The Todd Haynes film Kelly Reichardt called “masterful”
There’s a genuine unique element to the films of Kelly Reichardt, and her minimalist productions have been associated with the slow cinema movement. Her works, including River of Grass, Old Joy, Meek’s Cutoff and Certain Women, often depict working-class individuals in isolated American towns and communities.
While Reichardt’s films have drawn widespread admiration, the director herself has never stopped short of offering praise to her fellow filmmakers where she feels it is most deserved. She once picked out her ten favourite films of all time in a feature with Criterion and paid particular attention to Todd Haynes.
Of Haynes’ 1995 feature Safe, Reichardt said that she often uses it as a teaching device because it offers so much in terms of narrative and production. “I never tire of using this film in the classroom,” she said, “because there’s always more to glean from it, and I say this as someone who has seen it many, many times.”
Reichardt went on to describe her first time watching Safe, noting, “Before I saw it, I had already read Todd’s script, and I did not have any understanding of what it was going to be. I just remember seeing it in New York City at a small screening, and I was in the movie for so long after that—I couldn’t shake it. I came out so hyperaware of every little thing. At the time, I was living above a dry cleaner, and I became obsessed with every smell around me.”
Safe stars Julianne Moore as a mid-1980s Los Angeles housewife who experiences the banality and drudgery of modern living without a purpose of her own. Eventually, she enters a seriously anxious state and grows incredibly sick with what she presumes is an environmental illness, seeking refuge in a new-age community in the desert.
Moore’s performance in Haynes’ 1995 work is nothing short of mesmerising, and she delivers an intensity with which we always associate her. “Julianne Moore is amazing in the movie—is there a better performance,” Reichardt said. “This is a film that, if you don’t know anything about it, you certainly won’t know where it’s going.”
Reichardt also reminisced on another time she saw Haynes’ film, saying, “I remember riding in a cab with some big film critic at the time who said, ‘You won’t believe what I saw today! Some story about a housewife who gets sick—can you believe it?’ He had no idea what to make of it, but people have really revised their opinions since then. It’s so masterful, and it’s some of my favourite Todd Haynes writing – it’s so darkly funny.”
