Far From Heaven

Screening as part of Too Much: Melodrama on Film

The most explicit homage to Douglas Sirk of the films in this season, Todd Haynes’ Far From Heaven borrows directly from the style of 1950s melodramas for his lush pastiche. Lifting story elements from a number of Sirk’s films, the film stars Haynes’ regular collaborator Julianne Moore as housewife Cathy Whitaker, whose perfect life is threatened by the complications of her closeted husband and her growing attraction to her Black gardener.