Touch
page 16
Filmmaking Partnerships Past and Present
page 17
The Far from Heaven Effect
page 18
About the Cast
page 19
About the Filmmakers
page 23
Full Cast and Credits
page 36
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Far from Heaven
Synopsis
Far from Heaven marks the second teaming of leading lady Julianne Moore with
writer/director Todd Haynes and producer Christine Vachon, following the trio’s
collaboration on the acclaimed 1995 drama SAFE.
Far from Heaven tells the story of a privileged housewife in 1950s America, and is
inspired by the great Hollywood “women’s films” of that era. Haynes vividly evokes the
intense colors and visual style of filmmaker Douglas Sirk (IMITATION OF LIFE, WRITTEN
ON THE WIND) in order to depict the teeming, oppressive surfaces of middle-class, midcentury America – and the furtive, life-shattering desires that fester beneath them.
It is the fall of 1957 in Hartford, Connecticut, and Cathy Whitaker (Julianne Moore) is
returning home from a day of errands. Her husband, Frank (Dennis Quaid), who heads the
local branch of the Magnatech TV sales company, is expected home for a dinner
engagement. As Sybil, their maid, helps Cathy unload the car, David and Janice, the
Whitaker children, are told to hurry inside and prepare for dinner. There’s only one
problem: neither Cathy nor Sybil has heard from Mr. Whitaker all afternoon.
What begins as a curiously un-ironic snapshot of 1950s American values is soon
transformed into a tangle of competing conflicts, igniting Cathy’s friendships with her
formidable gardener, Raymond (Dennis Haysbert), her plucky best friend (Patricia
Clarkson), and maid, Sybil (Viola Davis). As secrets are revealed, Cathy is faced with choices
that spur hatred and gossip within the community. She comes to recognize her own desires,
even as, in the process, she has to give up the object of them.
A Focus Features and Vulcan Productions presentation of a Killer Films/John
Wells/Section Eight production. A Film by Todd Haynes. Julianne Moore, Dennis Quaid,
Dennis Haysbert. Far from Heaven. Co-Starring Patricia Clarkson, Viola Davis. Casting
by Laura Rosenthal. Music by Elmer Bernstein. Costume Designer, Sandy Powell. Edited by
James Lyons. Production Designer, Mark Friedberg. Director of Photography, Edward
Lachman, A.S.C. Co-Producers, Bradford Simpson, Declan Baldwin. Executive Producers,
John Wells, Eric Robison, John Sloss. Executive Producers, Steven Soderbergh, George
Clooney. Produced by Jody Patton. Produced by Christine Vachon. Written and Directed by
Todd Haynes.
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Far from Heaven
Director’s Statement
“Creating a fifties-era melodrama today and playing it straight, smack in the midst of this
pumped-up, adrenaline-crazed era, might seem a perplexing impulse. Yet the strongest
melodramas are those without apparent villains, where characters end up hurting each
other unwittingly, just by pursuing their desires. To impose upon the seeming innocence of
the 1950s themes as mutually volatile as race and sexuality is to reveal how volatile those
subjects remain today – and how much our current climate of complacent stability has in
common with that bygone era.”
-- Todd Haynes
About the Production
With his latest film, writer/director Todd Haynes reinterprets and revisits a great, almost
forgotten Hollywood genre – the domestic melodrama. Far from Heaven is inspired by
the films of John Stahl (LEAVE HER TO HEAVEN, MAGNIFICENT OBSESSION [1935],
IMITATION OF LIFE [1934]) and, more particularly, the films of Douglas Sirk. Not unike
those classics of the genre, Haynes’ new film explores multiple layers simultaneously.
As with many of the masterpieces of the genre, Far from Heaven is set in a prosperous
suburbia, a world of bright bourgeois satisfaction and Technicolor splendor that all but
overpowers the lonely inner life of its protagonists. In ALL THAT HEAVEN ALLOWS, Jane
Wyman plays a widow who falls in love with a younger man (Rock Hudson); in THERE’S
ALWAYS TOMORROW, Fred MacMurray portrays a neglected husband who reconnects
with an old flame. In these and other films, love and other dormant emotions are ignited –
only to be stamped out by the critical moralizing of friends and family. In Far from
Heaven, the small, whispered innuendoes and self-satisfied smugness of the community
block the changes that Cathy Whitaker (Julianne Moore) is undergoing.
“Maternal melodramas are a tradition that inspired this film and this style of filmmaking,”
comments Haynes. “They’ve been part of American film history since it began.
“We tried to approximate a whole look, a whole style, and a whole cinematic language that
aren’t familiar today. Styles of ’50s filmmaking have certainly gone away: backlot
Hollywood in Universal Pictures movies, for example, the experience of working in a studio
system with seasoned technicians working in a factory of illusion-making that was honed
and refined over the years.”
“With Far from Heaven, the style and the content are inseparable – as they are in most of
the films I respect, where you can’t imagine the story being told any other way. The style
reflects the emotional experience of the story. There’s a distancing effect with the style we’re
exploring – but ultimately it’s not my goal to distance.
“I wanted to have the emotional impact and the stylistic conventions ultimately work as
one. I think that what happens in the best melodramas is that there is a sense in which you
are observing it from afar and you’re seeing what they’re doing…but you can’t help getting
drawn in emotionally at the same time. It’s because these films are about subtle social
dynamics, very large and very small things that don’t really change. They’re also about love
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and despair and disappointment and betrayal – the stuff we all experience. So you can’t help
but be sucked in – and that’s my goal with Far from Heaven.”
Haynes sought to recreate the perfect, pristine look of mid-century Hollywood studio films.
He assembled a brilliant creative team that included production designer Mark Friedberg
(THE ICE STORM); cinematographer Ed Lachman (ERIN BROCKOVICH); and Academy
Award-winning costume designer Sandy Powell (SHAKESPEARE IN LOVE), with whom
Haynes had previously collaborated on VELVET GOLDMINE. Together, the creative team
studied the movies of the period and re-created the heightened, intensive perfection of those
films’ sets, costumes, color palettes, frame compositions, and lighting.
Haynes states, “While the look and style of those ’50s melodramas are anything but
realistic, there’s something almost spookily accurate about the emotional truths of those
films. They are hyperreal, that’s why we call them melodramas. Because they are about the
kinds of things that are close to our private, personal lives, like falling out of love with
somebody.”
Far from Heaven explores several social themes: racism, homosexuality, and the role of
women in families. In making a film set in the 1950s, Haynes notes he “was very aware of
the sense of superiority that we all feel about the ’50s because in some ways the decade has
been reduced to a series of clichés around suburban, conservative Americana. It’s shocking
to think that the same year Marilyn Monroe was at her peak, Joan Baez released her first
album and was an instant sensation. Those two examples of femininity that we now put into
such separate categories existed at the same time. So there are all kinds of contradictions to
the idea that the ’50s was just one thing. It’s exciting to use some of those expectations as a
way of disarming the audience a little bit for Far from Heaven.”
The theme of maternal sacrifice is central to many of the greatest Hollywood melodramas,
from King Vidor’s STELLA DALLAS to Sirk’s IMITATION OF LIFE (1959). In Far from
Heaven, the character of Cathy, played by Julianne Moore, shows how much women were
forced to give up to sacrifice to their family, while the men ultimately move on in search of
their happiness. Says Haynes, “Sadly, it’s at the point where she gives it up, gives up her
desires or hope for satisfaction, that she gains her voice.”
He adds, “We’re also still struggling with racism to an incredible degree. People are still
grappling with their sexuality, even in a world that offers positive alternatives all over the
place. Racial and sexual orientation are still ingrained as conflicts in our culture – they’re
still very pertinent.”
Haynes also sought to explore the differences between parenting today and parenting then.
He comments, “Certain aspects of contemporary culture underscore aspects of this
particular period more than others – which is always the case when you’re in any particular
historical period looking back. In today’s culture, there is a panic around any kind of
crossing of certain lines or rules about how children should be treated or dealt with;
children have become the central force of the family and many parents’ lives.
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“In addition to ALL THAT HEAVEN ALLOWS, Max Ophuls’ THE RECKLESS MOMENT
[recently remade as THE DEEP END] is an influence on Far from Heaven. In the films of
the ’50s, children are part of the maternal jobs and responsibilities: the good mother is the
one who keeps them clean and quiet and in their place. You also see this in beloved TV
shows like FATHER KNOWS BEST, where it’s the mother who is more strict and obsessed
with cleanliness and manners and all that stuff. Yet you don’t hate her; you don’t think she’s
bad or have any resentment toward her. So it’s not meant to be a big flaw in the character of
Cathy.
“In many of Sirk’s films, it’s the children – older kids – who are often the most extreme
spokespeople for the repressions of their culture. There’s no sentimentality towards
offspring in those films. It’s a very interesting concept: maybe being the mother in an
American household isn’t this fully blessed existence; maybe the children aren’t the perfect
flowers of your life and the only things in the world.”
Julianne Moore, with whom Todd Haynes first collaborated on SAFE, was his first choice
for the role of Cathy, a woman who finds her entire life shattering. Moore recalls, “Todd
sent me the script in the spring of 2000. He said, ‘This is the movie that I’ve been working
on and that I want you to do.’ It was pretty much a final draft: with Todd, I find that
everything that he wants is evident in the script. Having worked with him before, I had
insight into what he was going for with Far from Heaven.”
In describing their working relationship, Haynes says, “We have a kind of unspoken
connection where we don’t over-discuss; she is able to interpret my ideas. We clicked from
when she read SAFE. With Julianne, as with all the best actors, most of the director’s work
is done by simply selecting them. Every actor needs some element of privacy about what
they do, and they protect it. Julianne is drawn to characters that are conflicted and have
complexities and are not catering to your sentiment in any overt or direct way. She knows
how to hold back and she intuitively understands that what gives an audience the strongest
experience watching a film is when you have something to fill in yourself – where the actor
doesn’t show you every piece of it, and you put yourself in there as an active spectator.”
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On Gender
Julianne Moore says, “The character that I play is a very traditional ’50s homemaker and I
particularly wanted her to be a classic American ideal, the women that you’ve seen in all
those movies from the ’50s. She should be this ideal – and then you see her life deviate from
that ideal pattern.
“In this film, there are issues of bigotry and prejudice, but this is ultimately Todd’s most
feminist movie. His point is that here might be sexual differences and cultural differences
and racial differences, but the first and most important difference is determined at birth –
whether you’re a boy or a girl. Everything in Cathy’s life is defined by her very femaleness.
As much as the men in the film are going through all these things, they’re the ones who
manage to go on. Cathy is the one left behind, because she is female.”
Moore, like Haynes, believes that the story in the film is not dated and is completely
relevant to our modern lives. She explains, “Although people are kind of loath to say it, I
think that there is a way we publicly live our lives. In Far from Heaven, you see people
being forced into certain social situations and having to behave in a particular way because
of the place they’re in and the people they’re speaking to. But then there are the private
moments, where they reveal other things. As an actor, it’s a wonderful thing to do, to be able
to do both the public and the private in the same film.”
On Sexuality
Todd Haynes notes, “Far from Heaven does deviate from the thematic possibilities
afforded films in the ’50s in its depiction of homosexuality. Before the 1960s, homosexuality
could only be alluded to in American film by way of comically flamboyant or ridiculous
supporting characters or cameos.”
Douglas Sirk cast a little-known Universal contract player, Rock Hudson, as the lead in his
1954 film MAGNIFICENT OBSESSION. The picture, produced by the openly gay Ross
Hunter, was a hit and made Hudson a star. The actor would go on to star in four more films
for the same director and producer.
Haynes adds, “So, homosexuality, while behind-the-scenes, was indeed evident in the
making of the films – as it was, arguably, in the aesthetics of many directors of ‘women’s
films,’ like George Cukor and Vincente Minnelli. While thematically restricted, a gay or
‘feminine’ aesthetic was free to pervade the profuse visual style of those films: the clothes,
the colors, the lavish décor. Far from Heaven may just be bringing into the level of
content what was always there, bristling beneath the surface.”
In Far from Heaven, Cathy’s husband Frank, played by Dennis Quaid, is forced to finally
admit to his homosexuality when his wife discovers his feelings. Haynes comments, “At the
time, homosexuality was considered an illness. Even in the most civil and well-educated
circles, that was considered the tolerant way of looking at the condition. Yet when I did
research on homosexuality and its treatment at that particular time, I was surprised. You
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think of the ’50s, you assume shock treatment and all of these horrific, panicky things
because we think of the ’50s as so patently repressive. In fact, there were breakthroughs in
the late ’40s and in some writings, doctors were saying that this was not a sickness and that
you really can’t change it. So it was actually more progressive than I thought.
“But I feel that, for someone like Frank, there are no examples around him of any positive
way to look to, to be, to live, to exist in this moat. So the only way for him to get through the
day was to decide he was going to fix it: there must be a way to stitch it up and let it heal, or
take a medicine or whatever, and that’s the way he approached it. But that doesn’t work,
and it shouldn’t and it can’t.”
The casting of actor Dennis Quaid, who throughout his career has so effortlessly embodied
comfortable masculinity on-screen, enhances the role of Frank, the suburban “Pop” and
husband who can no longer hide the truth of his homosexuality from himself or his wife.
Quaid notes, “I’d seen a couple of Todd’s movies and found him to be an artist, with a very
interesting point of view about life. When I read the script, my first impression was that it
would be good for me to play this character because I hadn’t done a role like this before –
and had never seen this character situation in a film. On the exterior, it looks like Frank has
the perfect life: he has a wife and two kids and he’s a top sales executive for Magnatech TV.
But he’s very troubled and shamed by his secret life.
“What I appreciated about Todd’s writing and direction is that it would have been very easy
to parody these people and have a laugh, but he doesn’t: there is an emotional integrity to it.
It’s set in the ’50s, a time when people swept things under the carpet; behind those neat
rose palaces that people lived in, all kinds of drama went on that we never knew about.
Things are more open these days, but people still have the same emotions and feelings.”
Haynes says, “Dennis and I talked after he’d read the script. While we spoke about the style
being inseparable from the content, one of the things that drew him to the film was the fact
that he’d never played a character like this before: a gay man, and one so conflicted. He
understood the conflict that Frank is going through not just as an actor but as a person,
because he said that he’s had some very close friends for whom this has been the case.”
Of his on-screen same-sex kiss, Quaid remarks, “It’s all about being a human being, it’s all
about love. Like any love scene, the hardest part was just waiting around to do it. And once
you’ve done the scene three or four times – hey, it’s all in a day’s work.”
Haynes confirms, “There was no problem with Dennis doing that scene. He started, in the
initial takes, in a more muscular kind of way. I said that it needed to be more simple –
romantic and tender. That is harder, and maybe more threatening, to portray. But he was
great.”
On Race
Far from Heaven also explores the relationship between blacks and whites in 1950s
suburbia. Dennis Haysbert plays Raymond, the widower gardener to whom Cathy is drawn.
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Haysbert himself was drawn to the film’s “emotional content. In the fewest words, it’s ‘love
unrequited.’ I loved my character, I loved all the characters, I always wanted to work with
Julianne Moore, so I said, ‘Let’s go.’” That was easier said than done, as the shooting
schedule of Far from Heaven was concurrent with the one for the TV series “24,” in which
Haysbert costars. But the actor managed to work on both projects at once, commuting
between the West and East Coasts.
In his trips East for Far from Heaven, Haysbert found his director to be “a man who
definitely knows what he wants. At once I felt very comfortable.”
Haynes in turn found the actor to be “this amazingly gentle and lovely and smart and
grounded man. He is all of those things that you see in the film. Julianne so loved working
with him, and between them it worked exactly as it was conceived in the writing.”
Haysbert notes, “Raymond is a good man born at the wrong time. He and Cathy live in a
time where they just don’t fit with what people perceive to be normal. They’re two people
caught in this world and they’re not going to be able to be together because they have too
many people close to them that will be hurt. So they sacrifice.”
The burgeoning relationship between Cathy and Raymond highlights the taboo that was
interracial dating and marriage in the ’50s, in both the white and the black communities.
Like ’50s Hollywood melodramas, Far from Heaven is set primarily in the wealthy, white
world. Haynes notes that “there is the whole world of black Hartford that we do not see. We
see it all through the little perfectly white happy family keyhole that is Cathy Whitaker’s
point of view. It’s like this moment in IMITATION OF LIFE that is so beautiful: Lana
Turner has spent her entire life with her maid, Juanita Moore, and the maid is dying. She
says she wants a great funeral with all her friends there, and Lana Turner says, ‘Annie, I
didn’t know that you had friends.’ And Juanita Moore says, ‘Well, Miss Laura, you never
asked.’ That tells you that this film has left something big out – and not only has Lana
Turner never shown interest in her black maid’s life, neither have we the audience. We
never asked, and we didn’t even think about it until it was brought up in the dialogue. It
both shows you what’s not there and acknowledges that it should have been there and we
didn’t even think about it. It’s not necessarily Lana Turner’s problem as much as it is all of
ours.
“There’s a nod to IMITATION OF LIFE in Far from Heaven with the sequence where
Cathy is asking her maid, Sybil [Viola Davis], ‘You must know of a good charity,’ and the
NAACP comes but she doesn’t have time for them. Even in her own good intentions, Cathy
is whisking past real people with real lives that she isn’t interacting with in a deep way.”
Mindful of life imitating art, Haynes comments, “You know, it’s hard to cast a strong actress
like Viola Davis and put her in maid’s clothes and have her saying, ‘Yes, Mrs. Whitaker…No,
Mrs. Whitaker.’ But we were trying to show the double standard and partial vision of white
America. Not just how it deals with race but how that partial vision is reflected in the films
that come out of white America. Viola was smart and secure, and loved the film’s story.”
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Haysbert muses, “This is probably the film I’ve done that I’m most proud of. It’s a very
interesting period for me to portray. It’s so uncomfortable in a lot of ways. People can’t
seem to get beyond the color of Raymond’s skin. But, in trying to act on his sensibilities, he
gets it from both sides: the people of color as well as their white counterparts. It’s pretty
balanced among unbalanced ways of thinking.”
Haynes adds, “Raymond represents, for Cathy, a possible liberation from her life and her
fate. Raymond represents integrity but he’s flawed too. He believes, too much, that the
white world and the black world can co-exist. He encourages his 11-year-old daughter,
Sarah, to interact with white culture and then they’re both punished.”
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On Actors
Rounding out the principal cast is Patricia Clarkson, who plays Cathy Whitaker’s best friend
Eleanor Fine. Haynes sees both character and actress as referencing and reinforcing “the
tradition of the supporting actress – think Eve Arden, Agnes Moorehead. Patty Clarkson is a
chameleon, she completely changes from role to role. She’s fantastic. She reads Eleanor’s
lines and you can’t imagine anyone else performing the role.
“Patty brings a great sense of flair and elegance to Eleanor. You look to El as somebody who
could probably handle most of the stuff that Cathy feels too afraid to share with her through
most of the film. You watch the friendship between these two women get pushed apart.”
Clarkson comments, “Todd and I didn’t know one another, but he knew my work and wrote
me this beautiful letter. The script was wonderful. Knowing how very specifically Todd was
going to shoot it, I thought, ‘Mmmm, this could be interesting.’ Eleanor thinks she’s
something that she isn’t and wants to be something that she isn’t, but she clearly has a great
love and fondness for her best friend.
“Eleanor fancies herself to be quite sophisticated. She’s married but she doesn’t have any
children. She has the more ‘freewheeling life’ than Cathy, yet she is unfortunately still
somewhat conventional and is in fact not as open-minded as Cathy. Everybody in this film
has a secret life somewhere. You realize just how difficult it was for people to live in this
time and how trying it was for their psyches and souls.”
Moore allows, “I did look at a few Sirk films during pre-production – like ALL THAT
HEAVEN ALLOWS, which is a major influence on this film. But the style is embedded in my
brain – I’ve seen IMITATION OF LIFE so many times over the years. Far from Heaven
required – not realistic acting per se, but a realistic feeling beneath. Absolutely everybody
that Todd has found for this movie has been wonderful.”
Clarkson agrees: “We had so many great people involved in this. It was an opportunity for
me to work with Julianne for the first time: I admire her work so much. And I love Todd. He
knows his film perfectly, inside and out, and can just say the tiniest thing and it’s exactly
right and makes the difference in the scene. He’s so enthusiastic that it makes for a great
atmosphere to work in. That’s important for an actor, to be comfortable and to feel positive
people around you in even the darkest scenes.”
Quaid adds, “I loved working with Julianne, because she and I work a lot alike, we don’t do
a lot of ‘method’ stuff. We’re interested in getting it done. Julianne is the kind of actress
with whom you don’t see the work going on.”
Haynes laughs, “They’re actors who aren’t all ‘Don’t talk to me!’ and ‘method.’ They’re not
the least bit indulgent.”
Of his own process, Quaid elaborates, “Basically, I’ve read the script and have thought about
it a lot. Then I like to go out there and see what happens in the moment. There does come a
time in the shooting of a film when I feel that I know more about my character than the
11
director does. But I’m an actor who likes to be directed: I like to work with very strong
directors who have definite ideas and points of view. Todd is one.”
Haynes comments, “Dennis adapted his performance to the acting style of the time: a little
more heightened, a little bit cleaner and tidier than today’s more method-infused
naturalism. He brought that into his performance without sacrificing the emotional truth.”
On Location
Meticulously recreating fall 1957 and winter 1958 was a challenge that would have daunted
larger and higher-profile productions than Far from Heaven. But Todd Haynes and crew
were ready. Haynes admits, “It was hugely ambitious, and we had a very tough schedule to
keep. But we also had top-notch people across the board. It just permeated the production.
“We had a nicely diverse crew, too, and that made me feel good because that isn’t always the
case. So, from the start, it felt like it was already collaborative with a lot of different points
of view.”
Some of the key creative collaborators, such as production designer Mark Friedberg and
director of photography Ed Lachman, had not worked with Haynes prior. Costume designer
Sandy Powell, though, had, earning an Academy Award nomination for her work on Haynes’
VELVET GOLDMINE.
Friedberg, whom Haynes describes as “a driven artist,” had a mandate to design “a movie
that looked like a ’50s studio movie. We tried to make our locations look like sets and our
sets look like locations.”
Far from Heaven was filmed not in Hartford, Connecticut but in and around New Jersey.
Bayonne’s Military Ocean Terminal offered office and stage facilities that the production
could, and did, take full advantage of. Located just 7 miles from downtown Manhattan, the
Terminal was formerly used as the Eastern headquarters for the United States Army.
Additional filming was one on locations in New Jersey (including Bloomfield), as well as in
Manhattan.
“Todd was well-prepared and had a clear sense of how he wanted to portray this seemingly
perfect world. We drew up a map of Hartford, and found that we required about four
different streets for ‘downtown Hartford’,” remembers Friedberg. “These were made up of
four different towns, one street for one part of town and another street for another part of
town – so that, on-screen, someone is just turning a corner but in reality they were going to
the other side of the state.
“There’s always a lot of work when you’re outdoors on a period film because of the amount
of real estate you have to cover. Every façade has to be dealt with, and some have to be put
up.”
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Haynes adds, “It was expensive, for our budget. Any exterior stuff is tough. Mark would say,
‘You almost pay by the square foot,’ because if you’re doing a block of storefronts, one more
store is that many more square feet of cost.
“You know how in period films, the cars are spotlessly clean – that drives me crazy. But in
Far from Heaven, I wanted them to be spotlessly clean because we were doing a film in
homage to Hollywood filmmaking, soundstage backlot films. So we would take these gritty
streets of New Jersey, clean them off, clean the building fronts, make the perfect
awning…The crew would crack up because I would go back and adjust a little candy dish or
move an ashtray until it was just right…”
Friedberg comments, “For me, this was a great thing: he understood the difference between
a warm color and a cool color, and he could speak my language. Todd is a director who
understands every job: what a painter does, what a carpenter does, what a sound man does.
He’s like a conductor: the words and the colors and the music will all go together to tell this
story.”
For sequences set during Cathy and Frank’s New Year’s trip to Miami, the filmmakers got
especially creative. Friedberg recalls, “We got to create Miami with a combination of the set
of a terrace restaurant, with a Latin band on a starry New Year’s Eve; and a matching
location we found in the Rockaways, which was an old beach club modeled after a Miami
hut.
“We had to make it seamless – like you’re in Miami, you just went outside, this is what
you’d find. The trick is for what you do to be beautiful yet not call attention to itself, so that
you stay with what’s being told in the story. If we do a lot of work, it will look like we didn’t
do any. If we don’t do enough work, then you will notice it and we won’t have served the
story.”
The sequence set at the Hartford Cultural Center’s modern art show called for extra
materials: the artwork. Friedberg says, “We made all the art for that, which was pretty fun
to do. Nothing was a free-for-all. Todd was very specific about the kind of art. We made art
in the style of the various abstract painters of the early ’50s. And – not paintings, prints.”
Special sequences and scenes notwithstanding, Far from Heaven’s Whitaker homestead
was “our single biggest design challenge,” states Friedberg. “Like in a lot of these ’50s
melodramas, the house is the center of the story.
“We decided we would build the house, although the set itself is broken up into pieces.
Originally, Todd wanted a Colonial house. As we talked, we realized that it’s a confining
architecture and that the Whitakers are a couple at the peak of their success, so they might
have something more contemporary. Rather than go completely modern, we mixed it up:
the house has Colonial elements in a modern setting. It’s an open floor plan, and we also
had to see outside to where Raymond works.”
Inside the house, the décor has come together through the efforts of homemaker Cathy.
Friedberg notes, “It is a reflection of her personality, so that the story can be told. As we join
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the story, Cathy is a together woman who has probably decorated the house herself or had a
hand in it. She’s not a modernist, and she’s not an architect. She’s traditional, but with
flair.”
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Costume Concepts
“The task at the beginning was the same as it as the beginning of any movie,” states costume
designer Sandy Powell. “Create the costumes for the look of the film and help create the
characters through their respective costumes.”
Powell had worked with Julianne Moore once before, costuming the actress for her
Academy Award-nominated performance in THE END OF THE AFFAIR. “So,” the designer
elaborates, “I knew her body shape. I knew her coloring – of course, I kept imagining her
with red hair, and in this movie she’s blonde…We didn’t see the blonde wig until the last
minute. I steered away from the colors I would normally use for her.”
Moore comments, “We decided to go with the blonde wig that I wear to play Cathy rather
than my own hair color. Todd initially talked about Cathy just having my own hair color, but
I said, ‘That’s not what you see in American film. You almost always see a blonde.’”
Patricia Clarkson confides, “I dyed my hair for this movie. I do wear one or two vintage
pieces, but pretty much everything I wear Sandy has designed – quite a feast for the eye. I
couldn’t ever eat a big lunch, but what the hell…The hair, the make-up, just having gloves
on – my mother is going to be so happy to see me in this film…
“Some of my shirts I wear as Eleanor are Lauren Bacall-esque shirts. They’re all vibrant
colors, very autumnal. The eyebrows and false eyelashes are very ’50s. The lipstick I wear in
the film is ‘Cherries in the Snow,’ an actual shade of red from the 1950s. Revlon still has it –
not on the shelves, but make-up artists can get it.”
Moore notes, “Sandy is tremendously talented and she always considers both character and
the overall theme of the movie. We were in a fitting very early on, and she told me, ‘I can’t
believe it – Todd and I actually had a meeting about color!’ She, Todd, Ed Lachman, and
Mark Friedberg had gone through the movie scene by scene and talked about the color
palette in each of the scenes, because it plays a part in the style and emotion of the film.
Various colors represent different characters, and the mood of the film changes through
light and color.”
“Those meetings, purely about color, were such a luxury,” states Powell. “I’ve never had it
happen before. We were clear about which colors were going to be in each scene. It gave us
focal points.”
Most of the lead actors’ costumes were designed, and made, by Powell and her team. Powell
explains, “We did hunt for vintage clothes. We went to shops and markets, and we rented.
But on the whole, it’s difficult to find something in perfect condition – because it’s obviously
quite a few years old by now.”
The party scene at the Whitakers’ with Cathy as hostess is, says Powell, “an important
moment in the movie, one where she has to look a little bit more than the Miss Perfect
housewife. It’s one of the dressiest scenes overall, but Cathy has to look sexy in a way – it’s
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when Frank notices other men noticing her. The dress isn’t totally out-there sexy, but with
the lace it’s a bit more revealing than normal.”
For other sequences focusing on Cathy, Powell reveals that “the shoes are made to match
the dresses. As for the beautiful scarf that she wears and temporarily loses, it’s silk chiffon –
it had to be able to fly off easily…”
Having recreated outfits from the ’70s (on VELVET GOLDMINE) and the ’50s (on Far
from Heaven) already for Todd Haynes – and from even older periods for other
moviemakers – Powell finds that “each one is a learning experience. Every period you do –
and I don’t have a favorite – you learn things you didn’t know before.
“One of the most interesting parts of the job is when you’re working with the actors,
developing their character. Rarely do you get an actress who says, ‘I don’t care what I wear.’
That doesn’t usually happen.”
The Sirk Touch
Douglas Sirk (1900-1987) was, as Todd Haynes recounts, “a German-born intellectual who
knew Brecht, and worked in European theater in the ’20s and ’30s. He was a progressive
radical by the standards of Nazi Germany. His first wife, who he divorced, got very closely
aligned to the Nazi party. His second wife was a Jewish woman, so they fled to America.
“In Hollywood, in the 1950s at Universal Studios, he was hired to make these screen
versions of Ladies Home Journal sort of stories. The films he made have become wellknown, cherished, and later studied in the ‘auteur’ traditions. They are mostly known for
their vivid use of Technicolor, but their beautiful lighting also boldly infuses ‘film noir’
darks and shadows. The films were stories of women in domestic settings that were also
about the repressive nature of American bourgeois culture.”
Haynes admits, “ALL THAT HEAVEN ALLOWS is probably my favorite of his films. It was a
follow-up to his first big hit, MAGNIFICENT OBESSSION. He put together the same three
lead actors – Jane Wyman, Rock Hudson, Agnes Moorehead – for ALL THAT HEAVEN
ALLOWS, which is considerably more down-to-earth in its themes. It’s about an older
woman/younger man scandal in a small town.
“Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s ALI – FEAR EATS THE SOUL [1974] is a remake of that film.
Fassbinder was moved by Sirk’s empathy towards his films’ characters. Fassbinder himself
was known for being a difficult man. His treatment of his subjects in his films is often very
cruel as well. I think Fassbinder envied the care and gentleness that he allowed his central
female characters. He said, ‘Until Sirk’s films, I’d never seen movies where you see women
thinking on screen.’
Haynes feels that Fassbinder’s comment “is true. People might laugh at the brazen color and
Rock Hudson. But the performances by Jane Wyman, and other actresses who played
central female characters, ground the movies and start to affect you as you watch them,
despite the melodramatic quality.”
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Julianne Moore adds, “What was so magnificent about his movies was that you’d be
watching, with the camera at a remove, and you’d find yourself inadvertently caught up in
the story and truly moved by it. That’s what I’m hoping will happen with Far from
Heaven.”
Filmmaking Partnerships Past and Present
Douglas Sirk’s IMITATION OF LIFE (1959) was the filmmaker’s tenth collaboration with
prolific studio producer Ross Hunter. With that film, the successful partnership reached its
zenith and, as the director left the United States, its conclusion. It was preceded by their
teamings on INTERLUDE (1957); BATTLE HYMN (1957); THERE’S ALWAYS
TOMORROW (1956); ALL THAT HEAVEN ALLOWS (1955); CAPTAIN LIGHTFOOT
(1955); TAZA, SON OF COCHISE (1954); MAGNIFICENT OBSESSION (1954); TAKE ME
TO TOWN (1953); and ALL I DESIRE (1953).
Some four decades later, the comparable team behind Far from Heaven is gaining
ground, with almost as many projects completed: the new film marks the fourth feature
collaboration between prolific independent producer Christine Vachon and filmmaker Todd
Haynes. However, Vachon reminds that the pair “started working together in the mid1980s, after I saw Todd’s short film SUPERSTAR: THE KAREN CARPENTER STORY.
Later, we did a short film called DOTTIE GETS SPANKED. It’s been a very good
relationship – creatively profitable, not so economically profitable yet, but…”
The producer notes that the new film has been a passion project for the pair: “Todd started
talking a couple of years ago about doing a melodrama in the Douglas Sirk tradition, in
Technicolor, what we traditionally think of as ‘women’s pictures’: IMITATION OF LIFE,
ALL THAT HEAVEN ALLOWS, WRITTEN ON THE WIND…They were these incredible
candy-boxed movies – yet they were able to deal with issues of race and class in ways that
were incredibly subversive for the time and are in fact still somewhat subversive.”
Vachon reveals, “My favorite thing about working with Todd is that there’s very little
tension between us. People who don’t know better like to describe a producer/director
relationship as one that’s inherently combative. In my experience, a great producer/director
relationship is about one enabling the other. We trust each other to such a degree that we
don’t need to have those arguments. Not that we don’t disagree sometimes, but there’s a
shorthand in the way we’re able to relate to each other that’s quite fun.”
Vachon also relished reteaming with Far from Heaven leading lady Julianne Moore:
“When I worked with Julianne the first time, on SAFE, she was at the beginning of what was
clearly going to be a stellar film career, but wasn’t yet. Now it is, and it’s great to be able to
work with her again.”
The Far from Heaven Effect
Dennis Haysbert comments, “What I would hope for is that when people watch Far from
Heaven, they’ll look back over their lives and see opportunities they’ve missed and say, ‘I’m
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never going to let this happen again. The next time I find love, no matter who it is, no
matter what color or size or religion or whatever, I’m going to go for it.’ If someone can walk
out of the theater with that in mind, then we will have succeeded.”
Dennis Quaid says, “I hope people see themselves when they see Far from Heaven, and
can relate to it.”
Patricia Clarkson adds, “People will recognize it as being like one of those great old beautiful
’50s movies, but then will see what we all knew existed in private lives that Todd has
brought to the surface. People will be drawn in and moved.”
Julianne Moore concurs, stating, “I hope that audiences get caught up in Far from
Heaven emotionally.”
Christine Vachon says, “I think you’d be hard-pressed to find a Todd Haynes film that didn’t
make people argue and chat, and Far From Heaven will too. It’s an incredibly moving
story.”
When asked how he hopes audiences will respond to the film, Todd Haynes answers, “With
tears, tears of recognition – where the heightened stylistic experience only clarifies how
much, in this all-too-human story, we recognize ourselves.”
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Far from Heaven
About the Cast
JULIANNE MOORE (Cathy Whitaker), an actress of exceptional range, has delivered
outstanding work in both major studio hits and acclaimed independent features. For her
performance in Todd Haynes’ SAFE, she received an Independent Spirit Award nomination
for Best Actress.
Soon to be seen starring in Stephen Daldry’s THE HOURS, Moore’s other notable films
include Neil Jordan’s THE END OF THE AFFAIR and Paul Thomas Anderson’s BOOGIE
NIGHTS. Her performances in the latter movies earned her Academy Award, Golden Globe
Award, and Screen Actors Guild Award nominations for each film. She also received a
BAFTA Award nomination for THE END OF THE AFFAIR; an additional Golden Globe
Award nomination for her work in Oliver Parker’s AN IDEAL HUSBAND; and awards for
BOOGIE NIGHTS from the National Society of Film Critics, Los Angeles Film Critics
Association, and Florida Film Critics Circle as Best Supporting Actress.
Moore received an Independent Spirit Award nomination for Robert Altman’s SHORT
CUTS, and later reunited with the director for COOKIE’S FORTUNE (for which she was
honored by the Dallas-Fort Worth Film Critics Association as Best Supporting Actress). She
has also starred in such blockbusters as Ridley Scott’s HANNIBAL and Steven Spielberg’s
THE LOST WORLD: JURASSIC PARK; in the independent films THE MYTH OF
FINGERPRINTS and WORLD TRAVELER, both of which were written and directed by her
companion, Bart Freundlich; and, again for Paul Thomas Anderson, in MAGNOLIA (for
which she was nominated for a Screen Actors Guild Award).
Her four screen performances from 1999 (in COOKIE’S FORTUNE, AN IDEAL HUSBAND,
MAGNOLIA, and Scott Elliott’s A MAP OF THE WORLD) brought her the National Board
of Review Award for Best Supporting Actress that year.
Moore’s many other screen credits include Lasse Hallstrom’s THE SHIPPING NEWS; Joel
and Ethan Coen’s THE BIG LEBOWSKI; Merchant Ivory’s SURVIVING PICASSO; Chris
Columbus’ NINE MONTHS; Louis Malle’s VANYA ON 42nd STREET (for which she earned
the Boston Society of Film Critics Award for Best Actress); Jeremiah Chechik’s BENNY &
JOON; and Curtis Hanson’s THE HAND THAT ROCKS THE CRADLE.
She will soon begin work on RAVELING, which Bart Freundlich will direct and co-adapt
with her brother Peter Moore Smith, from the latter’s novel. She will star in as well as
executive-produce the feature.
After earning her B.F.A. from Boston University for the Performing Arts, Moore starred in a
number of off-Broadway productions, including Caryl Churchill’s “Serious Money” and “Ice
Cream/Hot Fudge” at the Public Theater. In Minneapolis, she appeared in the Guthrie
Theater’s “Hamlet”; and participated in workshop productions of Strindberg’s “The Father”
(with Al Pacino) and Wendy Wasserstein’s “An American Daughter” (with Meryl Streep).
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Moore was recently honored with the Independent Feature Project (IFP) Gotham Awards’
annual Actor Award, which recognizes a New York-based actor who has made significant
artistic contributions to the city’s film community.
DENNIS QUAID (Frank Whitaker) is one of America’s most charismatic actors. This
past spring, he earned both critical acclaim and boxoffice success in the title role of THE
ROOKIE. Directed by John Lee Hancock, the film was based on the true story of pitcher Jim
Morris, who went from being a high school baseball coach to a major-league ballplayer.
He is beginning work on two new movies: Mike Figgis’ COLD CREEK MANOR and Roland
Emmerich’s THE DAY AFTER TOMORROW.
Quaid’s recent films include Norman Jewison’s HBO feature DINNER WITH FRIENDS,
based on Donald Margulies’ Pulitzer Prize-winning play; and Far from Heaven executive
producer Steven Soderbergh’s multi-Academy Award-winning blockbuster TRAFFIC.
The actor made his directorial debut for TNT in 1998 with the poignant drama
EVERYTHING THAT RISES, in which he also starred. His impressive list of film credits
also includes Gregory Hoblit’s FREQUENCY; Oliver Stone’s ANY GIVEN SUNDAY; Willard
Carroll’s PLAYING BY HEART; Peter Antonijevic’s SAVIOR; Nancy Meyers’ THE PARENT
TRAP (1998); Jeb Stuart’s SWITCHBACK; Jim Kouf’s GANG RELATED; Rob Cohen’s
DRAGONHEART; Lasse Hallstrom’s SOMETHING TO TALK ABOUT; Lawrence Kasdan’s
WYATT EARP; Steve Kloves’ FLESH AND BONE; Alan Parker’s COME SEE THE
PARADISE; Jim McBride’s GREAT BALLS OF FIRE! and THE BIG EASY; Taylor
Hackford’s EVERYBODY’S ALL-AMERICAN; Rocky Morton and Annabel Jankel’s D.O.A.
(1988); Peter Yates’ SUSPECT and BREAKING AWAY; Joe Dante’s INNERSPACE;
Wolfgang Petersen’s ENEMY MINE; Joseph Ruben’s DREAMSCAPE and OUR WINNING
SEASON; Philip Kaufman’s THE RIGHT STUFF; Richard Fleischer’s TOUGH ENOUGH;
Ronald F. Maxwell’s THE NIGHT THE LIGHTS WENT OUT IN GEORGIA; Jean-Claude
Tramont’s ALL NIGHT LONG; Walter Hill’s THE LONG RIDERS (with his brother Randy);
James Bridges’ “9/30/55”; Anthony Page’s I NEVER PROMISED YOU A ROSE GARDEN;
and Jonathan Demme’s CRAZY MAMA (his film debut).
Quaid starred with Mickey Rooney for director Anthony Page in both the Emmy Awardwinning telefilm BILL and its sequel, BILL: ON HIS OWN.
In 1984, he starred opposite his brother Randy in the off-Broadway production of Sam
Shepard’s “True West,” followed by a subsequent staging of the production in Los Angeles.
DENNIS HAYSBERT (Raymond Deagan) has lately captured the attention of critics
and audiences alike with his portrayal of Presidential nominee David Palmer on the awardwinning television series “24.” He continues as the character in the show’s second season,
which begins airing in the fall of 2002.
On the film front, Haysbert is best known for his starring role opposite Michelle Pfeiffer in
Jonathan Kaplan’s LOVE FIELD; and for playing Pedro Cerrano in the popular MAJOR
LEAGUE movies (directed by David S. Ward, twice, and John Warren).
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His other films include Gurinder Chadha’s WHAT’S COOKING? and Gina PrinceBythewood’s LOVE AND BASKETBALL (starring opposite Alfre Woodard in both features);
Sydney Pollack’s RANDOM HEARTS; Josef Rusnak’s THE THIRTEENTH FLOOR; Clint
Eastwood’s ABSOLUTE POWER; Michael Mann’s HEAT; Forest Whitaker’s WAITING TO
EXHALE; David Siegel and Scott McGehee’s SUTURE (like Far from Heaven, executiveproduced by Steven Soderbergh); and Lewis Teague’s NAVY SEALS.
The California native studied acting at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts. Upon
graduation, he won his first television role on an Emmy Award-winning episode of LOU
GRANT that co-starred The Reverend Jesse Jackson.
Haysbert is very active in the fight against AIDS. In 2000, he was the spokesperson for the
Harlem Health Expo entitled “Break the Silence.”
PATRICIA CLARKSON (Eleanor Fine) will shortly be seen starring in David Gordon
Green’s ALL THE REAL GIRLS; Anthony and Joe Russo’s WELCOME TO COLLINWOOD
(also for Section Eight); Rose Troche’s THE SAFETY OF OBJECTS (also for Killer Films);
and Lars von Trier’s DOGVILLE.
For her performance as Greta, opposite Ally Sheedy, in Lisa Cholodenko’s HIGH ART,
Clarkson was nominated for an IFP Independent Spirit Award. Her many film credits also
include Larry Fessenden’s WENDIGO; Sean Penn’s THE PLEDGE; Stanley Tucci’s JOE
GOULD’S SECRET; Frank Darabont’s THE GREEN MILE; Willard Carroll’s PLAYING BY
HEART and Taylor Hackford’s EVERYBODY’S ALL-AMERICAN (both with Far from
Heaven star Dennis Quaid); Joe Johnston’s JUMANJI; Jon Amiel’s TUNE IN
TOMORROW…; Buddy Van Horn’s THE DEAD POOL; Daniel Petrie’s ROCKET
GIBRALTAR; and Brian De Palma’s THE UNTOUCHABLES (her film debut).
She recently did multi-episode stints on the hit television series SIX FEET UNDER and
FRASIER. Her television work has also included a regular role on MURDER ONE. She just
completed a starring role in the telefilm remake of CARRIE.
Born and raised in New Orleans, Clarkson was acting in school plays by her early teens.
After studying speech at Louisiana State University for two years, she transferred to
Fordham University in New York, where she graduated summa cum laude with a degree in
theatre arts. She earned her M.F.A. at the prestigious Yale School of Drama, where she
appeared in “Electra,” “Pacific Overtures,” “Pericles,” “La Ronde,” “The Lower Depths,” and
“The Misanthrope” at the Yale Theatre. She made her professional acting debut on the New
York stage. There, she has appeared in “Eastern Standard” (both on and off-Broadway);
Nicky Silver’s acclaimed plays “Maidens Prayer” (for which she received Outer Critics Circle
and Drama Desk Award nominations) and “Raised in Captivity”; “Oliver Oliver”; Jerry Zaks’
Lincoln Center staging of John Guare’s “The House of Blue Leaves”; and several of Richard
Greenberg’s plays, including “Three Days of Rain.” Her regional credits include performing
with the Williamstown Theatre Festival, the South Coast Repertory, and Yale Repertory.
VIOLA DAVIS (Sybil) received the 2001 Antoinette Perry (Tony) Award for Best
Featured Actress in a Play for her performance as Tonya in August Wilson’s “King Hedley
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II.” The performance also garnered her Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle Awards. She
had previously been nominated for Tony and Drama Desk Awards for her performance as
Vera in August Wilson’s “Seven Guitars,” which brought her an Outer Critics Circle Award
as well as a Theatre World Award for Outstanding Broadway Debut.
Her stage credits also include the title role in “Everybody’s Ruby” (at New York’s Public
Theatre, for which she received an Obie Award and a Drama Desk Award nomination); New
York Shakespeare Festival productions of “Pericles,” and “As You Like It”; “God’s Heart” (at
New York’s Lincoln Center); and August Wilson’s “Joe Turner’s Come and Gone.”
Davis has performed with, among other theater companies: American Conservatory
Theatre, Sundance Theatre Institute, and Trinity Repertory Company. She has performed
around the country at, among other theaters: The Goodman, The Guthrie, and The
Huntington.
Her screen credits include three films directed by Far from Heaven executive producer
Steven Soderbergh: the Academy Award-winning TRAFFIC, OUT OF SIGHT, and the
upcoming SOLARIS; James Mangold’s KATE & LEOPOLD; Richard Benjamin’s THE
SHRINK IS IN; Daniel Sullivan’s THE SUBSTANCE OF FIRE; and the soon-to-be-released
ANTWONE FISHER, directed by Denzel Washington.
Davis’ television work includes a regular role on the Steven Bochco-produced series CITY
OF ANGELS; the “Oprah Winfrey Presents” telefilm AMY & ISABELLE (directed by Lloyd
Kramer); the “Hallmark Hall of Fame” telefilm GRACE AND GLORIE (directed by Arthur
Allan Seidelman); Richard Benjamin’s telefilm THE PENTAGON WARS; and guest
appearances on THE GUARDIAN, JUDGING AMY, THIRD WATCH, PROVIDENCE, NYPD
BLUE, and LAW AND ORDER: CRIMINAL INTENT.
She is a graduate of The Juilliard School and recently received an Honorary Doctorate of
Fine Arts Degree from her alma mater, Rhode Island College.
About the Filmmakers
TODD HAYNES (Writer/Director) founded Apparatus Productions in 1985 with Barry
Ellsworth and Christine Vachon. Apparatus is a non-profit grant-giving organization
providing funding, production and distribution support to emerging filmmakers. Todd is
also one of the founding members of Gran Fury, a collective of artists in the AIDS activist
community.
His short film SUPERSTAR: THE KAREN CARPENTER STORY has become an
underground cult classic. Written and directed by Haynes, the film traced Karen Carpenter’s
demise from anorexia nervosa. Using Barbie dolls as actors, a soundtrack of heartrending
Carpenters songs, and a ’70s wardrobe that any doll would be proud to own, this seminal
film demonstrated Haynes’ intense empathy and theatrical bravado. The film was awarded
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the Golden Gate Award at the San Francisco Film Festival; and the Best Experimental Film
Award at the USA [later Sundance] Film Festival.
POISON, Haynes’ first feature film as writer/director, interwove three separate tales of
transgression inspired by the writings of Jean Genet. It premiered at the Sundance Film
Festival in 1991, where it was awarded the Grand Jury Prize for Best Feature Film. It
subsequently played in over 20 film festivals, earning a Teddy Award at the Berlin
International Film Festival and the Critics’ Prize at the Locarno International Film Festival,
prior to its theatrical.
The 30-minute short, DOTTIE GETS SPANKED, followed. Set in suburban New York in
1966, the film explored juvenile sexuality through a little boy’s obsession with a television
comedienne.
Haynes’ second feature film, SAFE, looked at the life of a California housewife (played by
Julianne Moore) who finds that she is becoming allergic to the 20th century. SAFE
premiered at the 1995 Sundance Film Festival; screened in the Directors Fortnight section
of the 1995 Cannes International Film Festival; and was released theatrically in the summer
of 1995. In the Village Voice Critics’ Poll of 2000, 65 film critics voted SAFE the best film of
the ’90s.
VELVET GOLDMINE, his third feature as writer/director, premiered as an Official
Selection at the 1998 Cannes International Film Festival and earned Haynes a Special Jury
Prize for Artistic Contribution. A multi-layered glam-rock epic tracing the rise and fall of a
mythical rock star, the film starred Ewan McGregor, Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Toni Collette,
Christian Bale, and Eddie Izzard. Released theatrically in the fall of 1998, VELVET
GOLDMINE won an Independent Spirit Award for Best Cinematography (by Maryse
Alberti) and earned a BAFTA Award and an Academy Award nomination for Best Costume
Design (by Sandy Powell).
CHRISTINE VACHON (Producer) is partnered with Pamela Koffler and Katie Roumel
in Killer Films, which Vachon and Koffler founded in 1996.
Her early films as producer included Todd Haynes’ controversial first feature, POISON,
which was awarded the Grand Jury Prize at the 1991 Sundance Film Festival; and video
artist Tom Kalin’s first feature, SWOON, which was based on the infamous Leopold/Loeb
murder case, and which received the coveted Caligari Award at the 1992 Berlin
International Film Festival.
Her partnership with Pamela Koffler grew out of a collaboration that began in 1993 with
Tom Kalin’s documentary GEOFFREY BEENE 30, the first of several Vachon projects on
which Koffler was line producer.
Vachon’s subsequent credits as producer included Todd Haynes’ second feature, SAFE; and
Steve McLean’s POSTCARDS FROM AMERICA, which premiered at the 1994 New York
Film Festival. She also executive-produced Rose Troche’s GO FISH and co-produced Larry
Clark’s KIDS.
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She next produced Nigel Finch’s STONEWALL, which premiered at the prestigious Venice
International Film Festival; and Mary Harron’s I SHOT ANDY WARHOL, for which star Lili
Taylor won a special acting prize at the 1996 Sundance Film Festival.
Killer Films’ first production was Cindy Sherman’s OFFICE KILLER, starring Carol Kane.
With Redeemable Features, Killer then produced Tony Vitale’s KISS ME, GUIDO, which
was shown as part of The American Spectrum program at the 1997 Sundance Film Festival.
Todd Haynes’ VELVET GOLDMINE followed, world-premiering in competition at the 1998
Cannes International Film Festival, where Todd Haynes received a Special Jury Prize for
Artistic Contribution for the film.
Also that year at Cannes, Killer’s production of Todd Solondz’ HAPPINESS had its world
premiere in the Directors Fortnight section and was awarded the prestigious Fipresci
Critics’ Prize.
Vachon and Koffler next produced I’M LOSING YOU, Bruce Wagner’s adaptation of his
best-selling novel, which premiered at the 1998 Toronto International Film Festival.
The next feature Vachon produced, Kimberly Peirce’s BOYS DON’T CRY, based on the true
story of Brandon Teena, was featured in the 1999 Venice, Toronto, and New York Film
Festivals and released that fall. The film went on to receive a number of honors. For her
performance in the lead role, Hilary Swank earned an Academy Award as well as a Golden
Globe Award. In addition, Chloë Sevigny’s performance brought her Academy Award and
Golden Globe Award nominations.
Killer’s CRIME + PUNISHMENT IN SUBURBIA, directed by Rob Schmidt, screened in
competition at the 2000 Sundance Film Festival. SERIES 7, writer/director Daniel
Minahan’s feature directing debut, world-premiered at the 2001 Sundance Film Festival.
In May 2001, Katie Roumel was named partner in Killer Films, joining Vachon and Koffler.
Roumel had met the latter duo while working on KIDS as a casting assistant. She went on to
be the assistant coordinator on STONEWALL and I SHOT ANDY WARHOL; line producer
on KISS ME, GUIDO; and producer of SERIES 7 and HEDWIG AND THE ANGRY INCH
(directed by and starring John Cameron Mitchell).
Killer’s production of the latter film, based on the Off-Broadway rock musical, premiered at
the 2001 Sundance Film Festival, where Mitchell won the Audience Award and Director
Award. He also later earned a Golden Globe Award nomination for his performance.
Recent Killer projects include Todd Solondz’ STORYTELLING, which world-premiered at
the 2001 Cannes International Film Festival, and went on to screen at the New York and
Sundance Film Festivals; Mark Romanek’s ONE HOUR PHOTO, starring Robin Williams,
which world-premiered at the 2002 Sundance Film Festival; Tim Blake Nelson’s THE GREY
ZONE, starring Harvey Keitel and Mira Sorvino, which premiered at the 2001 Toronto
International Film Festival and will be released in the fall of 2002; and Rose Troche’s THE
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SAFETY OF OBJECTS, starring Glenn Close, Dermot Mulroney, and Patricia Clarkson,
which premiered at the 2001 Toronto International Film Festival and will open this winter.
Killer’s current slate of projects encompasses a diverse group of filmmakers: Robert Altman
is directing THE COMPANY, written by Barbara Turner and starring Neve Campbell; THE
PASSION, based on the book by Jeanette Winterson, has Kasi Lemmons attached to direct;
THE EXTRA MAN, based on Jonathan Ames’ book, will mark Isaac Mizrahi’s directorial
debut; COCK AND BULL, based on Will Self’s book, will be directed by Jason Farrand; Tom
Kalin will direct SAVAGE GRACE; Douglas McGrath is writing and directing CAPOTE; A
HOME AT THE END OF THE WORLD will be directed by Michael Mayer from the Michael
Cunningham novel of the same name; and production has been completed on PARTY
MONSTER, written and directed by Fenton Bailey and Randy Barbato, and starring
Macaulay Culkin, Seth Green, and Chloë Sevigny.
In 2000, Killer Films joined with John Wells in an innovative co-production pact that has
yielded such films as THE GREY ZONE, ONE HOUR PHOTO, and Far from Heaven.
Killer also has a 2-year development deal with Paul G. Allen’s Vulcan Productions, which
has already led to such successful collaborations as Far from Heaven and THE SAFETY
OF OBJECTS.
In 1994, Christine Vachon was awarded the Frameline Award for Outstanding Achievement
in Lesbian and Gay Media. In 1996, she was honored with the prestigious Muse Award for
Outstanding Vision and Achievement by New York Women in Film and Television. More
recently, she received the Independent Feature Project’s 1999 Gotham Award for her work
as producer.
She is currently serving on the Producers Council board of governors for the Producers
Guild of America.
Her book, Shooting to Kill: How an Independent Producer Blasts Through the Barriers to
Make Movies that Matter, was published in the fall of 1998 by Avon and was a Los Angeles
Times bestseller.
JODY PATTON (Producer) is president of Vulcan Productions, an independent film
production company founded by Paul G. Allen to originate, develop and finance creatively
driven and inventive motion picture and documentary projects. The company aspires to the
highest level of compelling storytelling in its filmmaking, and is dedicated to creating films
characterized by significant artistic merit as well as long-term commercial success.
Feature films produced by Vulcan Productions (formerly known as Clear Blue Sky
Productions) include Victor Nunez’ COASTLINES (which world-premiered at the 2002
Sundance Film Festival), starring Josh Brolin, Sarah Wynter, and Timothy Olyphant; Rose
Troche’s THE SAFETY OF OBJECTS (which world-premiered at the 2001 Toronto
International Film Festival), starring Glenn Close, Dermot Mulroney, and Patricia Clarkson;
Marleen Gorris’ THE LUZHIN DEFENCE, starring John Turturro and Emily Watson; Julie
Taymor’s TITUS, starring Anthony Hopkins and Jessica Lange (which received an Academy
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Award nomination for Best Costume Design [by Milena Canonero]; and John Sayles’ MEN
WITH GUNS.
Vulcan’s documentary productions, all for PBS, include the series EVOLUTION, the special
CRACKING THE CODE OF LIFE, and the upcoming series THE BLUES. The latter series
will have seven feature film directors helming individual episodes; among the directors are
Martin Scorsese, Wim Wenders, Mike Figgis, and Clint Eastwood.
Since helping launch Paul G. Allen’s management company with Allen and William Savoy in
1986, Patton has developed and led a wide variety of Allen’s business, charitable, and
entertainment endeavors. In addition to serving as a senior advisor to Allen and directing
the ongoing strategic and corporate development of the organization and its broad portfolio
of projects and investments, her responsibilities include serving as president of Vulcan
Productions (the independent film production company), vice chair of First & Goal Inc. (the
developer and manager of the Washington State Football & Soccer Stadium), and executive
director of Experience Music Project (Seattle’s uniquely interactive music museum).
Patton also serves as executive director of the six Paul G. Allen Foundations, which support
nonprofit organizations throughout the Pacific Northwest in the areas of health and human
services, the arts, medical research, and forest protection. She previously served in various
capacities in the business and nonprofit worlds, including development work for the Pacific
Northwest Ballet.
An active member of the arts and education communities, Patton serves on the board of
directors of the University of Washington Foundation, the International Glass Museum, the
Oregon Shakespeare Festival, and the Theatre Communications Group; as well as on the
advisory boards of Meany Hall and the Los Angeles Independent Film Festival.
STEVEN SODERBERGH (Executive Producer) not only works behind the camera as
a director but behind the scenes as a producer for a variety of projects.
In 2000, Soderbergh and George Clooney formed Section Eight, a film production company
based at Warner Bros. Their ensemble comedy WELCOME TO COLLINWOOD, written and
directed by brothers Anthony and Joe Russo, was selected to close the 2002 Cannes
International Film Festival’s Directors Fortnight. They also executive-produced Christopher
Nolan’s INSOMNIA, starring Al Pacino, Robin Williams, and Hilary Swank; and are in postproduction on an untitled film written and directed by Lodge Kerrigan.
They are currently in post-production on Charlie Kaufman’s adaptation of Chuck Barris’
book CONFESSIONS OF A DANGEROUS MIND, directed by and starring George Clooney
with a cast that includes Sam Rockwell, Drew Barrymore, and Julia Roberts. The film will
be released in December.
Soderbergh’s other credits as producer include THE DAYTRIPPERS and PLEASANTVILLE;
and, as executive producer, SUTURE and Godfrey Reggio’s upcoming NAQOYQATSI, the
final installment of the non-narrative films that make up the Qatsi Trilogy, beginning with
KOYAANISQATSI and POWAQQATSI.
26
Soderbergh is the only director to have two films nominated for Best Picture and Best
Director in the same year. His Academy Award for Best Director of TRAFFIC marks the first
time since the 1928/29 Awards that a director has successfully competed against himself
(Frank Lloyd for THE DIVINE LADY; Michael Curtiz, a double nominee for Best Director in
1938 for ANGELS WITH DIRTY FACES and FOUR DAUGHTERS, lost to Frank Capra for
YOU CAN’T TAKE IT WITH YOU).
TRAFFIC also received Oscars for Editing (Stephen Mirrione), Supporting Actor (Benicio
Del Toro), and Adapted Screenplay (Stephen Gaghan). The film’s fifth nomination was for
Best Picture (Laura Bickford, Marshall Herskovitz, Edward Zwick).
In addition to Soderbergh’s Best Director nomination for ERIN BROCKOVICH, Julia
Roberts received the Best Actress Academy Award. The film’s other nominations were for
Best Supporting Actor (Albert Finney), Best Original Screenplay (Susannah Grant), and
Best Picture (Danny DeVito, Michael Shamberg, Stacey Sher).
Last year, Soderbergh directed the hugely successful ensemble caper OCEAN’S ELEVEN.
His additional directing credits include THE LIMEY, OUT OF SIGHT, GRAY’S ANATOMY,
SCHIZOPOLIS, THE UNDERNEATH, KING OF THE HILL, and KAFKA.
In August, his contemporary comedy FULL FRONTAL, shot during eighteen days using a
combination of digital video tape and film, will be released.
Currently, Soderbergh is directing the science-fiction thriller SOLARIS, starring George
Clooney, Natascha McElhone, Jeremy Davies, Viola Davis, and Ulrich Tukur.
GEORGE CLOONEY (Executive Producer) is an award-winning actor and producer
who has recently turned director: he is currently in post-production on his feature
directorial debut, CONFESSIONS OF A DANGEROUS MIND. The film is based on the
“unauthorized autobiography” of Chuck Barris, who is played by Sam Rockwell. Clooney
also stars in the film with Drew Barrymore and Julia Roberts.
As actor, Clooney next stars in the science-fiction thriller SOLARIS for Steven Soderbergh;
and Joel and Ethan Coen’s INTOLERABLE CRUELTY, opposite Catherine Zeta-Jones.
He is partnered with Steven Soderbergh in the film production company Section Eight. The
company’s first project, Anthony and Joe Russo’s WELCOME TO COLLINWOOD, has
Clooney not only as producer but also in a cameo role. The film world-premiered as the
Closing Night film of the Directors Fortnight section at the 2002 Cannes International Film
Festival. Clooney also executive-produced Christopher Nolan’s INSOMNIA.
He recently starred for Steven Soderbergh in the boxoffice smash OCEAN’S ELEVEN; and
in Joel and Ethan Coen’s popular O BROTHER, WHERE ART THOU?, for which he won
the Golden Globe Award as Best Actor in Motion Picture (Musical or Comedy).
27
His previous screen credits include starring roles in Wolfgang Petersen’s blockbuster THE
PERFECT STORM; David O. Russell’s THREE KINGS; Steven Soderbergh’s award-winning
OUT OF SIGHT; Mimi Leder’s THE PEACEMAKER; Joel Schumacher’s BATMAN &
ROBIN; Michael Hoffman’s ONE FINE DAY; and Robert Rodriguez’ FROM DUSK TILL
DAWN.
Clooney has starred in several television series, and is best known to TV audiences for his
five years on the top-rated drama series ER. His portrayal of Dr. Douglas Ross earned him
Golden Globe, Screen Actors Guild, People’s Choice, and Emmy Award nominations.
He also develops television projects through his Maysville Pictures. He executive-produced
and co-starred in a live television broadcast of FAIL-SAFE, which won two Emmy Awards
and was nominated for a Golden Globe Award as Best Miniseries or Motion Picture Made
For Television. The telecast, which aired under the direction of Stephen Frears in April
2000, was based on Eugene Burdick and Harvey Wheeler’s novel of the same name,
published some 40 years earlier.
JOHN WELLS (Executive Producer) is a prolific producer, director, and writer for the
stage, television, and film.
He currently oversees four notable hourlong television series: ER, THIRD WATCH (which
earned an Emmy Award, a Prism Award, and a Peabody Award in its first three years on the
air), THE WEST WING (which won 17 Emmy Awards in its first two years on the air), and
the new PRESIDIO MED. ER, in its first eight years on the air, earned Wells and his team 19
Emmy Awards, 2 Peabody Awards, 8 People’s Choice Awards, 2 Producers Guild of America
Awards, and a Humanitas Prize.
His feature projects as producer, aside from Far from Heaven, include the soon-to-bereleased WHITE OLEANDER, directed by Peter Kosminsky and adapted by Mary Agnes
Donoghue from Janet Fitch’s best-selling novel. The film’s cast includes Alison Lohman,
Michelle Pfeiffer, Robin Wright Penn, and Renée Zellweger. Wells also produced Neil
Jordan’s THE GOOD THIEF, starring Nick Nolte, slated for a 2003 release.
His prior film credits include, through his innovative co-production pact with Killer Films,
Tim Blake Nelson’s THE GREY ZONE and Mark Romanek’s ONE HOUR PHOTO (starring
Robin Williams); and, as co-executive-producer, Mimi Leder’s THE PEACEMAKER,
starring George Clooney and Nicole Kidman.
Before beginning work on ER, Wells was a writer and producer on the acclaimed series
CHINA BEACH. The show was honored with a Peabody Award, a Humanitas Prize, and
Writers Guild of America and Emmy Award nominations.
The Alexandria, Virginia native is the immediate past president of the Writers Guild of
America. His award-winning stage work includes productions of “Judgment,” “Balm in
Gilead,” “Battery,” and “She Also Dances.”
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ERIC ROBISON (Executive Producer) is a business advisor who has worked for over
two decades with entertainment, media, and technology companies.
Since the mid-1990s, he has worked in producing capacities with independent filmmakers
on a variety of acclaimed projects: he associate-produced John Sayles’ Spanish-language
feature MEN WITH GUNS and Michael Apted’s documentary about the creative process
entitled INSPIRATIONS; co-produced Marleen Gorris’ THE LUZHIN DEFENCE, starring
Emily Watson and John Turturro; co-produced Rose Troche’s THE SAFETY OF OBJECTS,
starring Glenn Close, Dermot Mulroney, and Patricia Clarkson; and executive-produced
Victor Nunez’ COASTLINES (which world-premiered at the 2002 Sundance Film Festival),
starring Josh Brolin, Sarah Wynter, and Timothy Olyphant.
Robison works with Vulcan Productions and Vulcan Inc. (the company that manages all
business interests for investor Paul G. Allen) as a consultant. He previously worked at
Vulcan Productions as general manager/vice president; and at Vulcan Inc. as vice president
of business development and project development.
Based in Montecito, CA, he also currently serves on the boards of directors of CNET
Networks, the leading provider of information about technology; and Cumulus Media,
which operates 245 radio stations in 53 markets.
JOHN SLOSS (Executive Producer) has executive-produced over two dozen
independent feature films. These include Rebecca Miller’s PERSONAL VELOCITY;
Kimberly Peirce’s Academy Award-winning BOYS DON’T CRY; Richard Linklater’s
BEFORE SUNRISE, subUrbia, THE NEWTON BOYS, and WAKING LIFE; John Sayles’
CITY OF HOPE, PASSION FISH, THE SECRET OF ROAN INISH, LONE STAR, and MEN
WITH GUNS; Michael Almereyda’s HAMLET (2000); Brad Anderson’s HAPPY
ACCIDENTS and SESSION 9; Edward Burns’ SHE’S THE ONE; Michael Corrente’s
AMERICAN BUFFALO; Maggie Greenwald’s THE BALLAD OF LITTLE JO; Ethan Hawke’s
CHELSEA WALLS; Errol Morris’ MR. DEATH: THE RISE AND FALL OF FRED A.
LEUCHTER, JR.; Victor Nunez’ ULEE’S GOLD and COASTLINES; Whit Stillman’s THE
LAST DAYS OF DISCO; and Gary Winick’s TADPOLE.
In March 2001, the Detroit native founded Cinetic Media, a consulting firm specializing in
producer representation (securing distribution for independent features and other content),
providing consulting services to end users and/or media financiers worldwide, and securing
financing for motion picture projects. He lectures extensively on the subject of global
entertainment finance. His other Cinetic activities include consulting for several highprofile film financiers and producers, as well as a partnership in Independent Digital
Entertainment (InDigEnt), a series of digital features made in collaboration with
established filmmakers and actors, which is quickly becoming the gold standard in digital
filmmaking.
As an attorney, he represents (through Sloss Law Office, which he formed in March 1993),
clients in all aspects of motion picture financing, production, and distribution. He is a
graduate of both the University of Michigan and the University of Michigan School of Law.
29
BRADFORD SIMPSON (Co-Producer) is a producer at Killer Films. The Brown
University graduate joined Killer in 1996, and was head of development from 1999-2002.
He was the Killer executive in charge of production on Todd Haynes’ VELVET GOLDMINE,
which was awarded a Special Jury Prize for Artistic Contribution at the 1998 Cannes
International Film Festival. He then associate-produced Kimberly Peirce’s BOYS DON’T
CRY, which earned Hilary Swank the Academy Award for Best Actress.
Simpson is currently producing PARTY MONSTER, which Fenton Bailey and Randy
Barbato are writing and directing, and which stars Macaulay Culkin, Seth Green, and Chloë
Sevigny.
He is also developing, with director Douglas McGrath, a screenplay based on the writing of
Truman Capote’s In Cold Blood; with Isaac Mizrahi directing, the film version of Jonathan
Ames’ The Extra Man; with Jason Farrand helming, an adaptation of Will Self’s Cock and
Bull; and the film version of Randall Sullivan’s Labyrinth: The Murder of Biggie Smalls,
with Henry Bean writing.
DECLAN BALDWIN (Co-Producer) most recently produced Moisés Kaufman’s THE
LARAMIE PROJECT, the HBO Films feature which had its world premiere at the 2002
Sundance Film Festival; and line-produced Todd Solondz’ STORYTELLING (also for Killer
Films).
The native New Yorker began his career as a production assistant on area films, and soon
was working as a unit manager on such features as Arthur Penn’s PENN & TELLER GET
KILLED. He later worked as location manager on Barbra Streisand’s THE MIRROR HAS
TWO FACES, Ang Lee’s THE ICE STORM, James L. Brooks’ AS GOOD AS IT GETS, and
Tim Burton’s SLEEPY HOLLOW, among other major films.
Baldwin segued into producing movies by way of two back-to-back features with George A.
Romero: line-producing the 1990 remake of NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD (directed by
Tom Savini) and then producing Romero’s THE DARK HALF (which was based on Stephen
King’s best-selling novel). He subsequently co-produced Clare Peploe’s ROUGH MAGIC,
which starred Russell Crowe, Bridget Fonda, and Jim Broadbent.
He was the creative and marketing consultant for the newly formed Hudson River Stages
production facility in Yonkers, NY.
EDWARD LACHMAN, A.S.C. (Director of Photography) is one of the most
respected cinematographers of his time, one who has worked on big-budget, independent,
and foreign-language films.
Lachman’s feature film credits as cinematographer include Terry Zwigoff’s forthcoming
BAD SANTA; Andrew Niccol’s SIMONE; Pat O’Connor’s SWEET NOVEMBER; Far from
Heaven executive producer Steven Soderbergh’s ERIN BROCKOVICH and THE LIMEY;
Sofia Coppola’s THE VIRGIN SUICIDES; Gregory Nava’s SELENA and MI FAMILIA; Paul
Schrader’s TOUCH and LIGHT SLEEPER (for which he received an Independent Spirit
30
Award nomination); Stacy Cochran’s MY NEW GUN; Hanif Kureishi’s LONDON KILLS
ME; Mira Nair’s MISSISSIPPI MASALA; Susan Seidelman’s MAKING MR. RIGHT and
DESPERATELY SEEKING SUSAN; David Byrne’s TRUE STORIES (for which he received
an Independent Spirit Award nomination); Nicholas Ray and Wim Wenders’ LIGHTNING
OVER WATER; Mark Reichert’s UNION CITY; and Werner Herzog’s LA SOUFRIÈRE and
STROSZEK.
MARK FRIEDBERG (Production Designer) has been the production designer on a
variety of both major studio and independent films. These include Ed Harris’ POLLOCK;
Garry Marshall’s RUNAWAY BRIDE; Ang Lee’s RIDE WITH THE DEVIL and THE ICE
STORM; Mira Nair’s KAMA SUTRA: A TALE OF LOVE and THE PEREZ FAMILY; Bob
Rafelson’s HBO feature POODLE SPRINGS; Herb Gardner’s I’M NOT RAPPAPORT;
Maggie Greenwald’s THE BALLAD OF LITTLE JO; and Alexandre Rockwell’s IN THE
SOUP.
For television, his notable work includes designing the telefilm THE VERNON JOHNS
STORY, which starred James Earl Jones as the late civil rights leader and was directed by
Ken Fink.
JAMES LYONS (Editor) is a longtime collaborator of Todd Haynes’, having previously
edited the features VELVET GOLDMINE, SAFE, and POISON, as well as the short DOTTIE
GETS SPANKED. He also co-created (with Haynes) the story for VELVET GOLDMINE.
Lyons’ other credits as film editor include Erik Skjoldbjaerg’s soon-to-be-released PROZAC
NATION; Jesse Peretz’ THE CHATEAU and FIRST LOVE, LAST RITES; Tom Gilroy’s
SPRING FORWARD; Sofia Coppola’s THE VIRGIN SUICIDES; Ronnie Larsen’s nonfiction
feature SHOOTING PORN; John Johnson’s RATCHET; Peter Freidman and Tom Joslin’s
award-winning nonfiction feature SILVERLAKE LIFE: THE VIEW FROM HERE; and the
short films LATE FALL (directed by Jason Kliot) and THE DEBT (directed by Bruno de
Almeida). He also works as a screenwriter and actor.
SANDY POWELL (Costume Designer) earned the Academy Award for Best Costume
Design for her work on SHAKESPEARE IN LOVE, directed by John Madden. That same
year, she was also nominated in the same category for her work on Todd Haynes’ VELVET
GOLDMINE (for which she won a BAFTA Award). She was earlier Oscar-nominated for Iain
Softley’s THE WINGS OF THE DOVE and Sally Potter’s ORLANDO.
Powell has also designed the costumes for such noteworthy films as Martin Scorsese’s
upcoming GANGS OF NEW YORK; Atom Egoyan’s FELICIA’S JOURNEY; Mike Figgis’
MISS JULIE and STORMY MONDAY; Anand Tucker’s HILARY AND JACKIE; Michael
Caton-Jones’ ROB ROY; and Bill Forsyth’s BEING HUMAN.
Two directors with whom she has collaborated extensively are Neil Jordan (on THE END
OF THE AFFAIR, THE BUTCHER BOY, MICHAEL COLLINS, INTERVIEW WITH THE
VAMPIRE, THE CRYING GAME, and THE MIRACLE) and the late Derek Jarman (on
WITTGENSTEIN, THE LAST OF ENGLAND, the “Depuis le jour” segment of ARIA, and
CARAVAGGIO).
31
Powell is a four-time winner of the (London) Evening Standard Award; and, in addition to
her BAFTA Award win for VELVET GOLDMINE, has received four additional BAFTA
Award nominations.
ELMER BERNSTEIN (Music) is the only active composer with a body of feature film
work spanning a half-century: the year 2001 marked his 50th anniversary as a working
movie composer. Far from Heaven is his most recent project of the over 150 feature films
that he has scored.
Bernstein has received 13 Academy Award nominations, winning the Oscar for his score of
George Roy Hill’s THOROUGHLY MODERN MILLIE (1967). His other Oscar nominations
were for scoring Martin Scorsese’s THE AGE OF INNOCENCE (which also earned him a
Grammy Award nomination), John Landis’ TRADING PLACES, Henry Hathaway’s TRUE
GRIT, George Roy Hill’s HAWAII (for which he won a Golden Globe Award), Burt
Kennedy’s THE RETURN OF THE SEVEN, Robert Mulligan’s TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD
(for which he won a Golden Globe Award), Peter Glenville’s SUMMER AND SMOKE, John
Sturges’ THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN, and Otto Preminger’s THE MAN WITH THE
GOLDEN ARM; and, in the Best Song category, for “Walk on the Wild Side” (from Edward
Dmytryk’s movie of the same name), “My Wishing Doll” (from George Roy Hill’s HAWAII),
and “Wherever Love Takes Me” (from Peter Hunt’s GOLD).
He won an Emmy Award for scoring the television program THE MAKING OF THE
PRESIDENT (1960), directed by Mel Stuart; and was nominated again for the epic
miniseries CAPTAINS AND THE KINGS, directed by Douglas Heyes and Allen Reisner. He
has also been nominated for four additional Grammy Awards, and twice for a Tony Award.
Bernstein’s career honors include Lifetime Achievement Awards from the Los Angeles Film
Critics Association; the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP);
the Society for the Preservation of Film Music; the Foundation for a Creative America; and,
most recently, the Flanders International Film Festival. In 1996, he was honored with a star
on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on Hollywood Boulevard. In 1999, he received an Honorary
Doctorate of Music from Five Towns College in New York State; and was honored by the
American Film Institute in Los Angeles and the Santa Barbara Film Festival.
His many scores also include Martin Scorsese’s soon-to-be-released GANGS OF NEW
YORK, BRINGING OUT THE DEAD, and CAPE FEAR (1991; for which Bernstein adapted
Bernard Herrmann’s original score from the 1962 version of the film); Martha Coolidge’s
award-winning INTRODUCING DOROTHY DANDRIDGE (for HBO), LOST IN YONKERS,
and RAMBLING ROSE; Stephen Frears’ THE GRIFTERS; Jim Sheridan’s THE FIELD and
Academy Award-winning MY LEFT FOOT; George Roy Hill’s FUNNY FARM, SLAP SHOT,
and THE WORLD OF HENRY ORIENT; Ivan Reitman’s GHOSTBUSTERS and STRIPES;
John Landis’ “Thriller” music video, AN AMERICAN WEREWOLF IN LONDON, and
NATIONAL LAMPOON’S ANIMAL HOUSE; Jim Abrahams, David Zucker, and Jerry
Zucker’s AIRPLANE!; Don Siegel’s THE SHOOTIST; Robert Mulligan’s BABY THE RAIN
MUST FALL, LOVE WITH THE PROPER STRANGER, and FEAR STRIKES OUT; Martin
Ritt’s HUD; John Sturges’ THE GREAT ESCAPE; John Frankenheimer’s THE GYPSY
32
MOTHS and BIRDMAN OF ALCATRAZ; Vincente Minnelli’s SOME CAME RUNNING;
Alexander Mackendrick’s SWEET SMELL OF SUCCESS; Cecil B. DeMille’s THE TEN
COMMANDMENTS (1956); Fred Zinnemann’s OKLAHOMA! (for which Bernstein scored
the ballet music); and David Miller’s SUDDEN FEAR.
The New York City native discovered his love of music growing up in a family interested in
the arts, and was encouraged by them in his various creative pursuits. He was mentored by
the renowned composer Aaron Copland, taught by Henriette Michelson and Israel
Citkowitz, and subsequently studied with Roger Sessions and Stefan Wolpe. He began as a
concert pianist and, during World War II, arranged American folk music and wrote
dramatic scores for the Army Air Corps Radio Shows. Two shows that he did for United
Nations Radio brought him to the attention of Columbia Pictures vice president Sidney
Buchman, and Bernstein was given the opportunity to write his first film scores.
He is a founding life member of the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences. He
has also been a vice president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences; and
president of the Composers and Lyricists Guild of America. He is currently president of the
Film Music Museum, established for the preservation of, and home for, film music; and
continues as Professor at the University of Southern California’s Thornton School of Music
in Los Angeles, where he teaches the course “Scoring for Motion Pictures and Television.”
33
Far from Heaven
Cast List
Cathy Whitaker
Frank Whitaker
Raymond Deagan
Eleanor Fine
Sybil
Dr. Bowman
Mrs. Leacock
Stan Fine
David Whitaker
Janice Whitaker
Sarah Deagan
Billy Hutchinson
Mona Lauder
Doreen
Nancy
Dick Dawson
Julianne Moore
Dennis Quaid
Dennis Haysbert
Patricia Clarkson
Viola Davis
James Rebhorn
Bette Henritze
Michael Gaston
Ryan Ward
Lindsay Andretta
Jordan Puryear
Kyle Smith
Celia Weston
Barbara Garrick
Olivia Birkelund
Stevie Ray
Dallimore
Mylika Davis
Jason Franklin
Gregory Marlow
C.C. Loveheart
June Squibb
Laurent Giroux
Alex Santoriello
Matt Malloy
J.B. Adams
Kevin Carrigan
Chance Kelly
Declan Baldwin
Brian Delate
Pamela Evans
Joe Holt
Ben Moss
Susan Willis
Karl Schroeder
Lance Olds
Nicholas Joy
Virl Andrick
Jonathan McClain
Jezebel Montero
Geraldine Bartlett
Ernest Rayford III
Duane McLaughlin
Betsy Aidem
Mary Anna
Klindtworth
Ted Neustadt
Thomas Torres
Esther
Photographer
Reginald Carter
Marlene
Elderly Woman
Man with Mustache
Spanish Bartender
Red-Faced Man
Farnsworth
Soda Jerk
Tallman
Officer #1
Officer #2
Kitty
Hotel Waiter
Hutch's Friend
Receptionist
Conductor
Bail Clerk
Blond Boy
Blond Boy’s Father
Staff Member #1
Hooker
Woman at Party
Glaring Man
Jake
Pool Mother
Pool Daughter
Ron
Band Leader
34
Far from Heaven
Crew List
Director/Writer
Producer
Producer
Executive Producers
Todd Haynes
Christine Vachon
Jody Patton
Steven Soderbergh
George Clooney
John Wells
Eric Robison
John Sloss
Bradford Simpson
Declan Baldwin
TF1 International
Focus Features
Edward Lachman,
A.S.C.
Mark Friedberg
James Lyons
Sandy Powell
Elmer Bernstein
Laura Rosenthal
Peter Bucossi
Timothy Bird
Peter Thorell
Scott Koenig
Deb Dyer
Shelly Westerman
Bradley M. Goodman
Leslie Shatz
Marshall Garlington
Kelley Baker
Peter Rogness
Ellen Christiansen
Jeff McDonald
Miguel Lopez-Castillo
Claire Kirk
Alex Digerlando
Annie Young
Sheri Von Seeburg
Holly Watson
Rena DeAngelo
Tim Metzger
Harvey Goldberg
JoAnn Atwood
Henry Kaplan
Janine Pesce
Joanna Hartell
Roman Greller
Susan J. Wright
David Davenport
M.J. McGrath
Patricia Eiben
Executive Producers
Co-Producers
Director of Photography
Production Designer
Edited by
Costume Designer
Music by
Casting by
Stunt Coordinator
First Assistant Director
Second Assistant Director
Production Manager
Production Accountant
Associate Editor
Post-Production Supervisor
Re-Recording Mixers
Supervising Sound Editor
Art Director
Set Decorator
Assistant Art Directors
Art Department Coordinator
Art Department Production Assistant
Product Placement
Researcher
Graphics
Assistant Set Decorator
Leadman
Set Dresser Foreman
On-Set Dresser
Set Dressers
Wardrobe Supervisors
Costume Coordinator
Costumers
35
Tom Stokes
Barbara Presar
Tom Soluri
Cheryl KilbourneKimpton
Jill E. Anderson
Joni M. Huth
Dain Kalas
Koula Sossiadis
Rhonda George
Katina Sossiadis
J. Eric Fisher
Ryan Lakenan
Kristal D. Mosley
Elaine Offers
Hildie Ginsberg
Alan D'Angerio
Michael Kriston
Craig Haagensen
Richard Gioia
Jay Feather
Anthony Hechanova
David Lee
Abbot Genser
Thomas Johnston
Drew Kunin
Joseph White, Jr.
Jeanne L. Gilliland
Mike S. Ryan
Ana Lombardo
Kieran Shea
Edward Tejada
John W. Deblau
Steve Kirshoff
William G. Hansard
Don Hansard Jr.
Nick Miller
Jonathan Graham
Macall B. Polay
Missy Eustermann
Lisa Marie Madden
Jeff Hill
Michael Hyde
Robert Buckman
Coast to Coast
McKenna Brothers
Ethan Anderson
Krista Bogetich
Kee Casting
Karen Etcoff
Diedre Kilgore
Vince Klein
Kevin Chisolm
Ginger Thatcher
Louis Katz, MD
Kiersten Harter
Set Costumers
Tailors
Production Coordinator
Assistant Production Coordinator
Production Secretary
Office Production Assistants
Second Second Assistant Director
Makeup Supervisor
Makeup Artist
Key Hairstylist
Hairstylist
Camera Operator
First Assistant Camera
Second Assistant Camera
Loader
Still Photographers
Script Supervisor
Production Sound Mixer
Boom Operators
Location Manager
Location Coordinator
Location Scout
Parking Coordinator
Gaffer
Special Effects Coordinator
Process & Rear Screen Projection
Construction Coordinator
Key Construction Grip
Payroll Accountant
Post-Production Accountant
Accounting Clerk
Publicist
Transportation Captain
Co-Captain
Catering
Craft Services
Casting Assistant
Extras Casting
Stand-Ins
Choreographer
Production Physician
2nd Assistant Editor
36
Editorial Production Assistant
Sound Editorial
Elizabeth Merrick
Square One
Productions Inc.
David A. Cohen
Michael “Gonzo”
Gandsey
Richard Moore
Patrick Winters
Concha Solano
Lesly Verduin
David Boulton
Eric Thompson, C.A.S.
Marnie Moore
Rick Partlow
Frank Renella
James Willetts
Nicola Silverstone
Wilshire Stages
Andrew Peach
Robert Carr
Paul Rodriguez
Amy Hammer
Joe Lisanti
Joanie Diener, M.P.S.E.
Nathan Kaproff
Emilie A. Bernstein
Cynthia Millar
Dan Wallin
Warner Bros. Scoring
Stage
Bureau
Marlene McCarty
Custom
Film Effects
Mark Dornfeld
Susan Shin George
CFI
Susan Spohr
Lee Wimer
VIV KIM
Negative Cutting
Magno
Sound and Video
Jack Baierlein
Technicolor N.Y.
Joey Violante
Russell Allen
Orbit Digital
Downstream Digital
Film Finances Inc
AON/
Albert G. Ruben Co.
Entertainment Partners
HSBC USA
Sherman I. Kaplan
Dialogue Editor
Sound Editors
ADR & Foley Editor
1st Assistant Sound Editor
Apprentice Sound Editor
ADR Mixers
Foley Artists
Foley Mixer
Foley Recordist
Square One Administration
Digital Re-Recording by
Mix Recordists
Wilshire Stages Operations
Music Editors
Contractor
Orchestration
Piano Solos
Scoring Engineer
Score Recorded at
Title Design
Titles & Opticals
Color by
Color Timer
Negative Cutter
Video Dailies
Video Dailies Colorist
Dailies Processing
Dolby Consultant
Digital Editing Equipment
Post-Production Facilities
Completion Bond
Insurance
Payroll
Bank
Immigration Attorney
37
Legal Services
Sloss Law Office LLP
Paul Brennan, Esq.
Jennifer Gaylord, Esq.
Yana Collins
Cinetic Media Inc.
Falco Ink.
Pamela Koffler
Katie Roumel
Jocelyn Hayes
Jon Marcus
Jay Van Hoy
Apex Car and
Limo Service
Bayonne Local
Redevelopment
Authority
Hand Held Films
Pride Equipment
Camera Service Center
Audio Services Company
Barbizon Electric
Mutual Hardware
Raygun Electric Video
Arenson Prop Center
Enterprise Rent-A-Car
Budget Rent-A-Car
Haddad’s
Financing Advisory Services
Public Relations
For Killer Films
Creative Executive
Production Executive
Office Manager
Car Service
Military Ocean Terminal Management
Camera Equipment
Electric Equipment
Expendables
Furniture Rental
Production Vehicles
Ballet Piece
by Cynthia Millar
Published by Caramandel Music
Eagan’s Jukebox
Composed by Max Lichtenstein
Courtesy of Tin Drum Recordings
Published by Departure Music
Vintage Clothing by Early Halloween Vintage Clothing, N.Y.C.
Joan Miró, “Nightingale’s Song at Midnight and Morning Rain”
©2001 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York/ADAGP, Paris
Footage from THE THREE FACES OF EVE
Courtesy of Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation. All Rights Reserved.
“President Dwight D. Eisenhower” Footage
Courtesy of Third Millennium Films
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